The limitation is ‘serious’ crime, which is to say that prosecuted in the Justiciary Court, the central court with criminal jurisdiction, and reliance is placed on the formal court records.

The meaning of ‘crime’, as understood by seventeenth-century Scots, is discussed and so too are criminality, the causes of crime and the patterns of prosecution then.

The criminality of individuals, even in groups, is considered in the context of Scotland of the time so that the reader is offered a view of crime as a social phenomenon then.

The result is a detailed, systematic and interesting account of criminal behaviour which develops a new perspective to the general understanding of early modern Scotland. The modern lawyer will see in the discussion of the law, and as applied then, the early origins of matters now, or at least practice that link earlier periods to later developments.

The book is undoubtedly an historical inquiry that adds a new perspective to the earlier period of 1660 to 1700, and lawyers are likely to find it no less interesting than historians of crime.

Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland by Allan Kennedy. Published by Edinburgh University Press, 248pp, £90.