Crime in Tudor and Stuart England

Timothy Curtis and J.A. Sharpe delve into the country's criminal past.

After some fifteen years of serious academic research and publication, the study of crime in England in the early modern period has reached the point where historians can begin to disagree fruitfully. Various methods of research have been followed, results published, broad pictures offered, fine, detailed, microscopic studies etched, and suggestions for future lines of thought formulated. The purpose of this present essay is to present the findings of historians of this subject as they now stand, to comment upon their strengths and weaknesses, and to offer some thoughts on the future development of the field.

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