Project III: Informers' Communities: The Common Informer, Social Crime and Participation Processes in Provincial England, c. 1750-1800
Research conducted by Nina Opgen-Rhein
As private prosecutors who were not themselves victims of the reported offence, common informers occupy a special role in the early modern English criminal justice system. The fact that this legal practice continued to be widespread in the second half of the 18th century and in some cases further extended, despite ongoing criticism, raises the question of the role of informers in the history of policing. This project focuses on a period described as one of transition in which the communal governance of crime based on the initiative of the victims was transferred to the state by the development of bureaucratic, professional policing.
C. Blake, active 1825–1826, "The Poacher's Progress:" Poachers Before the Magistrates, undated (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)
The figure of the informer has not yet been systematically studied in this period. This dissertation project thus adopts a socio-historical approach in which it puts strong emphasis on the significance of the categories gender and class. On the basis of several case studies on micro level, the participation mechanisms and negotiation processes connected to informing will be examined. Of particular interest are the opportunities and risks informers – especially female ones – were confronted with in their communities, placing these in the context of existing findings on informal sanctions and social control.
By focussing on provincial areas of investigation, thus far generally neglected, the role of informers in the implementation of state authority can also be assessed. With poaching, smuggling and false coining, the focus is therefore on crimes which are associated with particular tensions due to the deviation between the objective legal situation and the prevailing legal beliefs held by the majority of the rural population.
© Thomas Wieland
wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin
NameNina Opgen-Rhein
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