Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England Oxford Historical Monographs

This book explores how the Victorians perceived and explained female crime, and how they responded to it--both in penal theory and prison practice. Victorian England women made up a far larger proportion of those known to be involved in crime than they do today: the nature of female
criminality attracted considerable attention and preoccupied those trying to provide for women within the penal system.

Zedner's rigorously researched study examines the extent to which gender-based ideologies influenced attitudes to female criminality. She charts the shift from the moral analyses
dominant in the mid-nineteenth century to the interpretation of criminality as biological or psychological disorder prevalent later.

Using a wide variety of sources--including prison regulations, diaries, letters, punishment books, grievances and appeals--Zedner explores both penological theory and
the realities of prison life.