The Unwritten Law

"This is a welcome addition to the literature on the nature of crime and criminal justice in England."--Journal of Modern History "A valuable contribution to Victorian social history....Provides a rich resource for other more specialized historical studies, while offering a fascinating mosaic of late-Victorian society."--American Historical Review "With a fascinating array of cases to illustrate her argument...Conley's volume abounds in revealing insights."--Journal of Social History "A valuable contribution to this field."--Victorian Studies "A useful addition to the growing literature on local crime and police studies. Conley has provided an interesting and balanced treatment of her subject."--CHOICE "A well-written and succinct book that advances our understanding both of Victorian criminal justice and of the role of gender in Victorian society. Conley makes a notable advance over earlier scholarship on Victorian criminal justice."--Martin J. Weiner, Rice University "First-rate local study....Provides an original and revealing portrait of the ways in which the criminal justice system affected ordinary middle- and working-class lives."--The Historian "Conley's The Unwritten Law: Criminal Justice in Victorian Kent traces the important tensions implicit within the theory and practice of the criminal justice system in the 19th century....A clear, well-written, and thoughtful account of the system of criminal justice in the Victorian period."--Victorian Periodical Review "The author provides a welcome and lucid account of the operation of criminaljustice, with all its imperfections and preconceptions, as actually experienced by the population of Victorian Kent."--Albion "Conley's portrait is admirable for its balanced judgements....Her judgments on issues of male dominance, child abuse, oppression of the poor, and a myriad of cruelties are a blend of sympathetic understanding and just criticism, expressed in an eminently good tone."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History "The most striking material deals with what lawyers classify as violent crime....Some of the illustrations are quite remarkable."--Journal of British Studies