A University of Kent lecturer sees a decade of research come to fruition with the release of her first book.
Dr Anne Logan, Lecturer in Social History for the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, is the author of Feminism and Criminal Justice – A Historical Perspective, published by Palgrave Macmillan in October.
Dr Logan’s book is a study of the impact of the women’s movement in England and Wales on criminal justice policy, tracing the 50 years or so from the end of the First World War through to 1970. The author examines the role of women in bringing about major changes to the justice system that we might take for granted today – such as the introduction of women jurors and barristers – and unearths plenty of surprising facts along the way.
‘It’s amazing to consider that, as late as the 1960s, very few women actually sat on juries, and in many cases were deliberately excluded,’ Dr Logan said.
‘This occurred in one of the most famous trials of modern times – that of the ‘Moors Murderers’ in 1966. Defence lawyers rejected any potential female jurors from sitting and insisted on an all-male jury, possibly because they felt that some issues – such as the terrible events of the case – shouldn’t be talked about in mixed company.
‘If you were a woman on trial, you also tended to face a male jury. Although we might see the 1960s as a time of rapid social change, that didn’t necessarily include the world of criminal justice.
‘Courts of law remained a masculine domain throughout the majority of the 20th century. Attitudes that we probably think of as Victorian lingered for a long time, up until the 1970s at least,’ she said.
Dr Logan researched her book while completing her PhD – on the subject of the first women magistrates – and teaching at the University, where she is also Director of Studies for the Criminal Justice degree programme at the University’s Medway campus.
An authority on the subjects of crime and punishment policy-making, gender and social work in the twentieth century, she has contributed articles to numerous publications including The Historical Journal and Women’s History Review.
Topics covered in Feminism and Criminal Justice – A Historical Perspective include youth justice, the law on prostitution, the campaign for women jurors, women professionals and volunteers in the justice system and the movement for the abolition of the death penalty.
In her book, Dr Logan also challenges the assumption that feminist interest in criminal justice only began with the emergence of campaigns over rape and domestic violence, and of feminist criminology, in the 1970s. She argues that the women’s movement has maintained a long-term interest in criminal justice and traces the campaigns of individuals and organisations to challenge the law, from the days of the suffragettes to the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s.
Dr Logan is now researching her second book, which will examine the life and work of British prison reformer and pioneering magistrate Margery Fry.
