Crime, gender and social order in early modern england

This is the first extended study of gender and crime in early modern England. It considers the ways in which criminal behaviour and perceptions of criminality were informed by ideas about gender and order, and explores their practical consequences for the men and women who were brought before the criminal courts.

Illuminating the interactions between gender and other categories such as class and civil war has implications not merely for the historiography of crime but for the social history of early modern England as a whole. This study therefore goes beyond conventional studies of crime, and challenges hitherto accepted views of social interaction in the period.