Books by Marion Pluskota
This book is based on original research on provincial prostitution in two port cities, Bristol an... more This book is based on original research on provincial prostitution in two port cities, Bristol and Nantes, between 1750 and 1820 in a comparative approach to define, at a street level, the relations between prostitutes, the community and the police/authorities. Henderson, Benabou and Van de Pol have produced similar studies for London, Paris and Amsterdam prostitution in the eighteenth century but no monograph has covered the more provincial prostitution, and the integration of prostitutes in a specific type of urban environment other than in a capital city. The objective of this book is twofold: to explain the similarities and differences in prostitution between two cultural contexts and to draw a typology of port prostitution; to explain how and why the mechanisms of social control upon prostitution differed between the two countries. The emphasis is put on the roles of traditional mechanisms of community regulation such as neighbourhood associations and Church supervision and the state formal means of control in relation to prostitution.
Book Reviews by Marion Pluskota
To be published in the next issue of Gender & History (Spring, 2015)
To view in International Review of Social History / Volume 58 / Issue 03 / December 2013, pp 526-... more To view in International Review of Social History / Volume 58 / Issue 03 / December 2013, pp 526-528.
To view in Urban History / Volume 39 / Issue 04 / November 2012, pp 687-688.
Articles by Marion Pluskota
This article questions the relevance of the theory of the criminalization of men in nineteenth-ce... more This article questions the relevance of the theory of the criminalization of men in nineteenth-century Holland compared to the situation in England. Works on English criminality show a clear gender bias in relation to the prosecution and punishment of violence in the nineteenth century but we argue that this ‘criminalization of men’ did not occur in Holland between 1750 and 1886. Quantitative and qualitative data from different cities and produced by different courts (from the police tribunal to the highest court of justice) in the province of Holland have been collected and based upon these data, our research shows the absence of a clear emphasis on the prosecution of violent men. An increase in the cases of violence prosecuted by the courts is noticeable, but the criminalization of violence targeted both men and women. No gender bias could be found in the prosecution of violent offenders; in terms of sentencing, the somewhat harsher punishments given to men relate most likely to the seriousness of the wounds inflicted rather than a gender bias. Finally, this article suggests that the English judicial system gave more leeway to the different judicial actors to dismiss female offenders before they reached trial than in a system based on the penal code.
This article focuses on a specific aspect of the history of crime: co-offending (offending with o... more This article focuses on a specific aspect of the history of crime: co-offending (offending with one or more accomplices) in a family setting at the end of the nineteenth century.
The aims of this article are to analyze how genders interacted in a criminal setting and to show a possible bias in the court’s decision to prosecute ‘criminal families’, either in relation to the people involved or to the environment in which the crime was
committed. This article also questions the relevance of the concept of the civilizing mission in a court setting towards ‘criminal families’ and confronts it with the reality of
the court’s work. The study is based on the archives of Amsterdam’s Arrondissementsgerecht between 1897 and 1902.This court was in charge of trying criminal offences committed in Amsterdam and its surrounding area (a semi-urban environment within a 25-kilometre radius) according to the 1886 Dutch code of laws.
Urban and semi-urban co-offending criminal rates in Amsterdam and its surrounding area are compared, as well as gender patterns and class origins in relation to the crimes
committed, in order to highlight a possible prejudice towards working-class offenders.
The analysis reveals a high rate of co-offending in female criminality and more gender interactions in the urban environment. However, the results also show that, despite a
general anxiety towards working-class families and rising crime rates, magistrates were not more inclined to prosecute them. The family situation was taken into account before trials, and semi-urban families were not treated more leniently than
urban families.
Since the first outcries from feminist historians in the early 1970s against the absence of women... more Since the first outcries from feminist historians in the early 1970s against the absence of women as historical subjects, tangible progress has been made towards the inclusion of both female and male identities and experiences in historical research. The definition of gender as a ‘category of analysis’ brought about a small revolution in historical research, especially in social, economic and, more recently, cultural history. Traditional narratives about the marginal economic role of women or their limited participation in the public sphere have subsequently been re-evaluated and new hypotheses about people's gendered experiences have emerged. This growing interest in the formation and influence of gender identities is also increasingly discernible in urban history, where gender analysis has proven to be of particular relevance in understanding men's and women's use of urban space and, vice versa, the ways that the urban environment shaped the construction of people's gendered identities.
