Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1968. Far from being an isolated outburst of community insanity or hysteria, the Massachusetts witchcraft trials were an accurate reflection of the scientific ethos of the seventeenth century. Witches were seldom hanged without supporting medical evidence. Professor Fox clarifies this use of scientific knowledge by examining the Scientific Revolution's impact on the witchcraft trials. He suggests that much of the scientific ineptitude and lack of sophistication that characterized the witchcraft cases is still present in our modern system of justice. In the historical context of seventeenth-century witch hunts and in an effort to stimulate those who must design and operate a just jurisprudence today, Fox asks what the proper legal role of medical scienceespecially psychiatryshould be in any society. The legal system of seventeenth-century Massachusetts was weakened by an uncritical reliance on scientific judgments, and the scientific assumptions upon which the co
Table of ContentsForeword by Sheldon Glueck
Preface
Chapter 1. A Case Study in Law and Science
Chapter 2. The Roots of Massachusetts Witchcraft
Chapter 3. The Views of Scientists
Chapter 4. The Law and Nature of Massachusetts Witchcraft 35
Chapter 5. Maleficium and Cause of Death
Chapter 6. Witchcraft and Disease
Chapter 7. Science and the Identification of Witches: Female Experts
Chapter 8. The Defense of Insanity
Chapter 9. The Law-Science Relationship Then and Now
Index
