Bodies of evidence, states of mind: infanticide, emotion and sensibility in eighteenth-century England

Recent research has shown fairly conclusively that conviction rates for infanticide dropped sharply in England during the eighteenth century. ¹ Scholars have suggested that the jury's sympathy with the plight of unwed mothers and the discomfort of legal authorities with the harsh statute of 1624 together accounted for this phenomenon. ² This chapter seeks to deepen these arguments by outlining the social and cultural context in which leniency and dissatisfaction with the 1624 statute emerged, through an examination of the culture of sensibility in eighteenth-century English society and in legal discourse. I will explore the relationship between the language of the mind that resonated in the English courtroom throughout the eighteenth century and jury verdicts in cases of infanticide. This comparison will illustrate evolving definitions of the crime and its perpetrators.