This paper presents a review of the historiography on gender and crime in Europe in the period be... more This paper presents a review of the historiography on gender and crime in Europe in the period between 1600 and 1800, starting from Beattie’s seminal article highlighting the absence of women in the history of crime, to the most recent works on the process of gendering crime and on revaluating men’s participation in ‘female crimes’. It discusses subsequently the strengths and weaknesses of the main approaches in the historiography, the moral and judicial norms influencing both criminal behaviour and the prosecution of crime, male and female criminality, violence, the urban setting of criminality and the decline of female crime rates during the nineteenth century. Further, the conclusion presents suggestions for future research and encourages a systematic comparison of male and female crime over time and space and a focus on different types of towns to get a better understanding of the dynamics and fluctuations in gender differences in the history of crime. (Published in Dutch)
This article examines the origins of a red-light district in a French provincial city before the ... more This article examines the origins of a red-light district in a French provincial city before the implementation of official regulation. It aims at redefining the role of prostitutes, police and society in the development of ‘reserved districts’. Based on the study of judicial archives over a 60-year period, the mapping of the spatial distribution of prostitutes in Nantes reveals the spread of prostitution in most of the city's districts. However, the migrations and movement of prostitutes within the city show a gradual clustering over two districts: this was motivated by economic rationales and was initiated by the prostitutes and, only later in the century, encouraged by the police and community.
Call for Papers by Marion Pluskota
The Crime, Justice and the Law Network is part of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) a... more The Crime, Justice and the Law Network is part of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) and linked with the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC). Historians, sociologists, economists, criminologists, geographers, lawyers and independent scholars who are interested in both historical and contemporary developments in crime, policing and the law, are part of this network. The network’s purpose is to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and research across disciplines and methodologies. Many members of the network attend the annual meetings of the SSHA and the ESSHC to participate in sessions, roundtables, and poster displays that include the presentation of papers and discussions on important books, ongoing research projects and new research methods. The network prides itself in having a global approach to research on criminality, judicial and legal systems and encourages comparative perspectives on these subjects.
We welcome full sessions and papers on a wide range of topics but we are particularly interested in paper sessions that relate to the larger theme of this year’s conference: 'Pluralism and Community: Social Science History Perspectives'. Possible topics might include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Use of Justice
- Comparative Justice in global perspective
- Police and Community Relations
- Comparative studies in crime history
- Legal pluralisms
- Incarceration in a global perspective
- Segregation in a global perspective
We also would like to highlight the possibility to organize book sessions where the "Author meets Critics".
The next SSHA conference is in Baltimore, Maryland, November 12-15, 2015. Information on the conference is available on the SSHA website www.ssha.org. Anyone with questions regarding the 2015 program of the Crime, Justice and the Law Network should contact the network representatives, Marion Pluskota or Max Felker-Kantor.
The deadline for papers and sessions is 14 February 2015.
Papers by Marion Pluskota
Routledge eBooks, Sep 28, 2023
BRILL eBooks, Aug 23, 2017
BRILL eBooks, Aug 23, 2017
![Research paper thumbnail of Laite Julia. Common Prostitutes and Ordinary Citizens. Commercial Sex in London, 1885–1960. [Genders and Sexuality in History.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.]2012. 299 pp. Maps. £55.00](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/107341793/thumbnails/1.jpg)
International Review of Social History, Nov 21, 2013
Dr Julia Laite has undertaken the arduous task of studying the evolution of prostitution in Londo... more Dr Julia Laite has undertaken the arduous task of studying the evolution of prostitution in London between 1885 and 1960. Both the geographical setting and the period covered by her research are extensive, but she succeeds in presenting a new perspective on the history of London prostitution. Whilst punctuating her argument with interesting quantitative data, Laite shows that many sources deserve a more thorough textual analysis if we are to use them to understand the gradual criminalization of prostitution. Laite begins with an overview of the existing literature, highlighting the main issue concerning the historiography: historians of prostitution have focused mostly on nineteenthcentury prostitution, leaving aside local causes and other time periods, although both of these had a significant influence on how prostitution was perceived, practised, and controlled. Laite has opted not to use the archives of charitable institutions, but has focused instead on criminal and police records. She rightly defines prostitution as a diverse phenomenon: prostitution is not a single occupation but a multiform economic enterprise. Her main question focuses on the process of criminalization and how negative features of prostitution were created or aggravated by its status as a criminalized activity (p. 41). The core of her subject is therefore English legislation on prostitution over the course of almost a century; the chapters follow a chronological order, from the end of the Victorian era up to the Wolfenden Report (1957). Various themes run throughout her work: the appropriation and the use of urban space, for example, appear as essential components of the practice of prostitution and its policing. The geography of London prostitution was, and is still, varied, and no red-light districts were created, though certain areas (Soho, most notably) were renowned for the availability of sex workers. Prostitutes moved according to demand, and during the two world wars prostitutes went soliciting in those districts where soldiers were billeted or met them in clubs, bars, and private bottle parties. The interwar period saw licensed establishments taking over the commercial sex space in parallel with a multiplication of privately rented flats. As Laite rightly notes, ''prostitution was woven into the fabric of urban space, culture and economy'' and therefore evolved according to the changes felt by the urban setting (p. 86). Soliciting was not an offence (if practised without ''annoyance''), and up to World War II soliciting in the street was common for most prostitutes, regardless of their class or tariff. In trying to get access to new public spaces, women often faced excessive police zeal; ''annoyance'' was rarely proved, and arrests and condemnations were highly discretionary throughout the period. Repression increased over the years, through a range of criminal legislation and licensing laws. Scientific discoveries, such as fingerprinting, were also used to keep track of prostitutes. However, prostitutes often had a good knowledge of the law and the legal system, and strategies were put in place to avoid arrest and prosecution. Bogus marriage, moving offstreet, and the use of a legitimate business as a cover for prostitution were already common during the Edwardian era. Despite these strategies, the risks taken by prostitutes were increased when the police forced them into back alleys and other personal spaces off-street. Laite also mentions the role of the press in the upsurge of moral panics and the attention-seeking articles on prostitutes and the inherent dangers of letting them loose: the fear of white slavery, of venereal diseases, or the ''shame of London'' before the 1953 Coronation are examples of newspaper attacks against prostitutes. She convincingly argues that most of these fears and panics were unfounded and were literary creations of zealous journalists and concerned civil society, whereas public complaints against prostitutes did not increase.
