2. Levels of Crime and the Problems with Sources

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we turn to look at the general decline of violence and the various explanations that have been used to explain it. The four models often used to explain this decline in violence are flawed in two respects: (i) they ignore the complexity of the sources; and (ii) they rely on a top-down approach. As a result the best way to explain the decline in violence is to root any analysis in the local community.

Course

In this course, Dr Hannah Skoda (University of Oxford) explores crime and punishment in the later Middle Ages. In the first module, we look at the types of crime in this period and explore the common responses to it. We then turn to look at the general decline of violence and the various explanations that have been used to explain it. After this we explore the rise of the state and the expanding legal system that went with this. We then turn to look at the role of communities in the enforcement of the law in this period. In the final module, we look at the fundamental question of whether society in the later Middle Ages was inured to violence.

Lecturer

Dr Hannah Skoda is a fellow and tutor of Medieval History at St John’s College, Oxford. Her past research has focused on popular violence in later medieval northern France: exploring the interconnections between different forms of violence, the legal and cultural constructions of 'deviance', and the role of emotions in provoking outbursts of brutality. Her recent research, funded by a Leverhulme prize, looks at nostalgia in the later Middle Ages.