British History

Crime, punishment and rehabilitation in nineteenth-century Britain 

The study of Victorian crime and punishment is an area of research that has attracted the interest not only of literary scholars but also of social historians, legal historians, and criminologists. Crime and punishment were pressing issues for the Victorians and provoked a great number of responses from contemporaneous commentators in literature, culture, science, and politics. As a new phase of industrialisation brought immense wealth for some and abject poverty for others, and led to massive urbanisation, Victorian towns and cities in particular were afflicted by crime: without an effective system of social welfare in place, social inequality and deprivation drove women, men, and children into petty crime and more serious offenses, often resulting in severe punishment ranging from incarceration via penal transportation (abolished in 1868) to capital punishment. 

As the legal system itself was undergoing reform, sensational trials stimulated commentary in literature and the media. Crime and punishment was discussed in a range of literary and popular genres, poetry, and reformist writing. The “Newgate School” of fiction was accused of glamorizing crime, and the popular penny dreadfuls were feared as vehicles to corrupt public morals. There were also efforts made to establish systems of social regulation such as the new Metropolitan Police in 1829 and, after 1856, a compulsory nationwide system of uniformed law enforcement. Over the Victorian period, more prisons were built and there were passionate debates among reformers about the role and function of prison. If the notion of punishment was central to the debate, rehabilitation was also part of the process, for instance with the creation of special youth prisons in 1854, ‘Reformatory Schools’, that were introduced to deal with child offenders.

● Formule standard session 1 : contrôle continu.
Un devoir sur table de 2 heures à mi-semestre (commentaire de texte ou dissertation) 50% + un devoir sur table de 2 heures en fin de semestre (commentaire de texte ou dissertation) 50%. 
La note finale sera pondérée par la participation orale tout au long du semestre (préparation de textes, prise de parole, exposé etc.)

● Formule dérogatoire session 1 : 1 devoir écrit de 3h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

● Session 2 : 1 devoir écrit de 3h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Anglais C1

Une bibliographie détaillée sera fournie en début d'année universitaire sur la plateforme de cours en ligne dédiée.