1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« This thesis is an attempt to contribute to our awareness of that issue [domestic violence] in the nineteenth century Canadian family, by examining the criminal justice system ‘s response to family violence in Montreal during the period 1825 to 1850 […] This work focuses on two family relationships: the parent-child relationship; and the spousal relationship. » (p. 7)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
1) Judicial records for the District of Montreal found in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa and the Archives nationales du Québec à Montréal; including the Court of King’s/ Queen’s Bench; the Court of Quarter Sessions, and the Police Court as well as records pertaining to the Montreal Gaol; coroners’inquests, rural returns and files of Justices of the Peace (p. 18);
2) Contemporary newspapers that contained relevant inforamtion;
3) Secondary sources that have examined those iddues for other Western jurisdications. (p. 17)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

« The judicial response to family violence in Montreal during the period 1825 to 1850 was marked by paradox. The criminal justice system, driven by private prosecutors, limited the ability of some victims to seek the law’s protection, but it allowed others to exercise considerable discretion and influence over the pursuit of justice. The legal response to the crimes of infanticide, child abuse, domestic violence, and spousal murder was equally contradictory. Infanticide may have been depicted as a horrific crime, but the call for justice was never strong. Society became increasingly sensitive to the notion that parents should be held accountable for causing injury to children, but a belief in the sanctity of the family was still paramount. When child abuse cases did come before courts, children were often accorded the same legal remedies by courts as were adult victims. Similarly, while the issue of family violence was not then a widespread societal concern, and while the notion that a wife was subordinate to her husband remained a prominent part of early-Victorian life, hundreds of abused wives prosecuted their husbands for assault. Those cases reflect not only that abused wives were contesting their partner’s use of violence, but also that courts were willing to intervene. Spousal murder cases were further evidence of contradiction: women were subject to heightened legal penalties for killing their partners, but their gender also insulated them from the full severity of the law. » (p. 2)