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REVIEWS
| Gender and Petty Violence in London, 1680–1720. By Jennine Hurl-Eamon (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2005. xii plus 213 pp. $44.95).
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| Jennine Hurl-Eamon's Gender and Petty Violence in London, 1680–1720 joins a rapidly expanding field of historical violence studies, and the book's focus on "petty" violence—physically or verbally aggressive acts seen as "relatively minor, but nonetheless unacceptable" (2)—fits squarely within the historiographic turn from spectacular crime toward violence's role in daily life. Based on lower-court records, it relies heavily on "recognizances," which compelled offenders to appear in court, answer for their crimes and possibly face one of several minor punishments. While not uncharted territory, such sources remain under-researched, and, as shown here, they offer vivid glimpses of life in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century London. Where the author tries to break new ground is in arguing that the gendered nature of violence has been overstated. |
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Part one, "Prosecutors," illuminates a legal milieu which featured broad official discretion in defining offences and setting punishments. Confirming the well-established image of a society that tolerated violence, Hurl-Eamon also explores the contested margins of that tolerance. She depicts prosecutors as "savvy litigants" and court confrontations as exercises in "self-fashioning" (16) that reveal a strategic "competition for victimhood" (17) used to "gain power before the law" (22). Building upon this perspective, the historiographical consensus on the legal and public disinterest in curbing men's violence against women is questioned. For example, although felony rape prosecutions were difficult, expensive and usually futile, prosecutions for lesser offences—which often led to fines—frequently succeeded, and some classes of assault victims (e.g., pregnant women and battered wives) won "a narrow margin of power before the courts" by appealing to social and judicial sympathies (61). While such uses of the legal system are significant, it is questionable whether such narrow margins and minor victories fundamentally challenge current historiography. |
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