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Home > England > London > Programs > Program Overview > Course Requirements > Course Description
London: Underworld, Underclass and the State 1700-1965
University of Westminster
London, England
| Subject Area(s) |
Level(s) |
Instruction in |
Credits |
Contact Hours |
Prerequisites |
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History
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200
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English
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4
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50
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N/A
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This module presents a historical examination of London’s criminal underclass and the state's attempts to tackle it, from the early modern period to the 1960s. We examine the history of crime and punishment in the capital from the Bloody Code of the early eighteenth century, to the abolition of the death penalty in 1965. The capital's long history of gangsterism, larceny, prostitution, murder, highwaymen, trafficking, and terrorism, includes a wide variety of fascinating characters, from Dick Turpin and Jonathan Wild, through ‘Hanging Judge’ Jeffreys and the Fieldings, to Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police, Jack the Ripper and the Fenians of the late nineteenth century, to the Krays and the Richardsons of the latter half of the twentieth century. We consider the relationship between London’s economy and the extent of its criminality and examine the variety of ways in which the state has attempted to address the problems of crime and criminality, through new mechanisms of prevention, detection and punishment. The module will include visits to the Old Bailey, London’s famous Central Criminal Court and to the Royal Courts of Justice. Students will have an opportunity to sit in on real criminal cases, and to observe London’s judges and barristers at work in their full legal regalia.
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