This book offers an assessment of the social significance of the law in pre-industrial England.

Robert Shoemaker is Professor of Eighteenth-Century British History at the University of Sheffield. Holder of a Ph.D. from Stanford University, he is an expert on London history, gender, and crime and criminal justice in the 'long' eighteenth century.

List of illustrations; List of tables; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations and conventions; Part I. Background: 1. Introduction; 2. Options for prosecution; 3. Patterns of prosecutions; Part II. Procedures For Prosecution: 4. Informal mediation by justices of the peace; 5. Binding over by recognizance; 6. Indictment at quarter sessions; 7. Houses of correction; Part III. The Contextx of Misdemeanor Prosecutions: 8. The participants: plaintiffs, defendants, and justices of the peace; 9. The reformation of manners campaign; 10. Geographical contexts; 11. Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.