Blogs
Heroes and villains: conflicting attitudes to war veterans in peacetime
May 19, 2022
How real were the fears that brutalised and battle-scarred soldiers returning from the First World War had developed a propensity for violence and criminality? Dr Ashley Borrett looks at the city of Hull to find out how people responded to war veterans in peacetime.
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19 May 1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from prison
May 19, 2022
19 May 2022 marks 125 years since Oscar Wilde was released from prison. Professor Helen Johnston recounts the criminal past of the notorious Irish poet and playwright.
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Criminal records as a way of introducing archives to children
August 25, 2021
Hannah Salisbury, Community and Learning Officer at Suffolk Archives, explains how new learning resources on crime and punishment are being used to introduce younger children to the fascinating world of historical archives.
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Taking a firm hand: dealing with juvenile delinquency in interwar Hull
August 24, 2021
The early part of the 20th century has been seen as a ‘progressive’ period in the punishment of young offenders. But as Dr Ashley Borrett reveals, even in this so-called enlightened era, old habits die hard.
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Reformatory and industrial training ships in nineteenth-century UK
March 31, 2021
Julie Brumby, from Leeds Beckett University, takes a look at the role reformatory and training ships played in dealing with juvenile criminality in the nineteenth century.
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Crime on the move in the early twentieth century
January 31, 2021
Dr Ashley Borrett examines the impact that the rise of the motor vehicle and the increase in transport-related crime had on attitudes to offending in the early part of the twentieth century.
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New portraits of the criminal past
May 26, 2020
The latest blogs from City Archivist, Phil Astley, who uses the fascinating collection of criminal ‘mugshots’ held by Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives and brings them to life, feature the cases of Neil McPherson, who was a prisoner at Perth, Peterhead and Pentonville, and Catherine Anderson, who was tried twice for child murder.
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Bastardy before the courts in nineteenth-century Hull
March 16, 2020
Dr Joanne Chilman looks at bastardy cases that came before the courts in Hull during the nineteenth century to reveal the rich history of the women and families involved in these courtroom trials.
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Crime, criminality and the provincial press
March 16, 2020
In his latest blog, Dr Ashley Borrett examines the pages of the provincial press and reveals the ‘voices’ of some of the key players in the crime and criminal justice debates of interwar Hull.
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Working in partnership with the Ripon Museums Trust
March 16, 2020
Professor Helen Johnston and Professor Heather Shore, from the Our Criminal Ancestors project, have been working with the Ripon Museums Trust on a number of projects over the past few years.
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Five women – five families’ search for justice
November 20, 2019
A new book from the team behind hit BBC series Murder, Mystery and My Family features compelling true-crime stories of female killers and their families’ search for justice.
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Exploring female drunkenness in Victorian Lancashire
July 23, 2019
Utilising a range of archival sources, Dr Craig Stafford charts the criminal lives of drunken women in 19th century Lancashire.
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