This book descibes in detail the development of substantive criminal law during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author examines the forces which shaped criminal jurisprudence throughout the course of this period, paying particular attention to the activities of legislators and reformers, to parallel developments in the study of punishment and human psychology, to general social and political changes and to the growth of an organised police force and its reliance upon formal rules of proceedure and evidence.

Published in the summer of 1863, A General View of the Criminal Law is a highly original account of the fundamental nature, substance and functioning of the criminal law in mid-Victorian England. Written with the assurance and facility of one whose active interests extended well beyond the law into politics, literature, philosophy, and religion, Fitzjames Stephen's General View has three broad objectives: to expose the workings of the institution of criminal law to the scrutiny of both lawyers and non-lawyers; to locate the criminal law in its appropriate political and social context; and to elevate the study of criminal law to a level which would qualify it to be 'an interesting part of a liberal education' - in effect, for it to be recognised as one of the emerging social sciences. While in general holding to the book's expressed aims and seeking to offer a balanced analysis, in the many contentious areas of the criminal law examined there is rarely much doubt about Stephen's own position. Characteristically, as in his earlier and later works, in the General View analytical acuity operates in combination with an emphatic - frequently no holds barred - polemical style of argument. Although often fiercely critical of certain procedural and substantive elements of England's criminal law, ultimately Stephen viewed its core features as a worthy source of national pride.

In this important study Dr Smith uses a wide range of primary materials to provide the first modern comprehensive examination of the work, writings and ideas of James Fitzjames Stephen. Stephen's broad rationalist/utilitarian ethical and intellectual stance manifested itself most prominently in law and social and political philosophy. Stephen's turn of mind led him to perceive the substance of literature and religious orthodoxy as of complementary interest and relevance to the social and political mores of Victorian England, making him one of Dickens' and Cardinal Newman's most formidable and trenchant critics. Dr Smith's account is the first to set Stephen's life and thought in its proper Victorian context, and marks a significant addition to the growing literature on the intellectual history of nineteenth-century England.