The Means Justifying the Ends

At this stage of my PhD I am getting used to justifying my academic existence to those around me, people who question the exact purpose or meaning behind blue sky research like mine and while someone researching cancer may find it easy to explain to others why their research is important it is much harder for those of us who are engaged with topics of a slightly more esoteric nature. 

When a ‘layman’ reads the title of my project it immediately seems like something which should be an academic hobby rather than something upon which to pin a career.  For me a pithy title is still someway off but for those interested my research is focused around the idea that Victorian Novelists were influenced by the action of the legal system and the judicial decisions which made up the common law: and they expressed their opinions on that law through the themes and narrative of their novels.  I intend to examine to what extent were writers influenced by the actions of the court, where they got this information, what exactly were they were presented with, how they understood/interpreted that action and it’s accuracy, what their interpretation portrays of their opinions on the legislative/common law changes,  and did this tally with/run counter to public opinion?...This is usually around the time people are sorry that they asked. 

I am sure many are wondering what the heck relevance that could possibly have –old books are antiquarian curiosities and old law is largely irrelevant but I am inclined to disagree.  Law, like much of literature, is contextual and it is my conjecture that one feeds into the context of the other.  The law is a social barometer of sorts and a society is defined by that which it criminalises and marginalises, so a novel which purports to reflect a given society must take into account the rules which bind the lives of the characters.  I will spare the blog audience an in-depth analysis of this for the moment because for the present the conclusion rather than the process through which I came by it is important. 

At this stage most people say ‘Well that’s all well and good, it’s even interesting but it is still merely blue sky content and is largely useless!’  However, what I intend to present is an examination of how the writers perceived the law, it’s interpretations, and how far these were correct because it is all well and good having righteous legal intentions created in the best interests of the people but if the perception or operation of legislative and common law are not in line with this then the legislative begins to loose touch with those who it intends to protect. 

If a cogent argument can be made of the interaction between the law and literary expression 100 years ago then now, in an age of greater social awareness this interaction may still hold true.  In which case both legislative and judicial bodies may be able to observe the way in which their judicial opinions and legislative decisions are expressed and interpreted by the masses who live with them through modern literature. 

This is generally the point when people ask why I am using Victorian Literature to create the connection rather than modern texts if my final assertion is that modern texts speak to the operation of the legal system.  Well in the words of Julie Andrews ‘Let's start at the very beginning A very good place to start When you read you begin with A-B-C’ and the Victorian period was a time of massive legal upheaval in which arguably the modern legal system was born and in order to ascertain the connections depth it would seem a good idea to go back to a time when the common persons legal interactions were limited and their knowledge of the system was more limited again but increased standards of education meant that access to newspapers, books and early forms of ‘mass media’ were on the rise. 

If the connection I purport to prove is present then, then now, when mass media assists the common man in understanding the effect of legislative decisions on his life, it should be a much more straight forward connection to make. 

Well! That’s the theory anyway. 

Courtesy of PhD



The Traveler 'Problem'

The New

The Old

This morning, while watching the news and the scenes of the Dale Farm removal, I found myself contemplating the treatment of the travelling community within the UK.  I grew up in a part of Belfast which had a large traveller population, the school I attended had traveller children in classes with settled children, and at that age you understand that those children were travellers but not what that ‘meant’ in any sort of cultural way.  When I was studying for my undergrad I worked with the travelling community in a social housing capacity and later within the court system as both victims and perpetrators of crime, so I think it is fair to say that I have seen both ‘sides’ of the community – the highly social, insular and family orientated community that prizes traditional values and religion and the stereotyped position of travellers as thieves, thugs and social outcasts.  I do not however, claim to be any sort of advocate for the travelling community, nor would I claim to have any special knowledge of their community or of their ethnic idiosyncrasies – I speak purely from my own experiences with certain travellers and my opinions on their current situation.    

While I sympathise and understand the position of those in favour of the removal of the travellers on the basis that they were not legally permitted to live on the land that makes up Dale Farm, I cannot make myself agree with their removal.  In a time of endemic job and budget cuts in all sectors justifying the £18 million removal costs (which does not include 10 years worth of legal fees) would seem a tall order when their removal from Dale Farm does not ‘solve’ the issue rather it simply sends travellers in pursuit of another area in which to live.  

The land which makes up Dale Farm legally belongs to the travellers, it was purchased outright in the 90’s and there are some legal builds on the property, the destruction of Dale Farm is only for those who’s caravans are pitched there without planning permission.  As someone who lives in a rural area where several utterly terrible homes have been built on isolated land which did not have planning permission but that had been cleared for planning after the fact, it would seem hard to justify why a site which has limited planning permission would be refused an extension.  

Furthermore, I was surprised to discover that 90% of planning applications by members of the Irish travelling community were rejected as opposed to only 20% of applications by members of the settled community.    If ‘traveller’ was removed from this equation and any other ethnic group was substituted there would be accusations of institutional racism abound, especially when coupled with the glaring reality that by forcing travellers to only live on government sanctioned sites amounts to ghettoization.

