Crime and its Punishment in Victorian Hong Kong
In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking gave the island of Hong Kong to the British Crown. The new settlement immediately attracted a population of poor Chinese who flocked there in the hope of making a better living than on the mainland. Not surprisingly, crime was rampant on the fringe on the new colonial...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique
2003-09-01
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| Series: | Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/1613 |
| Summary: | In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking gave the island of Hong Kong to the British Crown. The new settlement immediately attracted a population of poor Chinese who flocked there in the hope of making a better living than on the mainland. Not surprisingly, crime was rampant on the fringe on the new colonial city, and offenders had to be tracked down and punished. This paper investigates the nature of the crimes committed in Hong Kong during the Victorian period, the evolving panoply of punishments designed to rein them in, and the way in which both the common law and the colonial governments adapted to fight types of criminal activity they had never met before. |
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| ISSN: | 0248-9015 2429-4373 |