History

• In Saxon England, crimes included drinking too much, insulting your neighbor, stealing, murder, and plowing someone else's land
• Punishments in Saxon England

  • Tything
  • No police - every male over 12 expected to join tything
  • Hue and cry - entire village had to join hunt for criminal
  • Parish constable - unpaid local duty to maintain law and order
• Trial by local jury in Saxon England


  1. Accused and victim give their version

  2. Jury decides based on knowledge of people

  3. Jury finds accused guilty if victim more trustworthy
• Trials by ordeal in Saxon England

  • Trial by hot iron
  • Trial by hot water
  • Trial by cold water
  • Trial by blessed bread
• Wergild


  System of fines for different crimes, designed to reduce further violence
• Capital and corporal punishments were used for serious crimes in Saxon England, including execution and mutilation</b>
• When William the Conqueror took control of England, he kept Saxon laws but added new ones written in French, disadvantaging the Saxons
• Posse Comitatus


  Group of able-bodied men gathered by the sheriff to hunt for criminals
• The Normans introduced trial by combat as a new form of trial by ordeal
• The Normans made changes to the wergild system, with all fines now paid to the king rather than the victim's family
• The Normans introduced church courts which were more lenient, with no capital punishments
• The Norman king Henry II made further changes to increase his personal power, including the introduction of travelling justices and the ending of trial by ordeal
• Justices of the Peace were introduced in 1361, with the power to find and arrest those disturbing the peace
• Coroners were appointed to investigate unexpected deaths
• Benefit of clergy allowed those accused of a crime to be tried in the more lenient church courts if they could read a passage from the Bible
• Sanctuary in a church provided protection for 40 days for criminals on the run
• The church ended trial by ordeal in 1215, as it was seen as unreliable
• Factors that changed crime and criminals between 1500-1700 included population growth, economic changes, religious turmoil, political turmoil, and landowners' attitudes towards vagabonds
• Measures used to deal with vagabonds

  • Whipping
  • Slavery
  • Branding
  • Execution
  • Houses of Correction
• Petty crimes such as selling underweight goods and cheating at gambling still existed, as well as more serious crimes like theft, murder, and assault
• Law enforcement methods 1500-1700

  • Hue and cry
  • Posse Comitatus
  • Parish constables
  • Watchmen and sergeants
  • Rewards
  • Justices of the Peace
  • Manorial courts
  • Quarter sessions
  • County Assizes
• t warrant from a magistrate and to arrest the criminal responsible rewards these were offered to anyone who successfully captured a criminal responsible for more serious crimes
• Justices of the Peace

  Set up in the medieval period, became a major part of law enforcement between 1500 and 1700, important local people landowners who judged local or minor court cases
• Justices of the Peace


  • Allowed to find people, put people in the stocks or order them to be whipped
• Courts


  1. Manor courts handled local and minor crimes

  2. Justices of the Peace handled minor crimes on their own and met with other JPS in the same County four times a year for quarter sessions

  3. Royal judges visited each County twice a year to handle the most serious offenses at County Assizes
• JPs would have the right to pass the death sentence
• Benefit of clergy


  By the 1600s many people could read and were able to cheat the benefit of clergy rules so it was gotten rid of
• Habeas corpus


  This Act was passed in 1679, prevented the authorities from locking up a person indefinitely without evidence that they were guilty
• Laws concerning punishment for crimes got a lot stricter, known as the bloody court
• Punishments used


  • Capital punishment (hanging, burning at the stake, beheading)
  • Pillory
  • Fines
  • Whipping
  • Houses of Correction
  • Gaols
  • Carting
  • Dunking stool
  • Transportation
• Capital punishment was still used for major crimes such as murder, treason and arson as well as stealing expensive items
• After 1688 the number of crimes for which capital punishment was used massively increased
• By 1815 there were 225 crimes that could lead to a death sentence, even very minor crimes such as poaching rabbits
• Pillory


  Intended to humiliate the criminal who would have to stand with his hands and neck chopped in a wooden block whilst people throw mud and rotten food at him all day long
• Houses of Correction


  Also known as bridewells, used for criminals, vagabonds, unmarried mothers and repeat offenders, inmates were made to do hard labor
• Gaols


  Used to hold people before their trial, not used as punishment themselves
• Carting


  Involved being paraded around the street and was intended to shame the criminal for a minor crime such as owning a brothel
• Dunking stool


  Punishment for women who argued or disobeyed their husbands, involved dunking them in the local pond
• Transportation


  Criminals were sent thousands of miles away to the American colonies, later to Australia, conditions were close to slavery
• Witch hunt between 1645-1647, 250 cases of witchcraft in East Anglia alone