This thesis is centred on prostitution in Nantes and Bristol, two port cities in France and Engla... more This thesis is centred on prostitution in Nantes and Bristol, two port cities in France and England, between 1750 and 1815. The objectives of this research are fourfold: first, to understand the socio-economic characteristics of prostitution in these two port cities. Secondly, it aims to identify the similarities and the differences between Nantes and Bristol in the treatment of prostitution and in the evolution of mentalités by highlighting the local responses to prostitution. The third objective is to analyse the network of prostitution, in other words the relations prostitutes had with their family, the tenants of public houses, the lodging-keepers and the agents of the law to demonstrate if the women were living in a state of dependency. Finally, the geography of prostitution and its evolution between 1750 and 1815 is studied and put into perspective with the socioeconomic context of the different districts to explain the spatial distribution of prostitutes in these two port cities. The methodology used relies on a comparative approach based on a vast corpus of archives, which notably includes judicial archives and newspapers. Qualitative and quantitative research allows the construction of relational databases, which highlight similar patterns of prostitution in both cities. When data is missing and a strict comparison between Nantes and Bristol is made impossible, extrapolations and comparisons with studies on different cities are used to draw subsequent conclusions. As a result, this thesis offers a unique picture of provincial prostitution in eighteenthcentury port cities in France and England. It shows that women were using prostitution as a strategy of survival and on a casual basis and, if forced by economic necessities to do so, they kept a certain independence towards the people they met on a daily-basis. This thesis also shows, thanks to the comparative approach, that local events had a great influence on the shift of attitudes towards prostitution. It highlights, through the study of the dialectic national-local discourses, the specificities of local responses to prostitution and the importance of considering change of mentalités as a result of longand shortterm developments. Finally, this study also brings to light the similarities in attitudes towards prostitution which transcended the English and French national framework.
Tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis, Apr 20, 2023
This article questions the impact of urbanization on crime rates by studying Amsterdam migrants b... more This article questions the impact of urbanization on crime rates by studying Amsterdam migrants before the correctional court between 1850 and 1905. The data shows no clear link between urbanization and a rise in crime, but it does reveal the role of external factors in the prosecution of specific crimes. The crisis experienced by the urban labour market in the late 1870s and 1880s had a direct impact on Amsterdam crime rates: although Amsterdam could initially integrate low-skilled workers in its labour market, the situation became unsustainable after a few years. It led to an increase in the prosecution of vagrancy and begging offenses, which were committed first and foremost by Dutch unemployed or unskilled migrant workers. This article thus shows the importance of considering migrants in crime history not as a homogenous group but as different groups, each with its own support networks and influenced differently by the micro-and macroeconomic developments of the nineteenth century.
Urban History, Feb 1, 2022
Journal of British Studies, Oct 1, 2021
editing could have reduced repetition in the collection and freed contributors from undertaking s... more editing could have reduced repetition in the collection and freed contributors from undertaking similar tasks in order to make similar points. Readers will notice what contributors presumably did not have an opportunity to notice: that the essays invest and then invest again in establishing, for example, the prevalence and importance of references to hands in the Victorian novel. Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Middlemarch, and Bleak House: the novels change but the authors make very similar opening moves in their essays, enumerating and sampling references to hands in a given passage from a novel in order to establish the importance of hands to that novel. It lay with the editors to minimize this sometimes stultifying repetition of actions, claims, and citations and to edit the essays so as to better highlight their originality and their unique contributions—contributions to the field which are, it is important to note, very valuable ones. Some proofing oversights also distract from the strength of contributors’ work. While work in disability studies is very well represented in this collection by Karen Bourrier on Jane Eyre and by Tamara Ketabgian on William Dodd, it is hard not to lament the collection’s cursory engagement with nineteenth-century deaf culture and the history of manualism, a history compellingly but not exhaustively explored by Jennifer Esmail in Reading Victorian Deafness: Signs and Sounds in Victorian Literature and Culture (2013). That no mention is made of the importance of the experience of reading by touch to blind people in nineteenth-century Britain, a history explored by Heather Tilley’s Blindness and Writing (2017), also feels like a missed opportunity. Fortunately, the strength of individual essays in this collection will more than reward readers for time invested in exploring this book. It will be interesting to see how Victorian Hands influences Victorian studies, a field that remains both committed to and shaped by attentiveness to the body.
