This book presents the first comprehensive study of over 120 printed news reports of murders and infanticides committed by early modern women. It offers an interdisciplinary analysis of female homicide in post-Reformation news formats ranging from ballads to newspapers. Individual cases are illuminated in relation to changing legal, religious, and political contexts, as well as the dynamic growth of commercial crime-news and readership.

Randall Martin is Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick.

1 Introduction

2 Equity and self-defense in female homicide news

3 Confession, conversion, and tactical resistance

4 Women and Poison

5 Changing representations of infanticide and child murder

6 Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography