Patterns of Prosecution: Suspects and Victims of Violent Crime in Historic and Contemporary Statistics

暴力犯罪嫌疑人不成比例地是男性，社会经济上处于不利地位，来自边缘群体；这在今天和中世纪的英格兰都是如此。然而，犯罪统计数据往往具有误导性。我的工作借鉴了犯罪学和社会法律研究，以认识到收到的犯罪历史记录反映的是起诉，而不是犯罪活动。因此，历史犯罪很难量化。尽管如此，中世纪的研究侧重于描述犯罪是如何、何时以及为什么发生的，这些学者将犯罪统计视为犯罪行为的现实代表。我主张从统计历史犯罪和罪犯的方法转向审查起诉模式。在时间和空间上，起诉受到关于性别、族裔和社会经济地位的社会和文化观念的影响。我的研究揭示了法律特权和社会规范对约克郡(1345-85年)起诉和起诉的影响。我研究的一个关键主题是嫌疑人和受害者的性别观念如何塑造暴力犯罪的统计数据。尽管英国国家统计局估计，犯罪团伙中多达一半的成员是女性，但大都会警察局的数据库列出了伦敦当局所知的3000名男性帮派成员，相比之下，只有18名女性。英国儿童事务专员安妮·朗菲尔德表示，女孩被警察拦截和搜查的可能性较小(Phillips 2019)。我的研究表明，中世纪的女性经常被起诉，扮演辅助或从属的角色，作为共犯或共同嫌疑人，而男性更有可能被列为主要嫌疑人。我的研究还表明，由于对男子气概和荣誉的看法，男性更有可能从事暴力行为，并被排除在外。显然，性别的表现和构思方式继续对犯罪和犯罪统计的构成产生巨大影响。该项目旨在将历史学家、政策制定者、法律从业者、妇女和青年组织、政府委员会以及对研究、了解和预防严重暴力感兴趣的研究人员聚集在一起。通过分享关于起诉暴力的创新历史研究，该项目介入了关于暴力侵害妇女和女孩、持刀犯罪、家庭暴力的男性受害者、犯罪统计中的比例过高以及诉诸司法的现代辩论。它将为严重暴力问题专家创造一个跨学科和跨学科的空间，因此，将对当前围绕严重暴力犯罪的看法和政策产生持久影响。该项目将推进在历史和现代背景下思考起诉模式的新方法。此外，该项目还将公开提供约克郡(1345-85年)凶杀案的所有嫌疑人和受害者的“地图”。这将使人们了解中世纪的刑事起诉以及被命名为嫌疑人和受害者的人。目前，那些没有接受过拉丁语和古地理培训的人无法获取所有这些信息。在现代警务之前的时代，刑事调查的勤奋和复杂性质将通过死因裁判官的研讯来揭示。这将表明，当地专家聚集在一起调查可疑死亡事件。地图将分享陪审团的结论，包括造成的伤口和造成伤口的武器。然而，这个项目超越了对犯罪的研究，它允许洞察普通中世纪人的世界。提供的信息将包括姓名、性别、职业、婚姻状况、出生地或国籍以及经济状况。它将把记录中被点名的人视为人，而不仅仅是嫌疑人和受害者。

Suspects of violent crime are disproportionately male, socio-economically disadvantaged, and from marginalised groups; this is as true today as it is for medieval England. Nevertheless, criminal statistics can often be misleading. My work draws on criminology and socio-legal studies to recognise that the received historical record of crime reflects prosecutions, rather than criminal activity. Therefore, historic crime is very difficult to quantify. Despite this, medieval studies have focused on describing how, when, and why crime was perpetrated and these scholars have treated criminal statistics as a realistic representation of criminality. I argue for a methodological shift away from counting historic crimes and criminals to examining patterns of prosecution. Across time and space, prosecution is shaped by social and cultural ideas about gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. My research reveals the impact of legal privileges and social norms upon indictments and prosecutions in Yorkshire (1345-85).A key theme of my research is how gendered perceptions of the suspects and victims shape statistics of violent crime. Despite estimates from the ONS that up to half of the members of criminal gangs are female, the database of the Metropolitan Police listed three thousand male gang members known to the authorities in London, compared to just eighteen females. Anne Longfield, who was the Children's Commissioner for England, said that girls were less likely to be stopped and searched by the police (Phillips 2019). My research shows that medieval women were often prosecuted in a supporting or subordinate role, as an accomplice or a co-suspect, whereas men were more likely to be named as the principal suspect. My research also shows that due to ideas about masculinity and honour, men were more likely to engage in, and be excused of, violent behaviour. It is clear that the ways in which gender is performed and conceived continues to have huge impacts for both the perpetration of crime and composition of criminal statistics. This project aims to bring together historians, policymakers, legal practitioners, women's and youth organisations, government committees, and researchers interested in the study, understanding, and prevention of serious violence. By sharing innovative historical research on the prosecution of violence, this project intervenes in modern debates about violence against women and girls, knife crime, male victims of domestic violence, overrepresentation in criminal statistics, and access to justice. It will create an interdisciplinary and transhistorical space for experts on serious violence, and as a result, will have a lasting impact on current perceptions and policies surrounding serious violent crime. The project will advance new ways of thinking about patterns of prosecution in historical and modern contexts.In addition, this project will make publicly available a 'Map' of all the suspects and victims of homicide in Yorkshire (1345-85). This will allow people to learn about criminal prosecution in the middle ages and the people named as suspects and victims. Currently, all of this information is inaccessible to those without Latin and palaeographical training. The diligent and complex nature of criminal investigations in an age before modern policing will be revealed through coroners' inquests. It will be shown that local experts were gathered to investigate suspicious deaths. The Map will share the juries' conclusions including the wound inflicted and the weapon that caused it. However, this project goes beyond a study of crime, it allows for an insight into the world of ordinary medieval people. The information provided will cover names, sex, occupation, marital status, place of origin or nationality, and economic status. It will view those named in the records as people, not just suspects and victims.