Research Brief 18 Court records document more than policing patterns and criminalised behaviours of the past. While they are crucial to writing criminal justice histories, they can be used in other ways, read against the grain to provide a window into particular cultural practices and social behaviours. These narratives are not without their methodological […]
Research Brief 16 In January 1924, an article in Sydney Truth alerted its readers to a spate of crimes against children that had recently appeared before the courts. Sexual offences against three girls and one boy had been committed in various suburbs around the city within a matter of weeks. While the […]
Research Brief 9 In April 1905, elderly Henry Ayling appeared before Judge Burnside and a jury of 12 peers in the Perth Criminal Court on a charge of bigamy. The key question during the trial centred on the validity of Henry’s first marriage, alleged to have occurred in Adelaide in 1877 almost 30 years […]