Summary Crime and Local Justice in Pre-Industrial Sweden During the last decades legal sources, consisting primarily of judgement books from court hearings and other remnants from legal proceedings, have been used increasingly by historians in different countries. Their goal has varied fromattempts at describing the development of registered crime to analyses of the legal system. Others have avaded themselves of similar sources in order to trace the attitudes and evaluations of past times as a ^^histoirc de la rncntalitc". I have concentrated on local justice and the crimes which were heard at Swedish district and town courts from the beginning of the the 17th century and up until 1840. My aimhas been to create a picture of the work sphere and functions of local justice and how they have changed during the last centuries of pre-industrial Sweden. I have also, however, attempted to convey an impression of the everyday life of ordinary people. The legal systemwas influenced by an economical, a social and a political transition which was not unique for Sweden. Similar changes took place over the whole of Western Europe, which explains why results frominternational research have been of great help in the interpretation of the course of events. A total of approximately 50.000 individual notes have been excerpted and processed with the aid of a computer. These notes have mainly come fromthe town of Linköping and the county district of Gullberg, both situated in the south of Sweden; from the town of Härnösand and the county district of Säbrå in the north of Sweden. Some results are also included from the Göta Gourt of Appeal in the province of Östergötland, which includes Linköping and Gullberg, during specially selected ten-year periods from the micfdle of the 17th century until the beginning of the 19th century. In this summary an outline is given of how the sources reflected changes in the structure of crimes during approximately 200 years. The results are then seen in relation to sc'ime questions which at present are of interest to historians. The Agenda of the Courts Lirst, a look at how the total number of people fined varied over time in the towns compared with the rural areas up to, and including, the end of the 18th century. In both Linköping and Härnösand the average number per year
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