Cases of sexual assault can be an ugly area of criminal history to research. However, set aside the minutiae of who did what to whom, and a wealth of social history details can be discovered among the criminal case files.
The high court of justiciary criminal records are kept at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. This is Scotland’s supreme criminal court, where the most serious cases are tried. In terms of sexual crimes, this means prosecutions for incest, rape and lewd and libidinous practices.
It takes a patient eye and a strong stomach to read the details of these case papers in search of the lived experience of our ancestors. Social history details are usually found in the precognitions, lengthy statements made by victims and their witnesses and supporters to precognoscers – those charged with taking witness and victim testimonies. Among the salacious details described by those involved in these crimes are snapshots of everyday life: sleeping arrangements, work patterns, leisure activities and street life covering all of Scotland from the industrial south-west to rural populations in the highlands and north-east.
The problem of overcrowding
Contemporary explanations for late 19th- and early 20th-century incest tended to place the blame for familial abuse on overcrowding
