Crime and punishment

• Crimes against the PERSON


  • Murder
  • Assault
  • Rape
• Crimes against PROPERTY

  • Arson
  • Theft
  • Counterfeiting coins
• Crimes against AUTHORITY


  • Treason
  • Rebellion
• NEW CRIMES IN NORMAN ENGLAND c1000-c1500

  • Forest Laws: 30% of England became 'Royal Forest. Village communities evicted. Only people who paid for hunting rights were allowed to hunt
• Importance of the community

  • Most of the population were Saxons living in villages
  • Local communities were expected to take collective responsibility
  • Each area had a reeve to carry out decisions of the court
• Tithing


  Every man over the age of 12 belonged to a group of ten, responsible for each other
• Hue and cry


  All villagers were expected to hunt down suspect and deliver them to justice
• Murdrum fine

  If a Saxon murdered a Norman and the culprit was not caught, a large sum had to be paid by the hundred (area of land) where the body was found
• Influences on crime


  • Anglo-Saxon Kings issuing codes of law, laws becoming unified
  • After 1066 the authority of the king grew - William I added new laws (Forest Laws & Murdrum)
  • Henry II became king in 1154-standard laws written down for the first time
  • Crime of heresy in 13th & 14th centuries, punished by burning
  • Statute of Labourers during Black Death, illegal to move area and look for better paid work
• Saxon Justice


  • Relied on religion-people taking oaths
  • Trial by ordeal-using hot iron, hot water or cold water. God would intervene in the case of innocence
  • The Normans maintained this system, added Trial by Combat
• Church courts


  • Dealt with moral crimes-failure to attend church, drunkenness, adultery and playing football on a Sunday
  • Benefit of clergy-clergy could be tried in church courts and receive a lesser sentence
• Shift in Middle Ages

  • Away from local communities-government appointed officials
  • Townspeople still expected to play their part too
  • Henry II appointed Justices in Eyre to hear serious cases
  • Richard I introduced coroners to deal with suspicious deaths
  • Edward I appointed Justices of the Peace, shows shift from local communities to centre
• Fines


  • Paid to the victim's family
  • Compensation for loss of life
• Wergild (man price)


  • Intended to reduce blood feuds
  • Fines were decided by the class of the victim
• Punishments C1000-C1500


  • Capital punishment-form of retribution and used as a deterrent
  • Treason and arson-punished by execution, usually hanging
  • Lesser crimes-corporal punishment used
  • Mutilation designed to stop other committing similar crimes
  • Stocks and pillory-physical pain and also humiliation
• Norman changes


  • Ending of wergild
  • Increase in use of death penalty and mutilation: Forest Laws
• Middle Ages changes


  • New punishment for high treason- hanged, drawn and quartered. Deterrent to others who might challenge the power of the King
• Definition of crime (Early modern England C1500-C1700)

  • Increase in population and decline of feudalism led to higher unemployment -> increase in street criminals and petty thieves
  • End of feudalism and enclosure of land increase in poaching and crime against property
  • Change in religious belief increase in crime against authority, heresy & high treason
  • Religious change led to increase of rebellions and plots against the monarch
• Vagabondage


  • Fear of vagabonds-belief they were criminals (rogue, doxy), inability to distinguish deserving poor from the able bodied; belief they were lazy, fear of social disorder-gangs and own language
  • Increasing problem due to falling wages, rising food prices, increasing population. No system for help after close of monasteries
• Vagrancy Act (1547)


  Able bodied vagrants not working for 3 days-branded with a V and sold as a slave for two years
• Act for Relief of Poor (1597)


  Harsh-whipping and burning the ear using a hot iron
• 1601 Poor Laws


  • Distinguish between deserving poor and undeserving poor
  • Parish supposed to provide poor relief
• Smuggling


  Import tax on certain goods introduced in 17th century
• Moral Laws of Puritans

  • Sport after church on Sunday-banned
  • Communities gathering for food and drinks-including 'church ales'-banned
  • Families feasting on Christmas Day-banned
• Hue and cry

  Community expected to turn out if alarm raised
• Watchmen


  Carried lamp, rang bell to alert, male householders expected to volunteer, patrol 10pm-dawn. Arrest drunks and vagabonds
• Town Constables


  Employed by town authorities, respected by community, power to arrest, in charge of watchmen. Dealt with everyday matters-begging without a license
• Professional thief takers


  • Paid a reward for catching a criminal and delivering them to the law
  • Could be open to corruption e.g. Jonathan Wild
• Bow Street Runners set up by Henry Fielding in 1748
• Highway Robbery

  • Increased due to increased trade and need to move goods and money around, growing towns and more deserted roads, improved roads and more regular stagecoach services
  • Treated as a serious crime as it disrupted travel, committed on king's highway, could disrupt the postal service
  • Death penalty introduced for anyone armed and in disguise on a high road
  • Decline due to mounted patrols and growth of banking system
• Poaching


  • Rise in gangs
  • Black Act introduced death penalty for blackened face in a hunting area and carrying snares
  • Resented by many, Black Act repealed during reforms by Robert Peel
• Tolpuddle Martyrs


  • Group of farm labourers accused of "administering an illegal oath" for swearing an oath to help each other
  • Sentenced to 7 years transportation
  • Public outcry, eventually pardoned
• Gunpowder Plot (1605)


  1. Catholic conspirators including Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy

  2. Aim: create explosion to kill the king and those close to him at state opening of parliament 5 Nov 1605

  3. Replace James with his daughter Elizabeth-the plotters would control her

  4. Rent cellar under House of Lords and pack it with 36 barrels of gunpowder

  5. Lord Monteagle received a letter warning him-he told Cecil (King's spymaster)

  6. Guy Fawkes tortured and found guilty

  7. Sentenced to death-hanged, drawn and quartered

  8. Deterrent to other Catholics
• An act to commemorate the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot each year
• Restrictions on Catholics-voting, becoming MPs or owning land after the Gunpowder Plot
• Witch-hunts 1645-47


  Reasons: Uncertain times, religious unrest, social and village tensions, individuals like James I and Matthew Hopkins
• Henry VIII makes witchcraft punishable by death
• James I-Death penalty to anyone summoning evil spirits
• George II-witches seen as confidence tricksters-fines
• Smuggling


  • More goods were taxed from the 18th century (cloth, wine, spirits)-smuggling increased
  • Gangs emerged-Hawkhurst Gang
  • Smuggling was a social crime, upper class benefited from cheap goods, local people employed by smugglers
  • Miles of unmanned coastline made it difficult to catch