| Summary: | This dataset comes out of a broader project on ethnicity, crime and justice in England 1700-1825 which is described below. The aim of this part of the project was to use this data to explore the extent to which different ethnic groups were treated differently by the courts as well as to measure differences between groups in their involvement as accused. Although modern criminological research has established that race and ethnicity have a deep impact on the workings of the criminal justice system, no substantial historical work has yet been on this subject. By analysing the impact of ethnicity on patterns of recorded crime and on decision-making at every point in the criminal justice system during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this project aims to provide this vital comparative perspective. It focuses primarily on London, with its growing black and Irish population, and asks the following questions - Were these ethnic groups over-represented among those accused of property crime, violent crime etc? And were they more likely to be found guilty and to receive harsher punishments? It also looks at the experiences of ethnic groups as prosecutors and victims. Was there, for example, more sympathy for black victims than for Irish ones, or was there a fairly systematic bias against almost all migrant groups? Were they subjected to particular types of ethnically motivated crimes? More generally, by looking both at patterns of decision-making, and at the language used when ethnic minorities appeared in court as prosecutors, victims or accused, the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of attitudes towards and discourses about race and ethnicity in this period.
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