The project involves recording and researching criminal cases in the legal records for the Suður- and Norður-Múlasýsla districts in the 19th century. Systematic features of criminal cases and their resolution will be recorded to enable future research into the types of crimes committed, the social position of guilty parties, divisions by sex, the most common punishments according to sentences, whether there was consistency in sentencing for crimes of the same or comparable type, and how these sources reflect people's struggle to survive.
It will also be possible to research how external pressures such as hard times or natural disasters affect crimes and their nature and whether and how penal law and its application changed during the period. Criminal cases and their resolution in the legal system are important sources that can shed light on social structure and the Zeitgeist, on people's lives and fates, and their social position based on class, status and sex.