When thinking about criminality, it is generally not a female protagonist that first comes to mind – especially not in early modern Italy, where women’s scope of action is commonly portrayed as... Show moreWhen thinking about criminality, it is generally not a female protagonist that first comes to mind – especially not in early modern Italy, where women’s scope of action is commonly portrayed as heavily restricted. This dissertation examines the influence of gender on recorded crime in the city of Bologna, and reveals two distinct features: the prominence of violence among recorded crime, and a consistently low share of formally investigated female offenders. Rather than seeking to explain this crime pattern through the stereotypical notion of women’s restricted agency alone, this dissertation distinguishes three other important mechanisms for cities like Bologna: the tendency to institutionalise rather than criminalise ‘problematic women’, judicial paternalism, and, importantly, the pervasive culture of peace-making. While all of these mechanisms withdrew women from formal criminal prosecutions, a close-reading of hundreds of complaints alongside the formal investigations allows us to uncover women’s far more prominent roles in crime. Not only were women’s shares among offenders much higher than the formal investigations alone would suggest, the fact that female victims of crime actively and strategically employed the criminal court to their own ends speaks to the notion that women’s scope of action was far more significant than was commonly assumed. Show less
This thesis examines gender differences in recorded criminality in early modern Frankfurt and the way that these differences were shaped by the local context. For a long time it was considered that... Show moreThis thesis examines gender differences in recorded criminality in early modern Frankfurt and the way that these differences were shaped by the local context. For a long time it was considered that the criminality of women is a marginal phenomenon and that this was invariable over time and place. Historical studies, however, have demonstrated that women played a much more prominent role in recorded crime in the early modern period, and could even make up half of all defendants in specific locations. At the same time, there were also large regional differences. Until now, historians focused only little on the differences, and instead looked for general explanations for female deviance in this period. This thesis studies the structural impact of the local context on women’s offending and their prosecution. It shows that the pattern in Frankfurt was both similar and different to that of other European cities. Strong informal control within the household, which is normally associated with close-knit communities in the countryside, played an important role in the urban community of Frankfurt and influenced prosecution patterns. Owing to the reliance on household control, cities like Frankfurt am Main knew a distinct type of urban female offender. Show less