The American social critic and novelist Henry Miller wrote that “the study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself, all that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment, springs from you.” (Henry Miller 1945 in Lloyd 1977 P47)  This definition of the social construction of crime ascribed to by Miller in the mid 1940’s has been altered very little by the passage of time.   Society has a tendency to criminalise that which is branded as ‘deviant’, as such the definition of a ‘criminal act’ is very much a subjective term, depending on the socio-political construction of the society that an individual inhabits.  With this in mind the destruction of Dale Farm would seem to be nothing more than the excessive punishment for the deviant for crimes for which the  ‘acceptable’ person is given a slap on the wrists.   I know this opinion is unlikely to be popular, and it is true that the law is applied to everyone but contrary to popular acceptance there are gradations of criminal and gradations of punishment and in this instance I believe the reaction to be excessive.  

The Mystery of the Two Brimmed Hat

Sherlock Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson are among the worlds most well known detective duos, translated into almost every language on the planet –spawning stage plays, films, TV series and even computer games with the image of Holmes’ deerstalker cap, meerschaum pipe and magnifying glass are still recognisable trademarks of the detective and his prodigious talent.  

However, Holmes himself would point out that he is not a detective, rather he is a consulting detective.  When Scotland yard do not know what to do, which would seem to be on a regular basis they consult him.  

While the format of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s popular novel series has spawned dozens of copy cat duo’s from Inspector Morse and Lewis (Morse), DCI Barnarby and DS Troy/Scott (Midsommer Murder) to the more recent US Castle series which features an NYPD detective and her author companion and the mental prowess they possess.  Indeed, the ‘Holmesian’ type is identifiable outside the detective genre.  Hugh Laurie’s depiction of the misanthropic Doctor House, in the Fox Television series of the same name, features a man of extraordinary deductive powers who is the only one in the world within his area of expertise (House is a differential diagnostician, who specialises in strange or out of the ordinary cases citing more mainstream doctorial duties as boring or beneath him) and who has a drug addiction which worsens when he gets bored.  

 

House remains one of Fox’s biggest shows, and Laurie as one if it’s largest stars, proving that even after 130 years  after He graced the pages of Lippincotts Monlthy Magazine the character of Sherlock Holmes is as beloved by the modern audience as he was by the Victorians he was introduced to.  

With a Hollywood adaptation and a modern TV revisiting later this year it is clear that the cases and mysteries which bemused and befuddled the original audiences still hold the same fascination and the same mystery for the modern readers and viewers.

 As a fan of Holmes I am jealous of those who have never read any of the texts before, it means that you are approaching a reading of Holmes for the first time.  While the stories can be read over and over for their characterisation and dialogue only once will you get to truly experience the case as it unfurls, notice as Holmes notices, be fascinated when Watson is fascinated, or as was my experience, stand with Lestrad and be utterly confused until Holmes deigns to enlighten you!  Enjoy!

Not Quiet Nancy: Modern Prostitution

Crime and the law are not stable entities; rather they are constantly in flux, evolving with and around a society, for example in times of economic crisis, when employment goes down the prison population goes up.  This is not necessarily because there are more criminals but rather because there is an ‘ideologically motivated response to a growing number of financially marginalised people.’(Hale et al. in McLaughlin and Muncie P96) Society fears the actions of the potentially desperate and so issues a ‘pre-emptive’ strike against crime by increasing the severity of sentences. 

In most societies however, crime is something which is outlawed by the state, these laws are made by the most powerful people in any given society and seldom properly protect the weak.  Most notably, Prostitution laws are mostly made to stop prostitutes rather that those who solicit them or to address the factors which have caused these women to turn to prostitution.  The critic Barbara Hudson points out ‘that crimes against the weak seldom get as far the criminal justice system, they are undiscovered, unreported, un-investigated, unresolved, unprosecuted and in the end forgotten.’  (Hudson 2009 lecture) 

One area of feminine crime which has not changed that much with the passage of time is prostitution.  It has strongly resisted any and all attempts at reform in the UK and Ireland on the basis that while society’s general make up may alter Christian values still hold sway and religion itself tends towards a patriarchal stand point.  I have not the space here to do justice to the topic nor to give sufficient depth of analysis but it is true that in many patriarchal societies the only thing of value that a woman had to sell was her physical form.  From Irish Brehon law, which saw prostitutes as less than people and void of an honour price, to the Victorian period were prostitution itself was illegal, but generally overlooked.  It was only when these outcast and despised members of society were accused of being disorderly or ‘nuisance prostitutes’ that they felt the force of the legislation or criminal proceedings. 

