Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
13-6-2011 9:30 AM
Subject Areas
Europe, early modern, motherhood, violence
Abstract
“When guilt and innocence speak the same language” describes the indecipherability of the crime of infanticide. Thus, lawyers deployed one or more of the following strategies to acquit their clients accused of infanticide in 18th century France. Constructions of sentimental maternity naturalized nurturance such that infanticide was always already precluded; nature required a presumption of innocence. Greater standards of evidence, requiring material confirmation of the cause of death and the testimonies of eye-witnesses were difficult to secure; jurisprudence required a presumption of innocence. Where these did obtain, lawyers argued a crime of passion defense, later identifying puerperal insanity as a form of temporary mental derangement. The murderer was thus a victim herself, and could not be held responsible for her actions. In a sense, insanity required a presumption of innocence.
My reading of several trials anthologized in the Les Causes célebres, curieuses, et interessantes, de toutes les cours souveraines du Royaume, avec les jugemens qui les ont décidées draws on several scholarly conversations. Quantitative studies of crime in France provide a context for the trends seen in the causes. Theoretical interpretations of Enlightenment thought about women’s nature and agency suggest the ideas that influenced lawyers as they prepared their defense. Legal historians reviewing the intellectual histories of jurisprudence and psychiatry illustrate how rationalization and categorization of the laws and the operations of the mind fostered the growth of medical jurisprudence. All of these spheres of research point to the significant influence that the Enlightenment had on women’s lives. Case studies enable the application of theory to lived experience.
Keywords
Enlightenment, infanticide, France
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"When Guilt and Innocence Speak the Same Language": Defending Women accused of Infanticide in 18th-century France
“When guilt and innocence speak the same language” describes the indecipherability of the crime of infanticide. Thus, lawyers deployed one or more of the following strategies to acquit their clients accused of infanticide in 18th century France. Constructions of sentimental maternity naturalized nurturance such that infanticide was always already precluded; nature required a presumption of innocence. Greater standards of evidence, requiring material confirmation of the cause of death and the testimonies of eye-witnesses were difficult to secure; jurisprudence required a presumption of innocence. Where these did obtain, lawyers argued a crime of passion defense, later identifying puerperal insanity as a form of temporary mental derangement. The murderer was thus a victim herself, and could not be held responsible for her actions. In a sense, insanity required a presumption of innocence.
My reading of several trials anthologized in the Les Causes célebres, curieuses, et interessantes, de toutes les cours souveraines du Royaume, avec les jugemens qui les ont décidées draws on several scholarly conversations. Quantitative studies of crime in France provide a context for the trends seen in the causes. Theoretical interpretations of Enlightenment thought about women’s nature and agency suggest the ideas that influenced lawyers as they prepared their defense. Legal historians reviewing the intellectual histories of jurisprudence and psychiatry illustrate how rationalization and categorization of the laws and the operations of the mind fostered the growth of medical jurisprudence. All of these spheres of research point to the significant influence that the Enlightenment had on women’s lives. Case studies enable the application of theory to lived experience.