L Seal
Biographic Data
| ID | 42924 |
|---|---|
| NAME | L Seal |
| GIVEN NAMES | L |
| FAMILY NAME | Seal |
| SIGNATURE | SEAL L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sussex |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1727-9653 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Simon Devereaux. Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900
The Assassination Cases of Madan Lal Dhingra, 1909 and Udham Singh, 1940 as Social Drama
There were two Indian nationalist assassinations in London in the twentieth century: Sir William Curzon Wyllie by Madan Lal Dhingra in 1909 and Sir Michael O’Dwyer by Udham Singh in 1940. We read these assassinations as social dramas during which shifting meanings of British imperialism were articulated, contested and reinforced. We compare the cases to examine how Dhingra and Singh’s insistence on the iniquity of colonial violence contested domi…
Haunted by Ghost Criminology
Fear, Justice, and Modern True Crime
Introduction: Legacies of Empire
The abstract is included in the text
Racializing Mercy: Capital Punishment and Race in Twentieth-Century England and Wales
Fifty-seven men of color were sentenced to death by the courts of England and Wales in the twentieth century and were less likely to receive mercy than white contemporaries. Though shocking, the data is perhaps unsurprising considering institutional racism and unequal access to justice widely highlighted by criminologists since the 1970s. We find discourses of racial difference were frequently mobilized tactically in nineteenth- and twentieth-cen…
In His Passionate Way’: Emotion, Race and Gender in Cases of Partner Murder in England and Wales, 1900–39
This article examines 10 capital cases of men of colour sentenced to death in England and Wales for intimate murders of white British women during 1900–39. It argues that such cases enable analysis of the prevailing emotional norms of this era and the ways in which these were shaped by race, gender and class. Perceptions of intimate relationships as legitimate or illegitimate—judgments about who should feel what about whom—‘is’ related to underst…
Imaginative Criminology: Of Spaces Past, Present and Future
Founded in cultural, textual, and ethnographic analysis, this distinctive and engaging book proposes an imaginative criminology, focusing on how spaces of transgression, control, or confinement are lived, portrayed, and imagined
Race, Racialisation and ‘Colonial Common Sense’ in Capital Cases of Men of Colour in England and Wales, 1919–1957
This article explores the role of ‘colonial common sense’ (Stoler, 2008) in racialising men of colour in capital cases in twentieth-century England and Wales. Following the First World War psychiatric and psychological discourses became more prominent in both the criminal justice system and the wider culture, but were not the primary means through which race was constructed in capital trials. Rather, colonially informed common sense understanding…
Public opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados
The bulk of extant research on public opinion on crime and punishment is focused on Global North nations. This article contributes a new perspective to the literature on punitivism by examining public opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados. The article presents insights from exploratory focus group research conducted in Barbados in 2017. These findings are particularly relevant as Barbadian lawmakers navigate reform of the…
Performativity, border-crossings and ethics in a prison-based creative writing project
We critically reflect on insights from our experiences as female researchers on a creative writing project in a men's prison, including the emotional impact on the men involved and the ways in which our role as participant researchers impacted deeply on us. Juxtaposed starkly with the physical constraints of the prison, a sense of journeys emerged as significant throughout the study, particularly the symbolic crossing of boundaries. We draw on th…
Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing deviance
Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: diagnosing deviance." Social History, 43(4), pp. 549–550
She killed not from hate, but from love: Motherhood, melodrama and mercy killing in the case of May Brownhill
This article examines press portrayals of and public reactions to a ‘mercy killing’ in 1930s England. May Brownhill, sixty-two, killed her ‘invalid’ adult son by giving him an overdose of aspirin and poisoning him with coal gas. Through the conventions of melodrama, May was portrayed in the press as a respectable, devoted and self-sacrificial mother deserving of sympathy. The case also resonated with contemporary debates about euthanasia. It is a…
Anette Ballinger: Gender, Truth and State Power: Capitalising on Punishment
Albert Pierrepoint and the cultural persona of the twentieth-century hangman
Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s most famous 20th-century hangman. This article utilises diverse sources in order to chart his public representation, or cultural persona, as hangman from his rise to prominence in the mid-1940s to his portrayal in the biopic Pierrepoint (2005). It argues that Pierrepoint exercised agency in shaping this persona through publishing his autobiography and engagement with the media, although there were also representat…
Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain: Audience, Justice, Memory
Capital punishment for murder was abolished in Britain in 1965. At this time, the way people in Britain perceived and understood the death penalty had changed – it was an issue that had become increasingly controversial, high-profile and fraught with emotion. In order to understand why this was, it is necessary to examine how ordinary people learned about and experienced capital punishment. Drawing on primary research, this book explores the cult…
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…
Designating Dependency: The "Socially Inadequate" in theUnitedStates, 1910-1940
This article examines the use of "socially inadequate" as a label for the dependent poor in theUnitedStates, 1910-40. It analyses the dense meanings that were given to this term and the political significance that the label "socially inadequate" gained in relation to sterilization and immigration policy. The article explores the role played by eugenicist,HarryLaughlin, as a label maker for the term and a moral entrepreneur in relation to the prob…
Transgressive Imaginations: Crime, Deviance and Culture
Taking the notion of transgression – the breaking of boundaries – as its starting point, this book brings a fresh approach to cultural criminology by exploring representations of the transgressive in fictive texts and ethnographic research. Chapters focus on topics of urgent contemporary interest, including school shooters, violent female avengers, sex workers, those labelled 'mad', serial killers, asylum seekers and skid row residents. The book …
Transgressive Imaginations
This book focuses upon the breaking of rules and taboos involved in 'doing crime', including violent crime as represented in fictive texts and ethnographic research. It includes chapters on topics of
Whistleblowing, organisational harm and the self-regulating organisation
Whistleblowing has emerged as a key element of regulatory strategy. This article provides a brief, theoretical analysis of the claimed affinities between whistleblowing, self-regulation and corporate social responsibility. It then addresses a series of key issues in relation to whistleblowing: the individual, organisational and social characteristics associated with the decision to blow the whistle (or not); the consequences of reporting organisa…
Emotion and allegiance in researching four mid- 20th-century cases of women accused of murder
This article examines methodological issues of emotion and allegiance in relation to researching, from archival sources, gender representation in mid-20th-century cases of women accused of murder. Through a discussion of four women's cases, I explore this as a deeply ambivalent experience because the research induced both empathic and negative feelings towards the women. This seemed to conflict with my aims as a feminist researcher to highlight d…
Ruth Ellis and Public Contestation of the Death Penalty
This article examines public reactions to the case of R uth E llis through an analysis of letters sent to the H ome S ecretary. The vast majority of these requested a reprieve, and highlighted themes such as her status as a mother, the murder as a crime of passion, D avid B lakely's mistreatment of her and the unfairness of applying the death penalty in her case. I argue that we need to analyse the public's views on Ruth Ellis in order to underst…
Responding to the crisis: Economic Stabilisation Grants
This article reviews some of the mainstream policies proposed to tackle the economic crisis of 2008-09 and its aftermath, and goes on to advocate a policy of economic stabilisation grants (ESGs). It argues that ESGs, which would be paid to every citizen at a rate that could be varied according to the severity of the crisis, would be more effective in boosting aggregate demand and more efficient in terms of resource allocation. Unlike the alternat…
Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women Who Kill
Women who kill rupture our assumptions about what a woman is. This book explores different socio-cultural understandings of women who commit, or are accused, of murder. A wide range of cases are discu
Responding to the crisis: Economic Stabilisation Grants
This article reviews some of the mainstream policies proposed to tackle the economic crisis of 2008-09 and its aftermath, and goes on to advocate a policy of economic stabilisation grants (ESGs). It argues that ESGs, which would be paid to every citizen at a rate that could be varied according to the severity of the crisis, would be more effective in boosting aggregate demand and more efficient in terms of resource allocation. Unlike the alternat…
Introduction: Legacies of Empire
The abstract is included in the text
Whistleblowing, organisational harm and the self-regulating organisation
