I won't say this is a bad book but I will say it's only going to be of interest to someone with little to no knowledge of the Victorian poverty situation. It's very basic and could have been improved with some good editing and pressure.

***This book was reviewed for the Manhattan and Seattle Book Reviews

Vaughn’s Mad or Bad looks at the rise of the insanity plea in regards to crime, thanks to efforts of the alienists (precursor to psychologists), specifically in regards to Victorian Britain. There are five parts, discussing notables of the time, the qualifications of 'insanity’, important terms, a brief look at insanity in regards to women, and lastly, a series of case studies. There is a sheaf of pictures round abouts the middle of the book, with photos and sketches pertaining to the cases.

Part Five, Case Studies, is the longest, and looks at twenty-five cases, both men and women, young and old alike, detailing their crimes, whether they were ultimately judged insane, and the final verdict. While many of these disorders, most especially those conditions believed unique to the fairer sex, seem ludicrous by today's standards, nevertheless, many of these cases shaped how we think of criminal insanity today. It was, and still is, an evolving process.
As a person interested in both history and criminalistics, I found this book quite fascinating. Most of the cases dealt with murder most foul. Some, such as Edwin Bates, who attempted extortion on Prince Albert, bordered on the truly absurd. Many would likely have different verdicts today. I think, for one, of the case of Mary Brixey, who murdered her employer's infant son.

The cases within are laid out to the point, with no sensationalising of the facts. They all have quotes pulled from newspapers and court records of the time. Despite the relative brevity, many of the cases are still quite chilling. It always is, in cases where people think they've done nothing wrong in killing another...

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The stories in this book are fascinating. Thinking within the legal and medical community at that time has been through multiple changes and entangles the parties clashing in trying to reach their goals. Public pressure also seems to play a significant role in the outcome of some of the cases presented. In some, the result seems obvious until the Law is enforced and some attempts to improve the situation have led to situation deterioration.

Anyone interested in legal history or the history of psychology will find Mad or Bad: Crime and Insanity in Victorian Britain really interesting because it gives an idea of how the legal system - especially in the UK - has been formed to this day.

I felt like this book was going to give me a lot more than it did. The description sounds great: In a violent 19th century... a new wave of ‘mad-doctor’ – brought the insanity plea into Victorian courts. Defining psychological conditions in an attempt at acquittal... It left ‘mad people’ hanged for offences they could not remember, and ‘bad’ people freed on unscrupulous pleas. Sounds fascinating and I'd still love to read that book, because unfortunately I still haven't.

It started off as a glossary of people who were going to come up later in the book (judges, barristers, legal idea definitions, etc), then proceeded to become a series of short vignette's revolving around various court cases in Victorian England that formed the law surrounding "criminal insanity". I wouldn't have minded the brevity of the individual cases if there had been more effort to actually explain how they each fit into the puzzle of these fascinating laws. It felt like the author/editors had made a decision that more was more, and they needed a ton of court cases stuffed into the book with little to no explanation on why they were relevant. My confusion wasn't helped by the constant mentions of people who had been listed in the glossary that I was apparently supposed to memorize before reading the rest of the book. Constantly having to refer back to those lists was irritating, and I eventually stopped altogether, especially with how annoying that is to do with an ereader. I would have much preferred if they had chosen a few specific cases and focused on really explaining those and the political/social ramifications behind them.

In the end, I just didn't feel like I got much out of this book beyond a whirl-wind tour of a bunch of cases that just blended together by the end. I wish it had been a more in-depth look at the legal ramifications and politics behind these cases, but it ended up being quite surface level without much depth at all.

I liked the concept of this book; however, I found it difficult to follow at times; I think I would have enjoyed it more if the stories were more fleshed out and longer rather than them being short stories. However, it was full of interesting facts. If you like to learn about historical events that led to the shaping of our present law, then this is a good book for you. I received this book free from Net Galley for honest review.

A thank you goes to David J. Vaughan, Pen & Sword History, and Netgalley for sharing this copy for an unbiased opinion.

Mad or Bad introduces the reader to several judicial cases where the insanity plea was taken into account. All cases are set in the Victorian Britain era. The set-up is a bit disjointed with a glossary of terms in Part One, a list of important people in Part Two, a list of conditions deeming insanity in Part Three along with a confusing section on insanity debates, a special section on women and madness, then FINALLY, the case histories, which read like a rough draft as if each case is waiting to be fleshed out.

