Crime and Punishment

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

  • Tithings
  • Hue and cry
  • Parish constable
  • Trial by local jury
• Trial by local jury

  1. Accused and victim give their version

  2. Jury decides based on knowledge of people

  3. Jury finds accused guilty or not guilty
• 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 used by the Saxons
• The wergild system was not a fair one as more powerful members of society were protected by higher fines
• Punishments in Saxon England

  • Capital punishments
  • Corporal punishments
  • Public humiliation
• When William the Conqueror took control of England, he brought new ideas about crime and punishment
• Posse Comitatus


  Group of able-bodied men gathered by the sheriff to hunt for a criminal
• Trial by combat


  The accused fought with the accuser until one was killed or unable to fight on, the loser was then hanged
• William and the Normans ended the wergild system, all fines for crimes were paid to the king and no longer the victim's family</b>
• The Normans introduced church courts which were more lenient as there were no capital punishments
• The Norman king Henry II made further changes to crime and punishment laws to increase his personal power
• Changes made by Henry II

  • Introduction of incarceration as a form of punishment
  • Ending of trial by ordeal
  • All cases now had to be settled by a 12 man jury
  • Justices of the peace
• Benefit of the clergy allowed people accused of a crime to be tried in a judge's court where punishments were less severe
• Sanctuary allowed criminals to claim protection in a church for up to 40 days before having to leave the country
• The church ended trial by ordeal in 1215 as it was seen as unreliable
• Factors that changed the nature of crime and criminals 1500-1700

  • Population growth
  • Economic changes
  • Printing
  • Religious turmoil
  • Political turmoil
  • Landowners' attitudes
  • Vagabonds
• The Tudors had different attitudes towards the poor, distinguishing between the deserving and undeserving poor
• Law enforcement 1500-1700


  • Hue and cry
  • Posse Comitatus
  • Parish constables
  • Watchmen and sergeants
  • Rewards
  • Justices of the Peace
  • Manorial courts
  • Quarter sessions
  • County Assizes
• 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
• Justices of the Peace

  1. Handled minor crimes on their own

  2. Met with other JPS in the same County four times a year for quarter sessions

  3. Most serious crimes would be considered at quarter sessions

  4. JPS would have the right to pass the death sentence
• Royal judges


  1. Visited each County twice a year to handle the most serious offenses

  2. These were known as County Assizes
• 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, this was 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
• Between 1645 and 1647 there were 250 cases of witchcraft in East Anglia alone
• Matthew Hopkins


  Employed to catch witches, used torture to get them to confess, victims were often old women
• Witchcraft accusations were a sign of increased tension between the poor and those richer than them, combined with the instability caused by the Reformation and the Civil War
• Britain became the first country to industrialize in the years after 1750, this changed the way people worked and had an effect on society itself
• New or increasingly important crimes

  • Highwayman
  • Poaching
  • Smuggling
  • Unionizing
• Highwayman


  Robbers who targeted travelers in wooded and dark areas near the capital city, using only a cheap pistol and a horse
• Smuggling


  Illegally importing goods such as tea and tobacco to avoid import taxes, estimated 20,000 active smugglers in 1748
• Poaching


  The crime of poaching which described as a social crime had been around for a long time, authorities were not tolerant and the 1723 black Act made hunting deer, hare or rabbits a capital offense
• Law enforcement


  • Passed from ordinary people and volunteers in the local community to a full-time trained and professional police force
• Metropolitan Police Force


  Introduced in 1829, replaced the system of Watchmen and parish constables, composed of 3,200 men who wore a uniform
• After 1829 the police force spread outside of London, by 1856 it was compulsory for all towns and counties to have a police force and they were widely respected by the public
• Transportation


  Convicted criminals were removed from the country by being sent abroad, first to America then later to Australia, seen as a punishment less harsh than hanging