Description
Book SynopsisDuring the eighteenth century English defendants, victims, witnesses, judges, and jurors spoke a language of the mind. Inside the courtroom the language of excuse reshaped crimes and punishments, signalling a shift in the age-old negotiation of mitigation.
Trade Review- '[Rabin] give[s] weight to abstractions like 'sensibility' as actual forces in the courtroom and in the reform movement.'
Paul Baines, Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol.42, no.1, 2008
Table of ContentsCrime, Culture, and the Self 'Of Persons Capable of Committing Crimes': Pleas of Mental Distress in the Eighteenth-Century Courtroom Old Excuses, New Meanings: "Temporary Frenzy," Necessity, Passion, and Compulsion Bodies of Evidence, States of Mind: Infanticide, Emotion, and Sensibility 'An indulgence given to great crimes'? Sensibility, Compassion, and Law Reform The End of Excuse? James Hadfield and the Insanity Plea From Self to Subject Bibliography
