Legal History Law

Law and Justice in Song: Murder Ballads and Popular Music

By Daniel Newman
New Arrival Routledge March 2026

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781032964836
Publisher
Routledge
Publication
March 2026
Format
Hardback
Jurisdiction
U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

This book examines the murder ballad form, songs about death and killing, from a legal history perspective. It is held that taking on the long history of the murder ballad is a way that we can understand how death and killing in song has a function in dealing with the world around us. The book integrates law and humanities scholarship with diverse musical case studies to construct a typology of murder ballads and thus conceptualise the central messages of how murder ballads have treated death and killing. Drawing on a cultural form in which assessment and consideration of death and killing are so vigorously and richly enacted gives lawyers a guide to how those who do not see these matters through a primarily legal lens might understand this part of their world.

The study will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Criminal Law, Legal History, Socio-Legal Studies, Criminology and Musicology.

Table of Contents

1. Death, Killing and Murder Ballads
2. Investigating Murder Ballads
3. Morality
4.Vehicles for Bigotry
5. Means of Resisting Equality
6.Tribute and Memorial
7. Shock Value
8. Gallows Humour
9. Image Management
10. Faith
11. The Legacy of Criminality in Music
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