Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1

23 Historical data does not therefore present a sequence of abstract and disjointed events but ‘a series of processes of actions and thoughts’.28 There was a sifting through the wealth of information contained within the archives of the four semipenal institutions; an abstracting and a speculating about implications for the present methods of punishment of criminal women. This process involved exploring the meanings of power and the relationship of events within the semi-penal arenas using primary historical data in the form of historical artefacts, records, reports and writings. Collingwood understands the activity of the historian ‘on the model of the detective, such as Sherlock Holmes, as that of inferring what actually happened from traces left behind’.29 His philosophy of history drew some influence from Voltaire’s proposition that in historical thinking, historians make up their minds for themselves rather than repeating stories in old books.30 By employing Collingwood’s philosophical methodological approach a relationship exists between ‘what the historical agent was thinking and what the agent does which makes his [sic] action to be understandable’.31 Inciardi et al also argue that ‘in order to understand a past human action, the historian must not only discover the thought expressed in it, but must actually rethink or re-enact that thought in history’.32 This method of critical historicism enables an analysis of human affairs and human action because every event that has happened in history was once an action; a result of human affairs. It also addresses historical events in terms of their relation to prevailing social practices and shows how oppressive structures have emerged. As theorised by Collingwood, historical research and historical thinking are ‘always reflection; for reflection is thinking about the act of thinking, and we have seen that all historical thinking is of that kind’.33 Hence, the historical research process is more than a conscious effort; it is a reflective effort; a reflective process. When speaking of the penal history of local state and philanthropic responses to ‘deviant’ women via the 28 Leong, 2012, 128. Kobayashi and Marion, 2011, 92. 30 James Inciardi, Alan A. Block and Lyle A. Hallowell, Historical Approaches to Crime: Research Strategies and Issues (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977). 31 Leong, 2012, 128. 32 Ibid., 128. 33 Collingwood, 1946, 307. 29

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