                Little or none of the legislation which was introduced to govern prostitution was made to deal with those who utilised prostitutes, which were mostly men.  Pat Carlen argues that this was largely due to the fact that male sexual acts had few visible results, the man bore no outward sign of the ‘disgrace’ associated with the using prostitutes while ‘[w]omen’s sexual misdemeanours’ often resulted in pregnancy (Carlen, 1983 P28)

In much the same way in which the Contagious Diseases Act 1864-1869 made women bear the blame for the spread of sexual disease but did nothing to deter the men that used prostitutes.  Women could be harassed and imprisoned in hospitals on suspicion of having a sexually transmitted disease while the men who through the use of multiple prostitutes and sexual partners bore none of the responsibility.  Indeed there were critics at the time who claimed that the Act did nothing but encourage the use of prostitutes as it ensured that the women who did sell their bodies were ‘safer’ as they were more likely to be free of infection.  The nurse Florence Nightingale was one of many women who signed the ‘Women’s Protest’, which was eventually resulted in the repeal of the Act in 1886. 

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Bibliography Available

Getting Serious!

Okay! So I have been keeping a vague sort of thing on the go for ages now and thought it best to composite it all in one place and make it all a bit more focused - after all I have started my Phd which is all about Victorian law and it's affect on the literature of the age.  So I get to spend the next few years up to my eyes in the worst travesties of the Victorian legal system and lots of books - great right!?


The literature in question is a lot of the stuff you might expect really -Sherlock Holmes, Wilkie Collins, even a bit of Dickens for the civil law stuff.  I would have tried to cram in a bit of Poe but it might have been a touch too ambitious since the general focus is the operation of the UK legal system rather than the US one- although I am still in two minds over the inclusion of some traditionally 'Irish' Victorian writers since it was pre-1921 and as such they would have been subject to English law and as such fall under the auspices of the researches wider umbrella.

To say that it's not motivated by an overwhelming desire to hide from the job market while getting to read Sherlock Holmes over and over again and the rest of the canon of early detective fiction.  I might also be something of a creep for looking forward to trawling through the rather florid articles in The Illustrated Police News and the like - they shouldn't be amusing because they are depictions of actual events and incidents involving real people but the little drawings are so overly dramatic that I can't help but smirk at them.

Basically the purpose of this blog will be largely the same as the old postings but with a bit more focus, Ill be throwing things up that relate to Victorian law, Victorian literature or any sort of related bits and pieces that take my fancy - so it won't be changing that much just with a little more focus than before.  Granted I still might go off on tangents and post random things that seems totally unrelated, the truth is that they might well be but they have taken my fancy or have been sparked by some crazy thought process relating to my research.  So here we go!

Five Daughters

I recently watched the BBC mini series ‘Five Daughters’.  I'd seen it before but while taking a well deserved disertation break I managed to catch it a second time when I could give it my full attention. 

‘Five Daughters’ is the stories of the Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, the victims of Steven Wright, dubbed in the media ‘The Suffolk Stranger.’  It follows the last few days of these women’s lives as they try to protect themselves and come to terms with the death of their friends. 

When the series originally aired, I like many people, was concerned and angry as to how the events and the people involved would be treated in the serial and I originally refused to watch.   The media in general place their emphasis on those who commit the crimes rather than the victims – most people can recognise the names or the faces of Myra Hindley, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, but few would recognise the names of Janice Ann Ott, John Kilbride, Elizabeth Stride, and Darrell Sampson as their victims.  We are presented with headlines and pictures of the criminals looking callous or insane, with scant mention of the victims unless it is to point out how their lifestyle got them into trouble, as with Peter Sutcliffe victims, or how their lifestyle or age makes them even more pitiable. 

I admit now that my reservations were merely presuppositions on my part and I was entirely incorrect in what the scope of the show actually was.  It wasn’t a slasher movie; it didn’t portray Wright as a mythic Jack the Ripper type killer, indeed the actor playing himself was only on screen for about three minutes at the end. 

It instead, focused on the human tragedy of the events of October to December 2006 and the relationships of these women with each other, their families, and the police.  It was impressive that director Phillipa Lowthorpe, writer Stephen Butchard, and the BBC did not give in to the temptation to create a CSI/Silent Witness style show which I think would have diminished the series. 

Instead, the approach was sensitive and Natalie Press, Eva Birthistle, Jaime Winstone, and Aisling Loftus portrayed the girls as real people with real problems not as preconceived stereotypes of the fallen woman or as pretty woman parodies of their lifestyle.  It seemed a candid view of the victims lives. 

The victim centric approach is such a change from the normal series of this genre and the emphasis on the human tragedy rather than the morbid fascination in their deaths helps to diminish the cult of notoriety that often attaches itself to people like Wright.  Well done BBC, in a genre where it is all too easy to forget the victims they’ve done a great job in focussing on the people who were really affected by the events of October – December 2006

EDIT!

I'd also like to add that the program that helped many of the street workers in Ipswich in the wake of the murders is on the brink of closure.  Help Save the ICENI - Sign the PETITION

If you've been affected by anything relating to the series please take a look at the BBC support site - HELP

ICENI Project Ipswich

BBC Five Daughters

Moving!

Excellent the move is almost complete! I have scraps and things posted on the old blog site but since by other blog is here it would seem to make sense to move this one as well!

An archive will follow (at some stage) but for the moment this is the new address!