In 1907 the Probation of Offenders Act introduced a system which allowed offenders to be rehabilitated at home under supervision, rather than being sent to prison. This book explores how the probation system was used to regulate the private lives, emotions and behaviours of people in Britain between 1907 and 1962. Access to the private sphere, both physically and psychologically, meant that the probation system was particularly well-suited to offences related to intimate and personal relations. With each chapter focusing on a particular type of offence, including wife assault, attempted suicide, male sexual offences and female prostitution, Settle shows how experiences of the probationers were shaped by the everyday practices of probation, and assesses the extent to which probation was successful in rehabilitating offenders and protecting the public. Also examining the role of probation officers in marriage reconciliation, the book explores how ideas about gender and domesticity were crucial to both the process of rehabilitation and the endeavour to make the home a safe environment in which these domestic ideals could come into fruition. Probation and Policing of the Private Sphere in Britain enriches our understanding of the role of the state in policing, monitoring and promoting the well-being of its citizens, and explores the nuances of probation's dual purpose as a form of social control as well as a social work service designed to help the most vulnerable in society.

This book shows how interpretations of suicidal motives were guided by gendered expectations of behaviour, and that these expectations were constructed to create meaning and understanding for family, friends and witnesses. Providing an insight into how people of this era understood suicidal behaviour and motives, it challenges the assertion that suicide was seen as a distinctly feminine act, and that men who took their own lives were feminized as a result. Instead, it shows that masculinity was understood in a more nuanced way than gender binaries allow, and that a man's masculinity was measured against other men. Focusing on four common narrative types; the love-suicide, the unemployed suicide, the suicide of the fraudster or speculator, and the suicide of the dishonoured solider, it provides historical context to modern discussions about the crisis of masculinity and rising male suicide rates. It reveals that narratives around male suicides are not so different today as they were then, and that our modern model of masculinity can be traced back to the 19th century.

This open access book focuses on institutions that were produced and formed by the emerging welfare state. How were institutions experienced by the people who interacted with them? How did institutions as sites of experience shape and structure people’s everyday lives? Histories of institutions have mainly focused on the structures and power relations produced by institutional settings. Likewise, despite an extensive historiography of the welfare state, reflections on individuals’ experiences of welfare are few. By using ‘lived institutions’ as its conceptual frame, this edited collection merges the fields of institutional studies, the history of the welfare state – and the novel and vibrant field of the history of experience.

In the years between 1750 and 1868, English criminal justice underwent significant changes. The two most crucial developments were the gradual establishment of an organised, regular police, and the emergence of new secondary punishments, following the restriction in the scope of the death penalty. In place of an ill-paid parish constabulary, functioning largely through a system of rewards and common informers, professional police institutions were given the task of executing a speedy and systematic enforcement of the criminal law. In lieu of the severe and capriciously-administered capital laws, a penalty structure based on a proportionality between the gravity of crimes and the severity of punishments was erected as arguably a more effective deterrent of crime. This book, first published in 1981, examines the impact of these two important developments and casts new light on the way in which law enforcement evolved during the nineteenth century. This title will be of interest to students of history and criminology.