1 The regular meetings of the Arbeitskreis Historischer Kriminalitätsforschung in der Vormoderne offer interesting paper presentations and discussion groups. As to the existent literature, the following is only a cross-section of relevant books and articles: Buchholz, Werner, ‘Anfänge der Sozialdisziplinierung im Mittelalter. Die Reichsstadt Nürnberg als Beispiel’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 18 (1991), 129–147Google Scholar; Boes, Maria R., ‘Women and the penal system in Frankfurt am Main, 1562–1696’, in Criminal Justice History. An International Annual, Vol. 13 (Westport, Conn., 1992), 61–73Google Scholar; Carsten, Küther, Menschen auf der Strasse. Vagierende Unterschichten in Bayern, Franken und Schwaben in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1983)Google Scholar; Dander, Uwe, Räuberbanden im Alten Reich um 1700. Ein Beitraq zur Geschichte von Herrschaft und Kriminalität in der frühen Neuzeit, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1988)Google Scholar; van Dülmen, Richard, Theater des Schreckens. Gerichtspraxis und Strafrituale in der frühen Neuzeit (Munich, 1985)Google Scholar; van Dülmen, Richard ed., Verbrechen, Strafen und soziale Kontrolle. Studien zur historischen Kulturforschung III (Frankfurt am Main, 1990)Google Scholar; Evans, Richard J. ed., The German underworld: deviants and outcasts in German history (London, 1988)Google Scholar; Feucht, Dieter ed., Verbrechen, Strafen und soziale Kontrolle (Frankfurt am Main, 1990)Google Scholar; Reif, H. ed., Räuber, Volk und Obriqkeit. Studien zur Geschichte der Kriminalität in Deutschland seit dem 18. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main, 1984)Google Scholar; Roeck, Bernd, Aussenseiter, Randgruppen, Minderheiten: Fremde im Deutschland der frühen Neuzeit (Göttingen, 1993)Google Scholar; Schulte, Regina, The village in court: arson, infanticide and poaching in the court records of Upper Bavaria, 1848–1910, trans. Selman, Barrie (Cambridge, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schwerhoff, Gerhard, Köln im Kreuzverhör: Kriminalität, Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in einer frühneuzeitlichen Stadt (Bonn/Berlin, 1991)Google Scholar; Wegert, Kerl H., Popular culture, crime and social control in eighteenth-century Württemberg (Stuttgart, 1994)Google Scholar; Wunder, Heide, ‘Er ist die Sonn', sie ist der Mond’, Frauen in der Frühen Neuzeit (Munich, 1992).Google Scholar

2 See Behringer, Wolfgang, ‘Kinderhexenprozesse. Zur Rolle von Kindern in der Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 16 (1989), 31–47Google Scholar; Robisheaux, Thomas, ‘Peasants and pastors: rural youth control and the Reformation in Hohenlohe, 1540–1680’, Social History 6 (1981), 281–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gestrich, Andreas, ‘Protestant religion, the state, and the suppression of traditional youth culture in southwest Germany’, History of European Ideas 11 (1989), 629–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simon-Muscheid, Katharine, ‘Gewalt und Ehre im spätmittelalterlichen Handwerk am Beispiel Basel’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 18 (1991), 1–29.Google ScholarFor comparative aspects, see Gillis, John, ‘The evolution of juvenile delinquency in England 1890–1914’, Past and Present 67 (1975), 96–126CrossRefGoogle Scholar; a more recent study by King, Peter and Noel, Joan, ‘The origins of “the problem of juvenile delinquency”: the growth of juvenile prosecutions in London in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries’, in Criminal Justice History, an International Annual, Vol. 14 (Westport, Conn., 1993), 17–41Google Scholar; and Weinberger, Barbara, ‘Policing juveniles: delinquency in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Manchester’, in Criminal Justice History, an International Annual, Vol. 14 (Westport, Conn., 1993).Google ScholarFor France, see Oates, Caroline, ‘The trial of a teenage werewolf, Bordeaux, 1603’, in Criminal Justice History, an International Annual, Vol. 9 (London, 1988), 1–29.Google ScholarFor general studies on juveniles and children in early modern Germany, see Mitterauer, Michael, Sozialgeschichte der Jugend (Frankfurt am Main, 1986)Google Scholar; Ozment, Steven ed., Three Behaim boys: growing up in early modern Germany: a chronicle of their lives (New Haven, 1990)Google Scholar; Nischke, August, ‘Die Stellung des Kindes in der Familie im Spätmittelalter und in der Renaissance’, in Haverkamp, Alfred ed., Haus und Familie in der spätmittelalterlichen Stadt, Städteforschung, Series A (Cologne, 1984), 215–43Google Scholar; Ulbricht, Otto, ‘Der Einstellungswandel zur Kindheit in Deutschland am Ende des späten Mittelalters (ca. 1470 bis ca. 1520)’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung (1992), 159–87.Google Scholar

