Science and Justice

The Massachusetts Witchcraft Trials
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4214-3043-0
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 146 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 226 g

Originally published in 1968. Far from being an isolated outburst of community insanity or hysteria, the Massachusetts witchcraft trials were an accurate reflection of the scientific ethos of the seventeenth century. Witches were seldom hanged without supporting medical evidence. Professor Fox clarifies this use of scientific knowledge by examining the Scientific Revolution's impact on the witchcraft trials. He suggests that much of the scientific ineptitude and lack of sophistication that characterized the witchcraft cases is still present in our modern system of justice. In the historical context of seventeenth-century witch hunts and in an effort to stimulate those who must design and operate a just jurisprudence today, Fox asks what the proper legal role of medical science—especially psychiatry—should be in any society.
The legal system of seventeenth-century Massachusetts was weakened by an uncritical reliance on scientific judgments, and the scientific assumptions upon which the colonial conception of witchcraft was based reinforced these doubtful judgments. Fox explores these assumptions, discusses the actual participation of scientists in the investigations, and indicates the importance of scientific attitudes in the trials. Disease theory, psychopathology, and autopsy procedures, he finds, all had their place in the identification of witches.
The book presents a unique multidisciplinary investigation into the place of science in the life of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century. There, as in twentieth-century America, citizens were confronted with the necessity of accommodating both the rules of law and the facts of science to their system of justice.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fox, Sanford J

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte Regionalgeschichte der USA: Einzelne Staaten, Städte
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by Sheldon Glueck
Preface
Chapter 1. A Case Study in Law and Science
Chapter 2. The Roots of Massachusetts Witchcraft
Chapter 3. The Views of Scientists
Chapter 4. The Law and Nature of Massachusetts Witchcraft 35
Chapter 5. Maleficium and Cause of Death
Chapter 6. Witchcraft and Disease
Chapter 7. Science and the Identification of Witches: Female Experts
Chapter 8. The Defense of Insanity
Chapter 9. The Law-Science Relationship Then and Now
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Fox, Sanford J
Sanford J. Fox was a professor of law at the Boston College Law School. He was the author of The Juvenile Court: Its Context, Problems, and Opportunities, as well as articles in scholarly journals.