Introduction by Charles Tibbits.

“ The name of London's famous and terrible prison Newgate has for centuries conjured to the public mind the gloomiest picture that the imagination of the listener could conceive of human retribution on the criminal and depraved. What the name of theBastille was in France to the person who might find himself at variance with political powers the name of Newgate was to the person who bore in himself the consciousness of crime. Its terrible reputation as the place of vengeance on offenders against theLaws seems to have a remarkable antiquity. Which prison was first instituted there is no record. As early as 121 1 however we have the news of its dungeons being filled with offenders. In I334..a commission was appointed by the authorities to consider the tortures then in use to extort confessions from the unfortunate wretches within its grim hold. From one end of the country to the;other Newgate became known as a place where all the terrors of the Law awaited the guilty. Dipping Into its gloomy annals one cannot help also arriving at the conviction that its terrors were not wholly reserved for the guilty. They overtook the unfortunate innocent sometimes. The inscription on the old Edinborough Tolbooth would excellently apply to it-—even as it will apply to many of our prisons to-day.”

London: Sisley's, 1908. 327p.

By David T. Johnson.

“By arguing that he opposes capital punishment but not in this case, Murakami is articulating a sensibility—the death penalty is “unavoidable” (yamu o enai)—that is ubiquitous in Japan’s culture of capital punishment.”

Palgrave (2019) 139p.

By Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States. “ From 1865 to 1872, hundreds of colored men and women were mercilessly murdered and the almost invariable reason assigned was that they met their death by being alleged participants in an insurrection or riot. But this story at last wore itself out. No insurrection ever materialized; no Negro rioter was ever apprehended and proven guilty, and no dynamite ever recorded the black man's protest against oppression and wrong.􏰎􏰍

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1895) 112 pages.

By Peter King.

Aggravated Forms of the Death Penalty in England. While eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century historians have extensively studied the ‘Bloody Code’ and the resulting interactions around the ‘Hanging Tree’, they have largely ignored an important dimension of the capital punishment system – the courts extensive use of aggravated and post-execution punishments. With this book, Peter King aims to rectify this neglected historical phenomenon.

Palgrave (2017) 221 pages.

By Joachim J. Savelsberg.

Conflicting Responses to Human Rights Violations in Darfur. “It has often been argued for the case of Rwanda that the United Nations’ and the US government’s reluctance to call the 1994 mass killings genocidal prevented an appropriate response and cost hundreds of thousands of additional lives. It thus matters whether we define mass violence as a form of genocide specifically, as criminal violence generally, or as something else altogether.”

UC Press. (2015) 363 pages.

By Stefan Eklöf Amirell

Colonisation and Maritime Violence in Southeast Asia. “The suppression of piracy and other forms of maritime violence was a keystone in the colonisation of Southeast Asia. Focusing on what was seen in the nineteenth century as the three most pirate-infested areas in the region – the Sulu Sea, the Strait of Malacca and Indochina – this comparative study in colonial history explores how piracy was defined, contested and used to resist or justify colonial expansion, particularly during the most intense phase of imperial expansion in Southeast Asia from c. 1850 to c. 1920.”

Cambridge University Press. (2019) 278 pages.

Read/Download

Report of the Principal Keeper.

Contains many statistics on inmates and other day-to-day activities in the penitentiary. In his introduction, the Keeper pronounces the penitentiary in perfect condition.

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1892) 112 pages.

By Pietro Marongiu and Graeme R. Newman

Gli Autori di questo saggio, che costituisce una pietra miliare negli studi sulla Vendetta, sono eminenti criminologi che hanno riunito diverse suggestioni provenienti dalla storia, dall’antropologia, dalla sociologia, dalla letteratura classica e dalla mitologia nell’intento di migliorare la nostra comprensione della violenza, della giustizia penale e del vigilantismo nella società moderna. Partendo da diverse rappresentazioni classiche della Vendetta nei miti greci, nei drammi di Shakespeare, nell’Inferno di Dante Alighieri, nel folklore del selvaggio west, fino alle saghe contemporanee dei supereroi come Batman e Superman, vengono indagate le radici storiche e culturali del desiderio universale di restituire i torti subiti. Marongiu e Newman affermano che tutti i comportamenti vendicativi originano da un “elementare senso di ingiustizia, un sentimento primitivo di ribellione contro un potere tirannico contro il quale si è impotenti a reagire” e che tutte le vendette sono fondamentalmente motivate da un bisogno generale e insopprimibile di uguaglianza, giustizia e reciprocità. Il libro ricostruisce la nascita e i cambiamenti che il bisogno di vendetta ha subito nel corso dei secoli e come esso ha influenzato i nostri sistemi legali, i nostri codici morali e i miti della nostra cultura.

Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2012. 152p.

By Pietro Marongiu and Graeme R. Newman.

As relevant to the 21st century as it was in the 20th century when it was first written, in this second edition of Vengeance: The Fight Against Injustice, the authors provide a cogent appraisal of the most recent scholarship on vengeance that has generally confirmed the theses developed in the first edition, and offer new insights into the nature and role of punishment in modern society. The authors examine the historic and cultural manifestations of the need to inflict punishment on one's enemies. They trace the ways the deep seated desire for vengeance has developed and changed over the centuries and has affected our legal system, moral codes, and cultural myths. By bringing together insights from history, anthropology, sociology, classical and literary studies, and mythology, the authors have produced a landmark study that greatly enlarges our understanding of the problems of violence, criminal justice, and vigilantism in modern society.

Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2019. 196p.

By Graeme R. Newman

The classical philosophical and historical analysis of punishment. Explains, for the most part, why we punish the way we do, who for the most part are the objects of punishment, and who are the onlookers.

Harrow and Heston Publishers. 1985. 318p.

Published by Transaction Press, now Routledge. 2005.

By Graeme R. Newman

In this second volume, Newman helps us experience criminal punishment through the lens of artists, brilliant and mundane, never failing to confront us with the awful things we do to those who have broken the law. These 148 images show us what we are truly capable of, and how necessary it is to be convinced that the recipients of horrible punishments really deserve what they get. As such, it is essential that the guilt of the accused be established beyond reasonable doubt. Newman's poignant and concise commentaries on every picture both educate and engage, uncovering the emotive psychology of criminal punishment (that is, hypocrisy) that lies at the heart of all functioning societies. It is punitive justice at its best -- or worst. 232 pages. A great complement to any college graduate or undergraduate courses on punishment, social order, or criminal justice.

Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2021. 219p.

By Graeme R. Newman.

In Book 1, Newman's poignant and concise commentaries on each of the 102 illustrations of renowned artists, both educate and engage, uncovering the ancient emotive psychology of punishment that lies at the heart of all societies. 212 pages. A great complement to any college graduate or undergraduate courses on punishment, social order, or criminal justice.

New York. Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2021. 204p.