Wiener 9616494 This research studies spousal homicide in nineteenth-century England and its treatment by the general public and the courts. It will construct the first comprehensive database of such homicides and their legal disposition. It will use a variety of under-exploited sources including newspaper accounts and confidential Home Office files to explore particularly revealing cases in depth. The goal is to explain the increased prominence, during the course of that century, of domestic homicide. Of particular concern will be the increase in husbands killing wives. Explanatory hypotheses to be tested focus on changes in national social development that increased the frequency of homicide and a decrease in public tolerance for such behavior. The use of qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate changes in violence during that period promises to provide the missing historical perspective that can inform explanations of the contemporary increase in spousal homicide. *** This research studies spousal homicide in nineteenth-century England and its treatment by the general public and the courts. It will construct the first comprehensive database of such homicides and their legal disposition. It will use a variety of under-exploited sources including newspaper accounts and confidential Home Office files to explore particularly revealing cases in depth. The goal is to explain the increased prominence, during the course of that century, of domestic homicide. Of particular concern will be the increase in husbands killing wives. Explanatory hypotheses to be tested focus on changes in national social development that increased the frequency of homicide and a decrease in public tolerance for such behavior. The use of qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate changes in violence during that period promises to provide the missing historical perspective that can inform explanations of the contemporary increase in spousal homicide. ***
