File(s) under permanent embargo
Imagined communities and the death penalty in Britain, 1930-65
Based on research into qualitative responses to capital punishment in mid twentieth-century Britain, this article examines how letter writers to the Home Office constructed imagined communities in relation to capital cases. It uncovers a shift in these responses from creating respectable, local communities in the period 1930–45, when most letter writers had a personal connection to the condemned, to the creation of the imagined national community from the late 1940s onwards, when most correspondents in relation to high profile cases were not connected to the condemned. These post-war letters reveal how meanings of Britishness, particularly in relation to the important symbol of ‘British justice’, were negotiated in relation to capital punishment.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
British Journal of CriminologyISSN
0007-0955Publisher
Oxford University PressExternal DOI
Issue
5Volume
54Page range
908-927Department affiliated with
- Sociology and Criminology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2014-07-02First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2021-03-08Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC