History- crime and punishment

• Medieval punishments


  Retribution, deterrence, and to keep people safe
• Types of medieval punishment

  • Fires
  • Stocks
  • Deviation
  • Maning
  • Pagging
  • Corporat
  • Munging
  • Beheading
• Changes in types of medieval punishment

  1. Anglo-Saxon: Fines and compensation were most common, corporal punishments were also fairly common but capital punishment was rarely used

  2. Norman: Use of capital and corporal punishments rose dramatically, more offences became capital crimes, Wergild system ended

  3. Later medieval: Use of capital punishment gradually decreased, corporal punishments were still widely used, fines became more common
• The Church influenced punishment during both the Anglo-Saxon and later Middle Ages. It wanted the aim of punishment to involve reforming the criminal
• Social status and punishment

  Medieval punishments varied depending on class and gender - commoners were treated differently from nobles, women differently from men and priests differently from ordinary people
• Examples of social status and punishment


  • Amount of Wergild payable in Anglo-Saxon times depended on the victim's social status
  • During the later medieval period, commoners were usually hanged for murder while nobles were usually beheaded
• Norman punishments


  Harsh punishments carried out in public were seen by the Normans as the best way to make people behave
• Capital punishment


  Killing the criminal
• Corporal punishment


  Physically hurting the criminal
• Retribution


  Making a criminal suffer for the crime committed
• Deterrence


  Trying to prevent others or the criminal from carrying out crime
• Benefit of clergy allowed people to be tried in Church courts which had more lenient punishments, illustrating how the justice system was not equal
• Sanctuary offered protection from the law to those who sought refuge in certain churches
• Trial by ordeal


  1. Trial by hot water or iron

  2. Trial by water

  3. Trial by consecrated bread (for priests only)
• In 1215, the pope ordered priests to stop administering trial by ordeal and they quickly ended
• Ways Church courts were used in the 13th century

  • Trying people accused of moral crimes, such as sex outside marriage, and not following Church rites
  • Trying members of the clergy for all crimes
• Increase in population and decline of feudalism led to higher unemployment, which meant more people moved to urban areas in search of work, so towns and cities grew
• The end of feudalism and new farming methods led to enclosure of land (fencing it off for the exclusive use of the landowner)
• Early modern England was ruled by the Tudors and then the Stuarts. It was a time of religious change and many rebellions and plots against the monarch, both of which led to an increase in crimes against authority - heresy and treason
• Heresy first became a crime in 1382. As both the Church and monarch felt threatened by different beliefs, heresy was classed as a crime against authority and therefore usually punished by being burned to death at the stake
• Treason became more common in this period because there were more disputes about who should rule
• Treason


  The crime of plotting or acting to overthrow or harm the ruler or country
• Heresy


  The crime of having religious beliefs that were different to the official religion of the country
• Vagabondage or vagrancy - unemployed, homeless people - increased due to the increasing population, falling wages, rising food prices and no system to help the needy (especially after the closure of the monasteries in 1536)
• Vagabondage laws


  1. 1547 Vagrancy Act - the able bodied without work for more then three days were branded with the letter V and sold as a slave for two years

  2. 1601 Poor Laws - the deserving poor were given poor relief by the local parish, the undeserving could be branded, whipped or sent to a correction house
• When import tax on certain goods, including brandy and tea, was introduced in the 17th century, the crime of smuggling increased dramatically
• Witchcraft had been a minor crime in medieval times that was dealt with by Church courts. During the early modern period, new laws against witchcraft were passed, making it a very serious offence because people saw it as harmful and most were very afraid of it
• Changes in law enforcement

  1. People were expected to raise and join the hue and cry to catch criminals when a crime took place

  2. Town constables had the power to arrest suspects and take them to the Justice of the Peace, and helped with town administration

  3. Watchmen patrolled the streets between 10pm and dawn, carrying a lamp and ringing a bell to alert people
• The early modern period saw the justice system become far more secular as the Church itself became less powerful in society
• Benefit of clergy and sanctuary were abolished, reducing the Church's role in the justice system
• Continuity and change in punishment

  • Fires, pillory or stocks, flogging or maiming, and hanging continued to be used
  • Burning was used only as a punishment for heresy
• The Bloody Code


  In the 17th century the number of crimes punishable by death increased dramatically, with the aim of frightening people so they wouldn't commit crimes
• Punishment: transportation


  Criminals were sentenced to either seven or 14 years and were then released but most could not afford to return to England
• Fires


  • Used to punish minor crimes
• Pillory or stocks, flogging or maiming


  • Forms of corporal punishment continued for crimes such as begging, drunkenness and vagrancy
• Hanging


  • Capital punishment was still commonly used for crimes such as theft, murder, poaching, witchcraft and smuggling
• Burning


  • Used only as a punishment for heresy
• Retribution and deterrence


  Main purpose of punishments at this time
• Aim of the Bloody Code


  To frighten people so they wouldn't commit crime
• Purposes of punishment for crimes during the early modern period