The Need for Caution in Reforming the Law Relating to Murder

See v. Clegg R. (1995) The Times, January 25, (HL).

(1993) 96 Cr. App. R 112 and 133 respectively. This refers to commentaries arising from the original Thornton trial, the conviction has subsequently been quashed on other grounds and a re-trial ordered.

Cf. Nicolson D. , and Sanghvi R. (1995) “More Justice for Battered Women”, New Law Journal, July 28, p. 112.

Radzinowicz L. (1948) A History of English Criminal Law, Vol. 1, p. 708.

A Treatise on the Police and Crimes of the Metropolis (1829), p. 101. He was no jingoist, also believing that there was “no country where burglary and housebreaking were so common as England”.

“Interpersonal Violence in English Society, 1300–1980”, Past and Present, No. 101 (1983), p. 22.

Hammer C.I. , (1978) “Patterns of Homicide in a Medieval University Town: Fourteen-Century Oxford”, Past and Present, No. 78, p. 11.

Langbein John H. (1983) “Shaping the 18th Century Criminal Trial: A View from the Ryder Sources”, 50(1) The University of Chicago Law Review 44.

Sharpe J.A. (1983) Crime in Seventeenth Century England, p. 214.

Gatrell V.A.C. (1977) “Theft and Violence in England 1834–1914”, in Crime and Law, Europa, pp. 286–287.

Archer D. , and Gartner R. (1981) “Homicide in 110 Nations: The Development of the Comparative Crime Data File”, Shelley L. (ed.) Readings in Comparative Criminology, p. 79.

Criminal Statistics for England and Wales, 1995, HMSO, p. 71

Shimbun Asahi , Japan Almanac 1995, p. 225.

Gartner R. (1990) “The Victims of Homicide”, 55(1) American Sociological Review, 102.

Criminal Statistics , ibid., p. 76.

Though changes in the age profile of the population may also have played a role, apart from babies the peak age for victims is 16–29.

The very high mens rea for attempted murder mean that these will usually show up only as s. 18 offences under the OAPA 1861.

Marsh P. (1978) The Rules of Disorder.

Though it could be possible to exaggerate even this, as has been suggested by Wilson James Q. (1994) in Penalties and Opportunities, A Reader on Punishment, Duff and Garland (eds.), Oxford, p. 188.

FBI statistics.

This has been attributed to a reduction in the large cities in “turf” wars between rival drug gangs as the markets have matured, a concerted move to take firearms out of the hands of youths, and changes in the age profile of the population.

Quoted, Radzinowicz L. (1948) History of English Criminal Law, Vol. 1, p. 708.

With Ferracuti F. (1967) The Subculture of Violence, Tavistock.

For one recent illustration as to how this might function see also All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence, Fox Butterfield, (1995) Knopf.

On this see also Elliot Leyton's Men of Blood: Murder in Modern England (1995), Constable.