Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England

Abstract

This study examines the rates of trial of women on charges of murder at five yearly intervals from 1845 to 1900. Most women in the nineteenth century were charged with murdering their new-born infants or older children, though few were convicted. Also discussed are the rates of trial for charges of concealment of birth, a charge frequently used when a jury was reluctant to convict an accused woman of the more serious charge of murder.