ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the historiographical hypothesis that put forward by scholars such as John Beattie and James Sharpe, not only that women were less commonly indicted for violent behaviour compared with men but also that they were less brutal when committing criminal offences. Female offenders in Scotland were not protected from the law; rather, they were treated in much the same way as their male counterparts. The crime of culpable homicide is defined as 'a killing caused by fault which falls short of the evil intention required to constitute murder'. Only 26" of the lowland Scottish women indicted for an attempted murder or a 'common' aggravated assault at the Justiciary Court between 1750 and 1815 were alleged to have committed an offence of this nature in the home. Some similarities can be drawn between the motives of the lowland Scottish women indicted for ordinary assault and those charged with assault of authority.
