Victorian Criminal Justice System

The criminal trial constitutes a drama performed by its leading actors (legal professionals) plus supporting actors (including spectators). How conscious and strategic are their performances? This article argues that conscious legal performativity is part of a sustained tradition of 'infotainment' with lasting implications for today's real-life courtroom dramas. The adoption of stereotypical conventions operating in the English criminal justice system during the Victorian period was a key aspect of law’s performativity. Characters assumed, or had assigned to them, identities signifying to audiences in and out of the courtroom their status in terms of believability, innocence and culpability. Focusing on crimes of interpersonal and public violence, Victorian newspaper reportage is utilized to demonstrate the impact of coded language and stereotypical representations, radically affecting or distorting an individual's persona.