Jeannette Kamp’s book investigates the gender patterns of female offending in early modern Frankfurt am Main (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). It studies women’s criminal behaviors as well as the factors that influenced their participation in criminality, while placing its results into a broader European perspective. Building her analysis on a triadic correlation between norms, deviance, and mechanisms of social control, Kamp studies both the informal structures and the formal mechanisms. She argues that the ‘strong authoritarian social control structures’ that were in place in early modern Frankfurt were the critical factor that influenced the patterns of female criminality, therefore distinguishing themselves from others in Northwest Europe (p. 15). To that effect, she investigates quantitatively and qualitatively rich source material, which includes not only various criminal court records but also Konsistorium, poorhouse records, and police ordinances.

After an introduction that situates her study among research on crime and gender, chapter two presents the complex ‘multi-layered legal system’ (p. 32) in place in early modern Frankfurt. She highlights the main role of the Verhöramt as the court dealing with serious crimes and felonies. As for petty fights and lesser offenses, those would be handled by lower urban officials (Oberster Richter), vagrancy by the poorhouse, and ‘immoral’ behaviors by the Konsitorium. The legal frame was based on the Carolina, which means women’s penal responsibility was not diminished, as was the case in Roman law.

Chapter 3 addresses the book’s main argument, namely, the analysis of recorded criminality and the explanation of gender differences between 1600 and 1806. Kamp argues that local and regional variations in the Frankfurtian example show that the urban factor was merely one of several that influenced women’s participation in crime, lending nuance to what was previously assumed. With requisite caution, she first compares her data on Frankfurt with those of sixteen other Northwest European cities and concludes that the gender gap in Frankfurt was quite pronounced. Independence offered by cities such as London or Amsterdam, which attracted significant migration, often occasioned a greater vulnerability and precariousness. As a consequence, lone women were particularly likely to get involved in criminality. Kamp shows that this pattern did not apply to Frankfurt, though, because of the strict control exerted on newcomers, who had to integrate with a household whose head would keep them under surveillance. At the same time, due to this strict regulation, unwed women were unlikely to be allowed to head a household themselves and therefore had to become integrated with another household, de facto limiting their independence.

Central to this chapter is also the discussion of ‘gendered mechanisms in the prosecution practices’ (p. 71). Kamp shows through several examples how these would strongly influence the perception of certain behaviors. Thus, female petty violence was less likely to be considered a threat to public order. If it was reported at all, it would usually be dealt with by the Oberster Richter, whose records were not written and seldom reached the Verhöramt. She concludes that ‘crime patterns of men and women were more similar than they were different’ (p. 72).

Chapter 4 focuses on property crimes and analyzes the social contexts in which they were committed by both men and women. Following G. Walker’s and T. Dean’s findings, Kamp further questions the accepted assumptions that female thefts usually would be less violent, be committed as an accomplice, and would target items of low value related to the household, because of women’s limited participation in public life. Challenging these assumptions, she draws on the concept of the ‘open house’ (J. Eibach), which goes beyond the classical dichotomy between public versus private and male versus female spheres (irrelevant for the early modern period). Indeed, the household assumed a public function that made it a ‘permeable space’. It was central to the enforcement of social order. In particular, its head had the role of disciplining its dependents, by withholding wages, terminating contracts early, or reprimanding, for instance.

Her data leads her to conclude that men’s and women’s property crimes shared more similarities than previously assumed. Gender differences did exist, though, but out of more complex explanations than women’s supposedly domestic lives have suggested so far. Kamp argues that the reason female offenders were more likely to commit domestic theft lay, for example, in their ability to enter a building without appearing suspicious, even as strangers to a household. They were therefore using gendered stereotypes to commit their crimes.

Chapter 5 studies illegitimacy and the ‘uses of justice’ made by unwed mothers before the courts (p. 157). Kamp demonstrates the ‘dual function of marriage courts’ that sought to prosecute and settle conflicts. She identifies an important shift over the period. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the main offense prosecuted was adultery, so as to protect the legitimate household as the main source of social and political order. By the eighteenth century, however, prosecution focused on illegitimacy and reflected the city’s financial concerns in the context of general impoverishment and the rise of illegitimate births. The control was efficient and had severe consequences for women, foremost if they were expelled. Some would then resort to desperate solutions, such as infanticide or child abandonment. Nonetheless, unwed women should not simply be depicted as victims. Although the regulation led them to self-disclosure, most had a financial interest in doing so. Moreover, it was a way to recover partially their honor by showing remorse.

Finally, Chapter 6 focuses on itinerant men and women who were in general the most vulnerable population and therefore the most likely to be prosecuted, in a context of increasing control and criminalization of vagrancy. Kamp investigates the regulation of mobility, which she considers central to the study of female criminality. She shows how gender influenced the labeling of mobility. On the one hand, men were perceived as more dangerous, particularly if they were moving in groups that would be considered ‘gangs’. On the other hand, their professional mobility was accepted and institutionalized. On the contrary, women were less likely to get caught as vagrants, despite being prosecuted for immoral behaviours or extramarital sex. These women were often investigated for prostitution and expelled from the city, even though they were not convicted.

Kamp concludes her stimulating study by stressing two major points. Firstly, she emphasizes the paramount role of the household in its control over delicts committed by its members: not only did women have less opportunity to commit crimes, but they were also made less visible by this informal control. Secondly, she highlights the female agency that was displayed by women who were part of the household disciplining mechanism, which was further exemplified by women who made use of gendered stereotypes to commit their crimes. Strongly based on historiograph, Jeannette Kamp’s important book thus contributes to our better understanding of female criminality.