3 The Strafenbuch, located at the Municipal Archives of Frankfurt am Main, details the personal characteristics of the culprits, descriptions of their offences, and the presentation of the punishments, in most cases accompanied by drawings. It was the local Rathschreiber, the municipal clerk of the City Council, who diligently registered the pertinent criminal information. The Strafenbuch is hereafter listed in the abbreviated form ST.

4 The Rathsprotokolle, also located at Frankfurt's Municipal Archives, hereafter listed as RP, exist for the time period of 1562 to 1689, save for the years 1626 and 1628. The Bürgermeisterbücher, hereafter referred to as Bb, cover the entire period from 1562 to 1696, except for the years 1626 and 1628. Generally, the Rathsprotokolle and the Bürgermeisterbücher register all daily transactions conducted by Frankfurt's City Council in its capacity as the governmental and administrative centre of Frankfurt am Main. In addition, since Frankfurt, as a free imperial city, had jurisdictional autonomy, all deliberations, such as the various procedural aspects, were also registered in the Rathsprotokolle and the Bürgermeisterbücher.

5 There exists an abundance of legislative sources in Frankfurt's Municipal Archives but, unfortunately, they are not codified. The sheer volume seems to have prevented the creation of any compact edition of Frankfurt's laws. The most significant series of local laws is contained in the revised local law codes called Reformation, from the years 1578 and 1611. In addition, the Corpus Legum Francofurtensium and the Sammlung der Verordnungen der Reichsstadt Frankfurt are good legal sources. The Rathsprotokolle also include many municipal edicts.

6 Schmidt, Eberhard, Einführung in die Geschichte der deutschen Strafrechtspftege (3rd edn; Göttingen, 1965), 195.Google Scholar

7 Beyerbach, Johann Con. ed., Sammlung der Verodnungen der Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Mayn, 6 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1798), Vol. 1, 553–5.Google Scholar

8 Going, Helmut, Die Frankfurter Reformation von 1578 und das gemeine Recht ihrer Zeit (Weimar, 1935), 8, 12.Google Scholar

9 Bb, 10 03, 1562, p. 162.Google Scholar

10 RP, 16 11, 1563, p. 42.Google Scholar

11 In order to avoid preconceived notions of historical trends, the 134-year span discussed in this article has been divided into equal periods of 33 years, with the exception of the last period which consists of 35 years.

12 Bücher, Karl, ‘Die soziale Gliederung der Frankfurter Bevölkerung im Mittelalter’, Berichte des Freien Deutschen Hochstiffs NF 3 (1887), 55.Google Scholar

13 Ennen, Edith, Frauen im Mittelalter (3rd edn; Munich, 1987), 236.Google Scholar See also Howell, Martha, Women, production and patriarchy in late medieval cities (Chicago, 1986), 12, 14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 ST, 16 06, 1621Google Scholar; ST, 20 04, 1626Google Scholar; ST, 28 03, 1643Google Scholar; ST, 11 11, 1645.Google Scholar

15 Kriegk, G. L., Deutsches Bürgertum im Mittelalter mil besonderer Beziehung auf Frankfurt, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1868), Vol. 2, 57.Google Scholar

16 Kriegk, G. L., Frankfurter Bürgerzwiste und Zustände im Mittelalter, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1862), Vol. 1, 458.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., Vol. 2, 43.

18 Ibid., Vol. 2, 350; Moritz, Werner, Die bürgerlichen Fürsorgeanstalten der Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Main im späten Mittelalter (Frankfurt am Main, 1981), 59.Google Scholar

19 Des Heil Römischen Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Mayn neulich aufgerichtete Armen-Waysen und Arbeit-Haus ordnungen und Gesetze (Frankfurt am Main, 1681), 2.Google Scholar

20 Elias, Norbert, The civilizing process, trans. Jepscott, Edmund (New York, 1978)Google Scholar; Huizinga, J., The waning of the middle ages (London, 1963), 11.Google Scholar

21 Bothe, Friedrich, Geschichte der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt am Main, 1913), 393.Google Scholar

22 Stone, Lawrence, The family, sex and marriage in England (New York, 1977), 163.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 171.

