The Prosecution Project: Understanding the Changing Criminal Trial Through Digital Tools

Finnane, M; Piper, A

The Prosecution Project: Understanding the Changing Criminal Trial Through Digital Tools

Finnane, M Piper, A

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Publisher:: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Law and History Review, 2016, 34, (4), pp. 873-891
Issue Date:: 2016-11-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Finnane, M
dc.contributor.author	Piper, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9369-5862
dc.date.accessioned	2022-07-14T23:09:58Z
dc.date.available	2022-07-14T23:09:58Z
dc.date.issued	2016-11-01
dc.identifier.citation	Law and History Review, 2016, 34, (4), pp. 873-891
dc.identifier.issn	0738-2480
dc.identifier.issn	1939-9022
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/158931
dc.description.abstract	The Prosecution Project <https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/> is a large-scale digital project that aims to provide a new way of exploring the context and impact of changes in the criminal trial during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It does so from an elementary platform: the digitization of the court calendars of criminal trials in the higher courts in the six main Australian jurisdictions over time periods as long as 130 years. The objective is to address questions of the criminal justice process centered on prosecution, from arrest, committal, and indictment, to verdict, sentence, and beyond. In a field of historical research that is more often characterized by the richness of discursive analysis, the Prosecution Project's comparative data sets are designed to offer a new understanding of quantitative context over long periods of time. The challenge of building the data platform is, however, considerable, requiring significant planning, collaboration and investment by a large number of researchers, working with relevant archive repositories, and, in this case, assisted by the engagement of an interested community lying outside the regular academy. This article describes the background to the project, its development as a collaborative digital initiative, and its technical and organizational requirements and possibilities, before we explore briefly some of the research outcomes that this project makes possible.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
dc.relation.ispartof	Law and History Review
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1017/S0738248016000316
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law, 2103 Historical Studies, 2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields
dc.subject.classification	History of Social Sciences
dc.title	The Prosecution Project: Understanding the Changing Criminal Trial Through Digital Tools
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	34
utslib.for	1801 Law
utslib.for	2103 Historical Studies
utslib.for	2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-07-14T23:09:57Z
pubs.issue	4
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	34
utslib.citation.issue	4

Abstract:

The Prosecution Project is a large-scale digital project that aims to provide a new way of exploring the context and impact of changes in the criminal trial during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It does so from an elementary platform: the digitization of the court calendars of criminal trials in the higher courts in the six main Australian jurisdictions over time periods as long as 130 years. The objective is to address questions of the criminal justice process centered on prosecution, from arrest, committal, and indictment, to verdict, sentence, and beyond. In a field of historical research that is more often characterized by the richness of discursive analysis, the Prosecution Project's comparative data sets are designed to offer a new understanding of quantitative context over long periods of time. The challenge of building the data platform is, however, considerable, requiring significant planning, collaboration and investment by a large number of researchers, working with relevant archive repositories, and, in this case, assisted by the engagement of an interested community lying outside the regular academy. This article describes the background to the project, its development as a collaborative digital initiative, and its technical and organizational requirements and possibilities, before we explore briefly some of the research outcomes that this project makes possible.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/158931