Disorder in the Court: Trials and Sexual Conflict at the Turn of the Century

A century ago a spate of high-profile trials fuelled public debates in England and France about marriage and divorce laws, women’s rights, temperance, homosexual prostitution and lesbian literature. Each chapter in this book examines a specific trial, and the debates surrounding it, to address the role of the state in regulating sexual morality. The authors draw on police archives, records of coroners’ inquests and magistrates’ courts, and news coverage, to offer insights into social conflicts sparked by differing ideologies of class, gender and sexuality. They also explore the role of the police and scientific methods of criminology.