Scotland: A Country With No Criminal Record

Capital Punishment and the Scottish Criminal Justice System

“…To quote Crowther, Scotland is a country with "no criminal record." 74 This study seeks to provide this history through its examination of Scotland's use of capital punishment. The journey of an offender from the commission of their crimes to their suffering for them upon the scaffold was subject to a discretionary and multi-staged decision-making process.…”

Homicide in Eighteenth-Century Scotland: Numbers and Theories

“…1 What work that has been carried out by Scottish historians has mainly focussed on the first half of the nineteenth century; generally by Ian Donnachie and, more specifically, by Peter King on the geography of homicide, 2 and even later in the century by Carolyn Conley, 3 as well as a comparative piece by S. J. Connolly.…”

Custom in Context: Medieval and Early Modern Scotland and England

“…47 Scottish law was more flexible than English, allowing courts to countenance actions that could potentially be deemed criminal, but also to define certain acts as crimes even if they had not been formally designated or even previously prosecuted as such: anti-combination actions against early nineteenth century trades unions are an example. 48 Courts could and did assume jurisdiction over offences without 'special authority' and that assumption might be termed 'customary'. 49 Law could be communally created and popularly enforced at a local level, but in Scotland this applied to criminal not civil matters.…”