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Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England

Johnston, Helen; Cox, David

Authors

David Cox



Contributors

M. Van der Heijden
Editor

M. Pluskota
Editor

S. Muurling
Editor

Abstract

This paper draws on the research undertaken into the lives and prison experiences of around 650 male and female convicts who were released on licence (an early form of parole) from sentences of long term imprisonment (three years to life) in England in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Our project confirmed the patterns of offending seen in other studies of female and male offending, namely, that women were committed to periods of long-term imprisonment overwhelmingly for crimes of larceny and sometimes low-level violence (or their criminal backgrounds indicated this type of low-level disorderly behaviour) and only in the minority for crimes of serious interpersonal violence. Similarly, the majority of men were also committed to the convict system for larceny.

Yet how male and female offenders were treated by the prison licensing system did differ significantly. The vast majority of all prisoners, male and female, were released early on licence from their prison terms, even those who had committed very serious offences. All licences had several conditions in them and licence-holders were free so long as they met these conditions. Any breach of the above conditions meant that the individual would be returned to prison to serve out the remainder of their sentence.

However, a proportion of female offenders were released slightly earlier than their male counterparts, though not directly into the community but on a conditional licence to Female Refuges. Out of the 288 women researched in our project, 200 of them were released in this manner; under further confinement in a refuge. Women stayed in such refuges for on average between six and nine months, before their final release was then approved by the Directors of the Convict Prisons.

Citation

Johnston, H., & Cox, D. (2020). Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England. In M. Van der Heijden, M. Pluskota, & S. Muurling (Eds.), Women's Criminality in Europe, 1600-1914 (134-147). Cambridge University Press (CUP). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774543.007

Online Publication Date Jan 10, 2020
Publication Date Jan 31, 2020
Deposit Date Jun 8, 2022
Publicly Available Date Feb 27, 2024
Publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Pages 134-147
Book Title Women's Criminality in Europe, 1600-1914
Chapter Number 7
ISBN 9781108774543
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774543.007
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3394532
Publisher URL https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/european-history-after-1450/womens-criminality-europe-16001914?format=HB

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Copyright Statement
This material has been published in revised form in Women's Criminality in Europe, 1600–1914, edited by Manon van der Heijden, Marion Pluskota, Sanne Muurling https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774543.007. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © CAmbridge University Press.






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