Crime and punishment

A policeman feels the full force of a blast in this illustration – from the 7 June 1884 issue of 'The Illustrated Police News' – depicting a Fenian attack on Scotland Yard. The Fenians' dynamite campaign of the early 1880s provoked a radical response from the British government. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Victorian war on terror

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Video: Tracy Borman on the Witches of Belvoir

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Beaumaris Gaol, Anglesey, Wales. The prison could accommodate up to 30 inmates under the so-called 'silent system', in which inmates slept in separate cells at night but worked and attended chapels and classes together during the day. (Ashley Cooper via Getty Images)

History Explorer: 19th-century prison reform . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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‘Britain needs police museum’ says crime historian

Woodcut Of A English Witch Hanging

Witches in the dock: 10 of Britain’s most infamous witch trials

The three Kenyans who were tortured by British forces in the 1950s are joined by supporters at a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice. (BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

History on trial

The

A big day in history: a royal icon is stabbed through the heart

Hans Litten (centre) in court while representing communists, 25 August 1932. Litten’s decision to subpoena Hitler a year earlier was to cost him his life. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Second World War

Hitler in the dock

A 17th chart or map shows reefs and hazards to ships.

The notorious Captain Kidd

Aftermath of a smash-and-grab raid at a shop in London, c1929. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Ruby Sparks: the smash-and-grab gangster

Gold Mining At Mount Alexander

General History

Convicts and colonisers: the early history of Australia

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Rebellion and terrorism . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The seal matrix of Robert fitz Walter, who was outlawed in 1213, charged with plotting King John's death. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

The Library Medieval outlaws: the real Robin Hoods

‘Smugglers', c1785, from ‘Adventures by sea from art of old time’ by Basil Lubbock. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Smugglers and the birth of Britain’s consumer society

Allan Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton: The eye that never slept