Unsound Empire: Civilization and Madness in Late-Victorian Law (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300242744)

A study of the internal tensions of British imperial rule told through murder and insanity trials

Unsound Empire is a history of criminal responsibility in the nineteenth-century British Empire told through detailed accounts of homicide cases across three continents. If a defendant in a murder trial was going to hang, he or she had to deserve it. Establishing the mental element of guilt--criminal responsibility--transformed state violence into law. And yet, to the consternation of officials in Britain and beyond, experts in new scientific fields posited that insanity was widespread and growing, and evolutionary theories suggested that wide swaths of humanity lacked the self-control and understanding that common law demanded. Could it be fair to punish mentally ill or allegedly "uncivilized" people? Could British civilization survive if killers avoided the noose?

Author: Catherine L. Evans
ISBN-10: 0300242743
ISBN-13: 9780300242744
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/28/2021
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.14w x 0.94d