24 Erikson, Erik H., Young man Luther (New York, 1962)Google Scholar; Marvick, Elizabeth W., Louis XIII: the making of a king (New Haven, 1986), 45, 46, 85.Google Scholar

25 Rau, Ferdinand, Beiträge zum Kriminalrecht der Freien Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Main im Mittelalter bis 1532 (Potsdam, 1916), 170.Google Scholar

26 These 5 female juvenile delinquents are included in the total of women criminals in Table 2.

27 ST, 6 11, 1574.Google Scholar

28 ST, 7 09 1566.Google Scholar

29 ST, 19 05, 1565Google Scholar; ST, 20 10, 1598Google Scholar; ST, 15 02 1600Google Scholar; ST, 14 10, 1615.Google Scholar

30 ST, 16 06, 1656.Google Scholar

31 ST, 2 06, 1565.Google Scholar

32 ST, 19 04, 1586Google Scholar; ST, 26 04, 1626.Google Scholar

33 Meyn, Mathias, Die Reichsstadt Frankfurt vor dem Bürgeraufstand von 1612 bis 1614: Struktur und Krise (Frankfurt am Main, 1980), 256.Google Scholar

34 Kracauer, I., Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt am Main, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1925), Vol. 1, 391.Google Scholar

35 ST, 22 11, 1604Google Scholar; ST, 31 12, 1623Google Scholar; ST, 23 10, 1589.Google Scholar

36 ST, 19 11, 1563.Google Scholar

37 RP, 2 12, 1613, pp. 61, 62.Google Scholar

38 ST, 27 02, 1613Google Scholar; ST, 14 10, 1615Google Scholar; ST, 27 11, 1645.Google Scholar

39 ST, 17 05, 1661.Google Scholar

40 Bb, 19 05, 1590, p. 12.Google Scholar

41 ST, 28 08, 1607.Google Scholar

42 ST, 1 10, 1618.Google Scholar

43 Rau, , Beiträge, 81.Google Scholar

44 ST, 15 04, 1562.Google Scholar

45 Bb, 26 08, 1591, p. 66Google Scholar.

46 ST, 19 04, 1593.Google Scholar

47 See my paper ‘Public appearance and criminal judicial practices in early modern Germany’, presented during the seventeenth annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago, 8 Nov., 1992, and forthcoming in Social Science History.

48 ST, 25 03, 1641Google Scholar; ST, 19 12, 1685Google Scholar; and Bb, 17 12, 1685, p. 103.Google Scholar

49 ST, 16 06, 1656.Google Scholar

50 ST, 7 03, 1694.Google Scholar

51 ST, 19 10, 1695.Google Scholar

52 ST, 18 05, 1584Google Scholar; ST, 29 12, 1585.Google Scholar

53 Especially van Dülmen, Richard, Theater des Schreckens (Munich, 1985), 179.Google Scholar

54 ST, 2 07, 1573Google Scholar; ST, 7 02, 1584Google Scholar; ST, 19 12, 1685Google Scholar; ST, 4 05, 1616Google Scholar; ST, 10 10, 1618.Google Scholar

55 Of special interest are the comments made by Herrup, Cynthia B. in her ‘Law and morality in seventeenth-century England’, Past and Present 106 (1985), 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Ariès, Philippe, Centuries of childhood, trans. Baldick, Robert (New York, 1962), 329.Google Scholar

57 Provided they were not married, in which case they might be treated as adults, although the criminal documents consulted for this project do not disclose any pertinent reference to this.

58 Spierenburg, Pieter, The spectacle of suffering (Cambridge, 1984), 158–64.Google Scholar

59 Bongert, Yvonne, ‘Délinquence juvénile et responsabilité pénale du mineur au XVIIIe siécle’, in Abbiateci, A. et al. , Crimes et criminalité en France sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 1971), 49–90.Google Scholar

60 ST, 31 12, 1623.Google Scholar

61 ST, 19 01, 1659.Google Scholar

62 ST, 9 12, 1614.Google Scholar

63 Boes, Maria R., ‘Women and the penal system in Frankfurt am Main, 1562–1696’, in Criminal Justice History, an International Annual, Vol. 13 (Westport, Conn., 1992).Google Scholar