Crime Literature

September 17, 2007 jocelynchamberlain

(http://www.cindyvallar.com/newgate.jpg)

I did enjoy the readings from the Newgate Calendar, it was interesting to learn how the judicial system worked in that era. Some of the acts are not very far from past times, I don’t believe it was that long ago that public executions did take place. Even today when you hear of a prisoners on death row, there are a certain amount of public attendance, and even in certain high profile cases the media is involved.

While reading the stories I found that the judicial system did not follow the same protocol when the same crime was committed. For instance, a person would be a charged for stealing and was given a slap on the wrist; while the next person that came along who committed an equal amount of theft was being executed.

I did find while reading these stories that they could easily be the storyline for one of the numerous crime shows on television, like Law & Order. The television shows are always basing their storylines on off centre crimes, and ones that you would not typically see. Although depending on what state the crime took place, the execution that takes place in these stories might not be able to be included. I would find it to be interesting if one of the shows actually made one of their storylines based on such crime literature.