Marriage: Protection or Imprisonment?: Domestic Violence Legislation in the 1850s

Abstract

In nineteenth-century Britain, domestic violence became criminalized through the "Bill for the Better Prevention and Punishment of Aggravated Assaults Upon Women and Children," later known as the Criminal Procedure Act of 1853. This paper evaluates the motivations and effects of this legislation, arguing that it was ineffective and, in turn, reinforced the social conditions that trapped women within abusive marriages. This Act was passed in the face of the "redundant woman problem," which put pressure on the importance of the family as the bedrock of English society. As women's roles in and outside of marriage were brought into question, Member of Parliament Henry Fitzroy proposed this bill to alleviate violence against women in the home. However, the framework for this type of legislation to succeed did not exist because women did not have access to social and economic capital outside of marriage.