Whistleblowing has emerged as a key element of regulatory strategy. This article provides a brief, theoretical analysis of the claimed affinities between whistleblowing, self-regulation and corporate social responsibility. It then addresses a series of key issues in relation to whistleblowing: the individual, organisational and social characteristics associated with the decision to blow the whistle (or not); the consequences of reporting organisa…
Discourses of single women accused of murder: Mid twentieth-century constructions of ‘lesbians’ and ‘spinsters’
Racializing Mercy: Capital Punishment and Race in Twentieth-Century England and Wales
Fifty-seven men of color were sentenced to death by the courts of England and Wales in the twentieth century and were less likely to receive mercy than white contemporaries. Though shocking, the data is perhaps unsurprising considering institutional racism and unequal access to justice widely highlighted by criminologists since the 1970s. We find discourses of racial difference were frequently mobilized tactically in nineteenth- and twentieth-cen…
In His Passionate Way’: Emotion, Race and Gender in Cases of Partner Murder in England and Wales, 1900–39
This article examines 10 capital cases of men of colour sentenced to death in England and Wales for intimate murders of white British women during 1900–39. It argues that such cases enable analysis of the prevailing emotional norms of this era and the ways in which these were shaped by race, gender and class. Perceptions of intimate relationships as legitimate or illegitimate—judgments about who should feel what about whom—‘is’ related to underst…
Performativity, border-crossings and ethics in a prison-based creative writing project
We critically reflect on insights from our experiences as female researchers on a creative writing project in a men's prison, including the emotional impact on the men involved and the ways in which our role as participant researchers impacted deeply on us. Juxtaposed starkly with the physical constraints of the prison, a sense of journeys emerged as significant throughout the study, particularly the symbolic crossing of boundaries. We draw on th…
Designating Dependency: The "Socially Inadequate" in theUnitedStates, 1910-1940
This article examines the use of "socially inadequate" as a label for the dependent poor in theUnitedStates, 1910-40. It analyses the dense meanings that were given to this term and the political significance that the label "socially inadequate" gained in relation to sterilization and immigration policy. The article explores the role played by eugenicist,HarryLaughlin, as a label maker for the term and a moral entrepreneur in relation to the prob…
Issues of gender and class in the Mirror newspapers' campaign for the release of Edith Chubb
In May 1958, Edith Chubb was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of her sister-in-law, Lilian Chubb. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. She claimed to have accidentally killed Lilian by pulling on her scarf in a moment of `exasperation'. Edith was a married woman and mother of five children, whereas Lilian had never married. This article examines how the case was represented in the Daily…
The Assassination Cases of Madan Lal Dhingra, 1909 and Udham Singh, 1940 as Social Drama
There were two Indian nationalist assassinations in London in the twentieth century: Sir William Curzon Wyllie by Madan Lal Dhingra in 1909 and Sir Michael O’Dwyer by Udham Singh in 1940. We read these assassinations as social dramas during which shifting meanings of British imperialism were articulated, contested and reinforced. We compare the cases to examine how Dhingra and Singh’s insistence on the iniquity of colonial violence contested domi…
She killed not from hate, but from love: Motherhood, melodrama and mercy killing in the case of May Brownhill
This article examines press portrayals of and public reactions to a ‘mercy killing’ in 1930s England. May Brownhill, sixty-two, killed her ‘invalid’ adult son by giving him an overdose of aspirin and poisoning him with coal gas. Through the conventions of melodrama, May was portrayed in the press as a respectable, devoted and self-sacrificial mother deserving of sympathy. The case also resonated with contemporary debates about euthanasia. It is a…
Albert Pierrepoint and the cultural persona of the twentieth-century hangman
Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s most famous 20th-century hangman. This article utilises diverse sources in order to chart his public representation, or cultural persona, as hangman from his rise to prominence in the mid-1940s to his portrayal in the biopic Pierrepoint (2005). It argues that Pierrepoint exercised agency in shaping this persona through publishing his autobiography and engagement with the media, although there were also representat…
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…
Emotion and allegiance in researching four mid- 20th-century cases of women accused of murder
