The book used legal treatises, contemporary reports of instructive cases, chancery rolls, state papers and court files and rolls to reconstruct the criminal trial in the later medieval and early Tudor periods. There is particular emphasis on the accusation process; the discovery of a veritable revolution in conviction rates between the early 15th and late 16th century; the nature and scope of the most prevalent types of felony in the period; and the startling contrast between the conviction rate and the frequency of actual punishment. The book also analyzes the role of victims, witnesses, evidence, jurors, justices and investigative techniques. Individual sections are devoted to accusation by jury and by appeal; major crimes (murder and manslaughter, larceny, robbery and burglary); trial and the verdict revolution; rape; and less frequent felonies. Notes, appendixes, glossary, references, index