Public executions

• Traditionally executions had been public to act as a deterrent.
• However, increasingly executions carried a carnival atmosphere, with some employers allowing workers time off to attend.
• The authorities became concerned that the crowds were often drunk and disorderly, and that the large crowds created opportunity for further crime like pickpocketing and prostitution.
• Some reformers also argued that those condemned to death should be allowed more dignity. This was part of a school of thought called humanitarianism.
• Public executions were stopped in 1868.