Men of blood

Martin J. Wiener0521831989, 9780521831987, 9780511166327

This book examines the treatment of violence by men against women in nineteenth-century England. Criminal law came to punish violence more systematically and severely during Victoria’s reign because it was promoting a new, more pacific ideal of manliness. Yet, this apparently progressive legal development triggered strong resistance, not only from violent men but others who engaged in arguments about democracy, humanitarianism and patriarchy to establish sympathy with ”men of blood.”

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Tables……Page 11
Preface……Page 13
Acknowledgments……Page 17
The Problem of Male Violence……Page 19
Victorian England and Homicide……Page 20
Violence and Law……Page 27
Gender, Violence and Law……Page 47
2 When Men Killed Men……Page 58
3 Sexual Violence……Page 94
4 Homicidal Women and Homicidal Men: A Growing Contrast……Page 141
5 Bad Wives: Drunkenness and Other Provocations……Page 188
Rights of “Chastisement”……Page 190
Wives’ Words……Page 194
Drunkard Wives……Page 201
6 Bad Wives II: Adultery and the Unwritten Law……Page 219
Acquittals……Page 232
Manslaughter Verdicts……Page 233
Murder Verdict with Reprieve……Page 240
Executions……Page 247
7 Establishing Intention: Probing the Mind of a Wife Killer……Page 258
Lack of a Lethal Weapon……Page 260
Drunkenness……Page 273
Drunkenness and Insanity……Page 288
Insanity……Page 297
Conclusion: The New “Reasonable Man” and Twentieth-Century Britain……Page 307
Index……Page 311