This article examines methodological issues of emotion and allegiance in relation to researching, from archival sources, gender representation in mid-20th-century cases of women accused of murder. Through a discussion of four women's cases, I explore this as a deeply ambivalent experience because the research induced both empathic and negative feelings towards the women. This seemed to conflict with my aims as a feminist researcher to highlight d…
Hard Lessons: Reflections on Governance and Crime Control in Late Modernity
Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical Readings in Criminology
Issues of gender and class in the Mirror newspapers' campaign for the release of Edith Chubb
In May 1958, Edith Chubb was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of her sister-in-law, Lilian Chubb. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. She claimed to have accidentally killed Lilian by pulling on her scarf in a moment of `exasperation'. Edith was a married woman and mother of five children, whereas Lilian had never married. This article examines how the case was represented in the Daily…
Feminism and Criminal Justice: A Historical Perspective. By Anne Logan
Feminism and Criminal Justice undertakes the important work of revealing the significant contribution feminist women made to the criminal justice system of England and Wales between 1920 and 1970. Criminological orthodoxy has it that feminists did not intervene in issues of crime and criminal justice until the 1970s, when they did so as part of the ‘second wave’. Logan's book is a subtle corrective to this view and demonstrates that feminist wome…
Discourses of single women accused of murder: Mid twentieth-century constructions of ‘lesbians’ and ‘spinsters’
Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women Who Kill
Women who kill rupture our assumptions about what a woman is. This book explores different socio-cultural understandings of women who commit, or are accused, of murder. A wide range of cases are discu
Ruth Ellis and Public Contestation of the Death Penalty
This article examines public reactions to the case of R uth E llis through an analysis of letters sent to the H ome S ecretary. The vast majority of these requested a reprieve, and highlighted themes such as her status as a mother, the murder as a crime of passion, D avid B lakely's mistreatment of her and the unfairness of applying the death penalty in her case. I argue that we need to analyse the public's views on Ruth Ellis in order to underst…
Responding to the crisis: Economic Stabilisation Grants
This article reviews some of the mainstream policies proposed to tackle the economic crisis of 2008-09 and its aftermath, and goes on to advocate a policy of economic stabilisation grants (ESGs). It argues that ESGs, which would be paid to every citizen at a rate that could be varied according to the severity of the crisis, would be more effective in boosting aggregate demand and more efficient in terms of resource allocation. Unlike the alternat…
Transgressive Imaginations: Crime, Deviance and Culture
Taking the notion of transgression – the breaking of boundaries – as its starting point, this book brings a fresh approach to cultural criminology by exploring representations of the transgressive in fictive texts and ethnographic research. Chapters focus on topics of urgent contemporary interest, including school shooters, violent female avengers, sex workers, those labelled 'mad', serial killers, asylum seekers and skid row residents. The book …
Transgressive Imaginations
This book focuses upon the breaking of rules and taboos involved in 'doing crime', including violent crime as represented in fictive texts and ethnographic research. It includes chapters on topics of
Whistleblowing, organisational harm and the self-regulating organisation
Whistleblowing has emerged as a key element of regulatory strategy. This article provides a brief, theoretical analysis of the claimed affinities between whistleblowing, self-regulation and corporate social responsibility. It then addresses a series of key issues in relation to whistleblowing: the individual, organisational and social characteristics associated with the decision to blow the whistle (or not); the consequences of reporting organisa…
Emotion and allegiance in researching four mid- 20th-century cases of women accused of murder
This article examines methodological issues of emotion and allegiance in relation to researching, from archival sources, gender representation in mid-20th-century cases of women accused of murder. Through a discussion of four women's cases, I explore this as a deeply ambivalent experience because the research induced both empathic and negative feelings towards the women. This seemed to conflict with my aims as a feminist researcher to highlight d…
Designating Dependency: The "Socially Inadequate" in theUnitedStates, 1910-1940
This article examines the use of "socially inadequate" as a label for the dependent poor in theUnitedStates, 1910-40. It analyses the dense meanings that were given to this term and the political significance that the label "socially inadequate" gained in relation to sterilization and immigration policy. The article explores the role played by eugenicist,HarryLaughlin, as a label maker for the term and a moral entrepreneur in relation to the prob…
Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain: Audience, Justice, Memory
Capital punishment for murder was abolished in Britain in 1965. At this time, the way people in Britain perceived and understood the death penalty had changed – it was an issue that had become increasingly controversial, high-profile and fraught with emotion. In order to understand why this was, it is necessary to examine how ordinary people learned about and experienced capital punishment. Drawing on primary research, this book explores the cult…
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…
Albert Pierrepoint and the cultural persona of the twentieth-century hangman
Albert Pierrepoint was Britain’s most famous 20th-century hangman. This article utilises diverse sources in order to chart his public representation, or cultural persona, as hangman from his rise to prominence in the mid-1940s to his portrayal in the biopic Pierrepoint (2005). It argues that Pierrepoint exercised agency in shaping this persona through publishing his autobiography and engagement with the media, although there were also representat…
Anette Ballinger: Gender, Truth and State Power: Capitalising on Punishment
Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing deviance
Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: diagnosing deviance." Social History, 43(4), pp. 549–550
She killed not from hate, but from love: Motherhood, melodrama and mercy killing in the case of May Brownhill
This article examines press portrayals of and public reactions to a ‘mercy killing’ in 1930s England. May Brownhill, sixty-two, killed her ‘invalid’ adult son by giving him an overdose of aspirin and poisoning him with coal gas. Through the conventions of melodrama, May was portrayed in the press as a respectable, devoted and self-sacrificial mother deserving of sympathy. The case also resonated with contemporary debates about euthanasia. It is a…
Imaginative Criminology: Of Spaces Past, Present and Future
Founded in cultural, textual, and ethnographic analysis, this distinctive and engaging book proposes an imaginative criminology, focusing on how spaces of transgression, control, or confinement are lived, portrayed, and imagined
Race, Racialisation and ‘Colonial Common Sense’ in Capital Cases of Men of Colour in England and Wales, 1919–1957
This article explores the role of ‘colonial common sense’ (Stoler, 2008) in racialising men of colour in capital cases in twentieth-century England and Wales. Following the First World War psychiatric and psychological discourses became more prominent in both the criminal justice system and the wider culture, but were not the primary means through which race was constructed in capital trials. Rather, colonially informed common sense understanding…
Public opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados
The bulk of extant research on public opinion on crime and punishment is focused on Global North nations. This article contributes a new perspective to the literature on punitivism by examining public opinion on crime, punishment and the death penalty in Barbados. The article presents insights from exploratory focus group research conducted in Barbados in 2017. These findings are particularly relevant as Barbadian lawmakers navigate reform of the…
Performativity, border-crossings and ethics in a prison-based creative writing project
We critically reflect on insights from our experiences as female researchers on a creative writing project in a men's prison, including the emotional impact on the men involved and the ways in which our role as participant researchers impacted deeply on us. Juxtaposed starkly with the physical constraints of the prison, a sense of journeys emerged as significant throughout the study, particularly the symbolic crossing of boundaries. We draw on th…
Racializing Mercy: Capital Punishment and Race in Twentieth-Century England and Wales
Fifty-seven men of color were sentenced to death by the courts of England and Wales in the twentieth century and were less likely to receive mercy than white contemporaries. Though shocking, the data is perhaps unsurprising considering institutional racism and unequal access to justice widely highlighted by criminologists since the 1970s. We find discourses of racial difference were frequently mobilized tactically in nineteenth- and twentieth-cen…
In His Passionate Way’: Emotion, Race and Gender in Cases of Partner Murder in England and Wales, 1900–39
This article examines 10 capital cases of men of colour sentenced to death in England and Wales for intimate murders of white British women during 1900–39. It argues that such cases enable analysis of the prevailing emotional norms of this era and the ways in which these were shaped by race, gender and class. Perceptions of intimate relationships as legitimate or illegitimate—judgments about who should feel what about whom—‘is’ related to underst…
Sociology (28 works) · Political science (23 works) · Criminology (22 works) · Law (17 works) · Psychology (17 works) · History (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Art (9 works)