Crime and punishment GCSE Edexcel history

• 100000 people starved to death due to the destruction of farmland and animals on William 1 orders in the areas that had seen rebellions
• Around the year 1000 most people lived in small hamlets or in villages or on farms and a few small burhs (towns)
• anglo Saxon law enforcement courts


  royal courts were national courts that dealt with the most serious crimes

  shire courts dealt with lesser crimes

  hundred courts dealt with petty crimes
• Norman law enforcement change 


  Use of ‘foresters’ to police the royal forests and enforce forest laws
• Parish constables 


  Local people nominated by the community

  unpaid position but they mostly did a good job

  they held their post for a year
• Later medieval law enforcement change in role of local communities

  Trial by ordeal and combat abolished in 1215

  from 1250s parish constables led the chase for the criminal after the hue and cry was given
• Role of government appointed officials in later medieval England changes

  • Knights were appointed by Richard 1 as keepers of the peace from 1195. In 1327 Edward 2 extended this system to all areas
  • Justices of the peace act in 1361 ment the role of the keepers of the peace changed to Justice of the peace they had the power to hear minor crimes in small courts four times a year and were appointed by the monarch and were mostly lords
  • the role of the sheriff expanded he was now expected to track down criminals if the hue and cry hadn’t worked from 1285 he was allowed to form a posse to help him
• Medieval punishments Anglo Saxon 


  Fines and compensation

  saxon wergild - paying compensation to victims of crime

  corporal punishments were common but capital was hardly used
• the amount of Wergild payable in Anglo saxon times depended on the victims social status
• Changes in society in early Modern England 1500-1700


  1. Increase in population

  2. Decline of feudalism

  3. Higher unemployment

  4. More people moved to urban areas

  5. Towns and cities grew
• Increase in population and decline of feudalism


  Led to higher unemployment and more people moved to urban areas
• Towns and cities grew

  Led to more crimes against the person with the increase of street criminals and petty thieves
• End of feudalism and new farming methods

  Enclosure of land (fencing land off for the exclusive use for landowners)
• Enclosure of land


  Led to more crimes against property for example poaching
• Changes in peoples beliefs and the religion of the monarch


  Led to more crimes against authority as more people commuted heresy and treason
• Heresy charges were more common in early modern England because the official religion of the country kept changing from catholic to Protestant
• 1509-47 Henry VIII executed Protestants in his reign for heresy and catholics for treason if they wouldn’t except him as head of the church after 1534
• 1553-58


  Mary 1 executed leaders of plots to replace her and almost 300 Protestants for heresy
• 1547 vagrancy act


  Able bodied without work were branded with the letter v and sold as a slave for two years
• 1494 beggars act


  Vagabond put in stocks for three days and nights then sent back to where they came from
• 1597 Act for the relief of the poor


  Split vagrants into two categories ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’
• Deserving poor given poor relief by local parish whilst undeserving could be whipped branded or sent to a correction house

  1601 Poor laws
• Smuggling in early modern england


  Where people bring goods into the country secretly to avoid paying import tax which had been introduced in the 17th century

  it was seen as a social crime
• Significance of derek bentley case

  • Highlighted vast differences in punishment for murder as some were hanged and others were given prison sentences
  • system of home secretary reprieving murderers from hanging was a lottery
  • increased number of people who were critical of the death penalty as a fair and just punishment
• Conscription is a law stating anyone who is asked to and is fit and healthy has to fight in the armed forces . Whoever doesn’t is committing a crime
• CO treatment by authorities in ww1

  • conscription for men : 1916
  • a clause in law excused COs
  • 16,000 men refused to fight
  • Military tribunals set up to decide if COs were genuine 400 given exemption on grounds of conscience
  • ‘alternativists’ given non combat roles
  • ’absolutists’ imprisoned and given hard labour and brutal treatment . 10 died in prison 63 died after release and 31 had breakdowns
• CO treatment by authorities in WW2

  • conscription: April 1939 for men December 1941 for women
  • a clause in law excused COs
  • 59,000 men and women refused to fight
  • tribunals (excluding military people) judged in CO was genuine
  • partial exemption given non combat roles
  • smaller percentage of those not given exemption were sent to prison but not treated as harshly
• Treatment of COs in general public

  • seen as cowards and traitors
  • shouted at on streets and physically abused
  • found it hard to find work or were dismissed form their job
  • WW1 ‘order of the white feather’ encouraged woman to hand out white feather symbolising cowardice to young men COs
  • families risked being shunned by former friends
• The press was less harsh and there were fewer organised campaigns against COs in WW2
• Abolition of death penalty in 1998

  1900-present

  • Ideas about punishment continued to change as reform and paying back society were considered more important
  • controversial cases in 1950s e.g Ruth Ellis , Derek Bentley , Timothy Evans led people to question its use
• Prison in 1900-present

  • open prisons where prisoners are not locked up in cells
  • high security prisons where prisoners are kept away from other inmates for most of the day
  • since 1907 prisoners have been released on probation they are watched by probation officers and are put back in prison if they reoffend
  • 1948 hard labour and corporal punishment in prisons abolished
  • borstals set up in 1900s to use work and education to try and reduce re-offending rates
• New punishments in 1900-present

  • community sentences e.g working on community projects
  • Antisocial behaviour orders
  • electronic tagging
• Special police units in modern Britain

  • National crime agency : seeks to detect and prevent serious organised crimes
  • economic crime unit : investigates large scale fraud and requires officers to have special understanding of economic systems
  • police central e-crime unit : tackles serious types of cyber crime and raises awareness on e safety
  • special branch : local force has a special branch that prevents all forms of terrorism
• From 1982 Neighbourhood watch groups used volunteers to help prevent and detect crime in the neighbourhood to increase vigilance and education to prevent crime as well as reducing the fear of crime
• prevention 1900- present

  Police community support officers were introduced in 2002 to prevent crime in their communities by working with schools and community groups to educate people to protect themselves and their property as well as playing a major role in the governments prevent programme which challenges extremism and radicalisation
• Science and technology for preventing discovering and prosecuting crime in 1900-present

  • radios
  • DNA evidence
  • CCTV
  • Computers
  • cars motorbikes and helicopters
  • finger printing
• New laws for new crimes 1900-present

  • 1967 abortion act (decriminalising)
  • 1967 sexual offences act (decriminalising homosexuality for men over 21)
  • 1968 race relations act (illegal to discriminate against someone because of their religion or ethnicity
  • 2005 criminal justice act ( allowed more severe sentences for hate crimes)
  • 2006 racial and religious hatred act ( made spreading racial or religious hate a crime)
• Changing society in 20th century

  • Multicultural
  • more equal
• Crimes in modern Britain continuity

  • Smuggling illegal and legal items without paying tax such as cigarettes alcohol and illegal drugs (seen as social crimes) as well as people trafficking for prostitution and forced labour
  • terrorism increased because of modern weapons
  • 7th of July 2005 fours suicide bombers attacked London 3 bombs went off on underground trains and one on a bus
• Robert Peel passed the metropolitan police act in 1829