Uploads
Books by Marion Pluskota
Book Reviews by Marion Pluskota
Articles by Marion Pluskota
The aims of this article are to analyze how genders interacted in a criminal setting and to show a possible bias in the court’s decision to prosecute ‘criminal families’, either in relation to the people involved or to the environment in which the crime was
committed. This article also questions the relevance of the concept of the civilizing mission in a court setting towards ‘criminal families’ and confronts it with the reality of
the court’s work. The study is based on the archives of Amsterdam’s Arrondissementsgerecht between 1897 and 1902.This court was in charge of trying criminal offences committed in Amsterdam and its surrounding area (a semi-urban environment within a 25-kilometre radius) according to the 1886 Dutch code of laws.
Urban and semi-urban co-offending criminal rates in Amsterdam and its surrounding area are compared, as well as gender patterns and class origins in relation to the crimes
committed, in order to highlight a possible prejudice towards working-class offenders.
The analysis reveals a high rate of co-offending in female criminality and more gender interactions in the urban environment. However, the results also show that, despite a
general anxiety towards working-class families and rising crime rates, magistrates were not more inclined to prosecute them. The family situation was taken into account before trials, and semi-urban families were not treated more leniently than
urban families.
Call for Papers by Marion Pluskota
We welcome full sessions and papers on a wide range of topics but we are particularly interested in paper sessions that relate to the larger theme of this year’s conference: 'Pluralism and Community: Social Science History Perspectives'. Possible topics might include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Use of Justice
- Comparative Justice in global perspective
- Police and Community Relations
- Comparative studies in crime history
- Legal pluralisms
- Incarceration in a global perspective
- Segregation in a global perspective
We also would like to highlight the possibility to organize book sessions where the "Author meets Critics".
The next SSHA conference is in Baltimore, Maryland, November 12-15, 2015. Information on the conference is available on the SSHA website www.ssha.org. Anyone with questions regarding the 2015 program of the Crime, Justice and the Law Network should contact the network representatives, Marion Pluskota or Max Felker-Kantor.
The deadline for papers and sessions is 14 February 2015.
Papers by Marion Pluskota
The aims of this article are to analyze how genders interacted in a criminal setting and to show a possible bias in the court’s decision to prosecute ‘criminal families’, either in relation to the people involved or to the environment in which the crime was
committed. This article also questions the relevance of the concept of the civilizing mission in a court setting towards ‘criminal families’ and confronts it with the reality of
the court’s work. The study is based on the archives of Amsterdam’s Arrondissementsgerecht between 1897 and 1902.This court was in charge of trying criminal offences committed in Amsterdam and its surrounding area (a semi-urban environment within a 25-kilometre radius) according to the 1886 Dutch code of laws.
Urban and semi-urban co-offending criminal rates in Amsterdam and its surrounding area are compared, as well as gender patterns and class origins in relation to the crimes
committed, in order to highlight a possible prejudice towards working-class offenders.
The analysis reveals a high rate of co-offending in female criminality and more gender interactions in the urban environment. However, the results also show that, despite a
general anxiety towards working-class families and rising crime rates, magistrates were not more inclined to prosecute them. The family situation was taken into account before trials, and semi-urban families were not treated more leniently than
urban families.
We welcome full sessions and papers on a wide range of topics but we are particularly interested in paper sessions that relate to the larger theme of this year’s conference: 'Pluralism and Community: Social Science History Perspectives'. Possible topics might include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Use of Justice
- Comparative Justice in global perspective
- Police and Community Relations
- Comparative studies in crime history
- Legal pluralisms
- Incarceration in a global perspective
- Segregation in a global perspective
We also would like to highlight the possibility to organize book sessions where the "Author meets Critics".
The next SSHA conference is in Baltimore, Maryland, November 12-15, 2015. Information on the conference is available on the SSHA website www.ssha.org. Anyone with questions regarding the 2015 program of the Crime, Justice and the Law Network should contact the network representatives, Marion Pluskota or Max Felker-Kantor.
The deadline for papers and sessions is 14 February 2015.