Medieval historians generally dismiss Scandinavia as an oddity, distinctly un-European in its development, and, as such, incapable of offering insight into broader European trends. Nonetheless, the Sweden that Ekholst describes is conspicuously European. It experienced an all-too-familiar process of state formation, marked by transference of power from local notables who coordinated a judicial system based on individual compensation to centralized justice in which the king acquired a monopoly on punitive violence, and compensation disappeared in favor of the death penalty. Ekholst also highlights how medieval Sweden contrasted with Europe: it had a higher percentage of free, land-owning peasants. Her book establishes how a study of gender in that context can offer powerful insight into broader discussions in medieval history.

Ekholst's work is broken into six chapters. Chapter one sets the foundation for understanding the complexity of Swedish law. Before centralized justice, there existed ten distinct codes of law, with an additional two emerging after unification. Ekholst's mission is, therefore, to understand gender as it was presented in twelve often conflicting, and less than straightforward, codes of law, a task that she accomplishes with great proficiency.

Chapter two addresses property crimes. With so many free, property-owning peasants, the Swedes had a great respect for property and, thus, property crimes were infrequent. Legislation presents the image of an “open and transparent society” (37). An astute man conducted commercial transactions in the presence of witnesses, so that no one could ever accuse him of stealing. Although property crimes were few, “violence was at the core of medieval Swedish society” (78). Chapter three treats assault, a distinctly masculine subject. Women were inappropriate targets of violence: hitting a woman was wrong, unless that woman was your wife; and the purpose was discipline, therefore, you stopped short of inflicting bloody wounds. Men were the perpetrators of violence, but rank mattered: aristocratic men enacted licit violence, peasant men illicit violence. Chapter four tackles lethal violence. Homicide, too, was a man's crime. The revenge system that produced the majority of homicides was a male system: women could not be targets for revenge because they could not take revenge themselves. Murder (i.e., homicide carried out deceitfully) was a woman's crime. So, too, were infanticide and witchcraft.

Chapters five and six focus on sex crimes. Chapter five employs a broad lens, examining fornication, adultery, bestiality and same-sex relations. It is of note that the Swedes defined fornication uniquely. Fornication occurred only when the participants were related within four degrees (hence, incestuously), and if their relations produced a child. Chapter six narrows in on the related crimes of rape and abduction.

Ekholst makes a number of astute observations. She declares that early Swedish law saw women as property. Abduction laws make this association explicit by treating women as “gifts” in a “patriarchal network” (198). Many historians shy away from such a bold statement about women's status, even when this description best characterizes their position. However, Ekholst sees this recognition as fundamental, because of the tension it produced in the process of “individualization” of guilt accompanying the introduction of the death penalty. Although men were once content to be held accountable for their wives' transgressions, not surprisingly, after the introduction of the death penalty, in the year 1350 or thereabouts, they were no longer so willing. Instead, women were held liable for their criminal actions; therefore, in certain contexts, they transitioned from property to individuals with agency.

The implications that Ekholst sees for the existence of two distinct spheres are most fascinating: the public (male space) and the private (female space). In Swedish law, these spheres defined the nature of punishments awarded. The law stipulated public punishments for men's bodies (hanging or breaking on the wheel), whereas women's bodies were punished privately through burial alive or covering with stones. The sole exception was when men performed “unnatural” crimes (witchcraft, bestiality, or sodomy). In these instances, their bodies were feminized and punished accordingly. The public/private divide had larger repercussions. Medieval Swedes conceived of public actions as honest and forthright, private actions as deceitful and alarming. This conception lays the base for the well-known distinction between homicide (public) and murder (private). However, it inevitably condemned women, inhabitants of the private world, to a femininity “linked to the night, secret acts, and deceit” (214).

In terms of weaknesses, only one stands out. A number of minor arguments seem untenable given the assertion that no court records have been preserved for the period (10). Without actual court cases, how can one claim that there was much less theft in Sweden than elsewhere (34), that violent death was more common then than it is now (108), or that some changes in law were simply “abstract legislative changes rather than reflection of actual legal practice” (214)?

Ekholst's comprehensive study of gender and crime in medieval Sweden is a delight to read and a valuable contribution to the study of women and the law.