Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This dataset comes out of a broader project on ethnicity, crime and justice in England 1700-1825 which is described below. The aim of this part of the project was to use this data to explore the extent to which different ethnic groups were treated differently by the courts as well as to measure differences between groups in their involvement as accused. Although modern criminological research has established that race and ethnicity have a deep impact on the workings of the criminal justice system, no substantial historical work has yet been on this subject. By analysing the impact of ethnicity on patterns of recorded crime and on decision-making at every point in the criminal justice system during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this project aims to provide this vital comparative perspective. It focuses primarily on London, with its growing black and Irish population, and asks the following questions - Were these ethnic groups over-represented among those accused of property crime, violent crime etc? And were they more likely to be found guilty and to receive harsher punishments? It also looks at the experiences of ethnic groups as prosecutors and victims. Was there, for example, more sympathy for black victims than for Irish ones, or was there a fairly systematic bias against almost all migrant groups? Were they subjected to particular types of ethnically motivated crimes? More generally, by looking both at patterns of decision-making, and at the language used when ethnic minorities appeared in court as prosecutors, victims or accused, the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of attitudes towards and discourses about race and ethnicity in this period.
Main Topics:
The dataset includes data about all the offenders awaiting Old Bailey trial in the period 1791-1805 as listed in the National Archives Home Office records HO26.1-11. The particular dataset contains 10 fields of coded information including gender, age, place of birth, ethnicity, occupation, crime, verdict and punishment for 11927 accused - all of those for which information exists 1791-1805 (with one small exception explained in the notes). This data is taken from the National Archives series HO 26. It covers the first 11 volumes of that series which have some missing volumes but cover the period Oct 1791-Dec 1805.
No sampling (total universe)
Transcription of existing materials
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