I do not like the layout of the book. There is no reason why all of those little so-called chapters are needed. The way it currently is, it's almost like an advanced outline for a presentation of an interesting book. The people can be delved into as they are introduced. The women issues could be an entire chapter with its corresponding cases. If the insanity conditions are to be discussed, then I think it would behoove the author to also inform the reader about the M'Naghten rule. That's the basis of the whole book really. Without that, one would have nothing. I'm not sure what to suggest for the history of debate. I think it's probably needed as background information, but it needs to be reformatted some way, and perhaps given more meat.

This book has a ton of potential. It needs work before it's published. I'm interested in reading the final draft.

Book received from NetGalley.

An interesting book on how the insanity plea came to be a part of the judicial system in Britain. I enjoyed it especially the fight to be able to use the plea since so many people were afraid that murderers would walk free. The only issue I had was the amount of definitions and explanation of terms the book had. I understand it was needed but it was 20+ pages in a very short book. I would rather have had more case histories. I do recommend the book for historians and those who enjoy true crime I think both groups will enjoy it.

From Litsy (@Dorianna)
*ARC from Netgalley*
This book has interesting matter, but lacks meat. It delves into the period of crime and insanity in Victorian Britain, when there was a battle to understand mental illness and crime. The book uses case studies to show an unfair system and institutional misogyny influenced justice at the time. But most of this book reads like lists and Wikipedia entries. I suppose it's a good 101 crash course, but I wanted more.

Goodreads review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1897680611?book_show_action=false

It is probably a foreboding start to a book when the 1st listed chapter is simply a glossary and a list of the important people involved with insanity pleas in Victorian times. I will admit to having read an uncorrected proof from NetGalley, so I am hopeful that either the editors will have made the grouping of these cases easier to read or some method of categorization has made more sense out of the seemingly random flow of the book. The second chapter is not much better in layout as it is another list of the different “insanities” that people pleaded. It seems that instead of working these bits into a narrative format or a version with footnotes, Author David J. Vaughan has simply placed a series of lists for the readers to push through until they get to part of the book they can relate to, which should be the fifth part of the book, the cases themselves.
As evidence by the sheer amount of procedural shows on the air and with 456 episodes of “Law and Order” alone, people love a good mystery and court drama. The introduction of the insanity plea, is an almost guaranteed way to create a media circus in the modern world. Because it is a mental break instead of a clear visible physical effect, it has always been subject to stricter questioning than simply bad people. The whole point of a title like “Mad or Bad” is to have the audience ask the question, was there something actually wrong with these people or were they simply bad people? I'm not sure that I was able to get a solid answer to this, as the mess that these court cases could be seems to have creeped into the book itself. Though footnotes are used later on in the case files, the constant flipping back and forth between sections to identify people and topics eventually proved more annoying than anything. Hopefully in the future eBook version there will be a way to simply click a link to jump between pages instead of the search option I had to use.
This is obviously well researched and Vaughan has put a great deal of effort into it. Unfortunately for me, I found it to be a difficult read and not to my taste. There are a number of other authors who have tackled this subject and have made it more accessible to their readers. If the editors and publishers are able to iron out the wrinkles in this book, it has great promise, but right now I wouldn’t recommend it.

*This eBook was provided by NetGalley and Pen & Sword Books for honest feedback*

I received this for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about cases of murder and crime in the 1800s. It revisits the court cases and accounts of alienists about the mad or bad.

I pushed myself to 57%, and I have decided I will torture myself no more. I was excited to read this for the crime aspect, but truly this is like reading reports from that time. It seems very dry and bland to me. There was a section of names and who those people were and a section of terminology. These sections were worthless to me because I could not remember any of the information when I was actually reading about the cases. Footnotes in this book are usually not on the page they are referenced to, and by the time I found them I had already forgotten what they were about. I just felt a little lost as I read this sometimes. This book is maybe for those just wanting the dry facts about crimes that went to court and if the person was judged as mad or bad.

I rated this 2/5 stars.

The cases presented were an interesting introduction ton the subject and reasonable well handled, using primary sources. However, the layout was confusing and more could have been do to put the cases in context. As it stand the structure encourages confusion and doesn't give much context to each case and the overall picture of Victorian legal attitudes to 'madness' is disjointed.

Wow, interesting read, I wish it had been released when I was doing my degree, I could definitely have used it. We're they mad or bad? This book tells us true stories from the 19th century of murder, infanticide and treason, from a serial killer to a poisoned. All told in an easy to understand way, with a clear and concise glossary and explanation of expressions used and laws.