Crime, Law and Popular Culture in Europe, 1500-1900

This book explores the relationship between crime, law and popular culture in Europe from the sixteenth century onwards.

How was crime understood and dealt with by ordinary people and to what degree did they resort to or reject the official law and criminal justice system as a means of dealing with different forms of criminal activity?

The issues addressed will include: participation by ordinary people as prosecutors, witnesses and jurors in the courts; the dynamics of court sittings; popular resistance to the operation or enforcement of the criminal law; and how attitudes and ways of understanding crime and the law may have changed or evolved over time.

The chapters will also explore how different approaches and methodologies, whether drawn from within the existing historiography or from other disciplines such as criminology, law or anthropology, aid a greater understanding of the relationship between crime, law and popular culture. Overall, the volume will serve to illuminate how experiences of and attitudes to crime and the law may have corresponded or differed in different locations and contexts as well as contributing to a wider understanding of popular culture and consciousness in early modern and modern Europe.