Key topic 3 crime and punishment

• In the 18th century, more goods, including cloth, wine and spirits were taxed, and smuggling activity increased
• Increasingly, smuggling was organised by gangs, which the authorities found hard to deal with
• The Hawkhurst Gang


  Controlled smuggling along much of the south coast from 1735 to 1749
• The leaders, Arthur Gray and Thomas Kingsmill, were caught and hanged in 1748 and 1749 respectively
• Smuggling


  • It was sometimes helped by local communities
  • The upper classes benefited by buying cut-price luxury goods from the smugglers, so would help conceal their activities
  • They were difficult to track down because they often worked at night, and in secluded areas of the coast line
• Smuggling eventually ended because it became less profitable. The Prime Minister William Pitt lowered import duties in the 1780s, and it was reduced again in the 19th century
• Highway robbery


  Attacking and robbing travellers on highways
• Highway robbery became more common in the 18th century for a number of reasons
• Reasons for increase in highway robbery


  • As trade increased there was more needed to move money around, but cheques did not exist and there were very few banks; travellers often carried large amounts of cash
  • The countryside was much less populated than today, so there were many isolated country roads
  • Turnpike trusts improved the road surfaces, and regular stagecoach services were introduced. This meant there were many more people on the roads
• Footpads


  Highway robbers who operated on foot
• Highwaymen


  Highway robbers who travelled on horseback
• 'Black Harry' was a famous highwayman who robbed pack-mule trains in Derbyshire. He was eventually caught and executed at Wardlow Mires
• Highway robber was seen as a serious crime because it was committed on the king's highway, and because it could involve theft of mail bags it disrupted the postal service
• In 1772 the death penalty was introduced for anyone found armed and disguised on a high road
• The crime decreased when mounted patrols started to be used on major roads in the 19th century, and also as the introduction of the banking system meant there was less need for people to carry large sums of cash
• The last reported case of highway robbery was in 1831
• Poaching continued to be widespread, and there was a rise in gangs operating on a large scale
• The 1723 Black Act made poaching a capital offence and also made it illegal to blacken your face (a form of disguise) in a hunting areas
• Carrying snares or owning dogs that were suitable for poaching could be punished with a fine or prison sentence
• The Act was widely resented as being unfair, not least because landowners with land worth over £100 a year were allowed to hunt without restrictions. From 1823 poaching was no longer punished by death
• During the reign of George II, the 1736 Witchcraft Act decriminalised witchcraft
• Those accused were now treated as confidence tricksters, and faced fines and imprisonment rather than death
• The French Revolution in 1789, followed by further popular uprisings in France in 1830, led the British authorities to feel vulnerable and treat those seeking political change as criminals
• In February 1834, in the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, a farm labourer called George Loveless and five others were arrested for 'administering an illegal oath', which was a very old law intended to stop sailors organising mutinies
• The real reason was that they men had formed a 'friendly society' – an early form of trade union designed to protect their wages and help each other
• They were protesting about their low wage of six shillings a week, when the average wage for a farm labourer was ten shillings a week
• They were sentenced to seven years transportation
• Mass protests started to spread in their support. A demonstration in London was attended by 100,000 people, and 200,000 people signed a petition
• The home secretary, Lord Melbourne, refused to accept the petition, and the men were sent to Austrial
• Four years later, however, the government pardoned the Tolpuddle Martyrs and they returned home
• Methods of local law enforcement


  • Parish constables (who dealt with petty criminals)
  • Watchmen (who protected private property)
  • Part-time soldiers (who dealt with riots)
• Some towns started paying salaries to constables and watchmen, which meant they were more experienced and professional, but they were low paid jobs and had low status
• Bow Street Runners


  A crime fighting team established in London in 1748 by the Chief Magistrate, Henry Fielding
• At first the Bow Street Runners charged fees for their services from victims of crime. But by 1785, they were officially paid by the government, making them the first modern detective force
• The success of the Bow Street Runners led to more detective offices being set up in Middlesex and Westminster
• In 1892, England's first professional police force was set up in London by the Metropolitan Police Act
• Features of the new police force


  • Seventeen districts across London each had their own police division with four inspectors and 144 constables
  • Constables patrolled their beats to catch criminals
  • They had blue overcoats and top hats to distinguish from the army
  • The policemen became known as 'bobbies', after the home secretary, Robert Peel
• Outside of London, improvements in policing were slow at first as they were seen as too expensive
• The 1856 Police Act said that all areas had to have a professional police force that was centrally controlled
• In 1869 the first National Crime Records were set up. Telegraph communications meant that different police forces could share information more effectively