SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Violet van der Elst launched her campaign against the death penalty in the mid-1930s. She employed direct action tactics outside prisons on execution morning, such as leading the crowd in song and breaking through police cordons. These were not only designed to engage and include the crowd that was present, but also to grab the attention of newspaper readers. Her approach to campaigning made deliberate use of spectacle and, coupled with her direct action techniques, can be understood as a form of post-suffragette militancy. This article explores the influence of the legacy of the suffragette movement on Violet van der Elst's style of penal activism.
Publication Date
2013-01-01
Publication Title
SOLON Law, Crime and History
Volume
3
Issue
3
First Page
25
Last Page
41
ISSN
2045-9238
Deposit Date
April 2017
Embargo Period
2024-10-22
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Seal, Lizzie
(2013)
"Violet Van Der Elst's Use of Spectacle and Militancy in her Campaign Against the Death Penalty in England,"
SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective): Vol. 3:
Iss.
3, Article 5.
Available at:
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/solon/vol3/iss3/5
