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Historical Bookshelf
Home / Historical Periods / Georgian & Regency Britain / Georgian Crime and the Bloody Code

Phase

Georgian Crime and the Bloody Code

1714–1837 CE

Georgian criminal justice operated under the so-called Bloody Code, a legal regime with many capital offences. Theft, forgery, highway robbery, smuggling and other crimes could bring severe punishment. Trials, executions, transportation and prisons were public features of the age.

This mattered because law shaped the lives of poor people, servants, apprentices, debtors and anyone without protection. Mercy, patronage, gender, reputation and money could affect outcomes as much as formal guilt. The criminal justice system was both spectacle and social control.

Antonia Hodgson’s Thomas Hawkins series is a strong example of Georgian crime fiction using prisons, courts and London danger. Laura Shepherd-Robinson also uses crime and investigation to expose slavery, gender and power in Georgian society. Series set in this world can follow thief-takers, magistrates, prisoners, lawyers, servants, hangmen, informers and families facing ruin.

Related people for Georgian Crime and the Bloody Code

George III1738–1820 Jane Austen1775–1817 Lachlan Macquarie1762–1824 Richard Brinsley Sheridan1751–1816 Thomas Stamford Raffles1781–1826 William Bligh1754–1817 William Pitt the Younger1759–1806

Books

Books about Georgian Crime and the Bloody Code (27 books)

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