description: Although the history of crime in english civilian society has by now become one of the most studied academic topics, books on crime and punishment in Britain`s armed forces are comparatively few. Redressing this imbalance, Markus Eder illustrates in this innovative study, how during a period crucial for the development of the british empire, discipline was upheld and enforced in that great creator of empire, the Royal Navy. Deviating from common practise, he neither limits himself to the study of a particular naval station as North America or the Mediterranean, nor to individual crimes as for example sodomy or mutiny, but examines all kinds of crimes on all naval stations. What emerges, is a complete picture of the overall patterns of naval crime and punishment as well as the awareness, that these patterns varied from one naval station to another. Moreover, by setting naval law strongly within the wider context of eighteenth century criminal law, he fully addresses such questions as the peculiarities of naval jurisprudence, its strictness in comparison to the civil law courts or the interaction between civil law courts and the navy on such issues as impressment, murder of civilians by mariners or perjury. The result is a most balanced and comprehensive work, likely to open new vistas on a as yet largely unexplored topic.
language: English
title: Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy of the Seven Years' War 1755-1763
titlecomplete: Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy of the Seven Years' War 1755-1763
ratings_count: 2
publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd