history

• Sections of Crime and Punishment


  • 1000-1500
  • 1500-1700
  • 1700-1900
  • 1900-Present
  • Whitechapel focus study
• Time periods of Crime and Punishment

  • Anglo Saxon
  • Norman
  • Late Medieval
  • Early Modern
  • Industrial
  • Modern
  • 1000-1066
  • 1066-1200
  • 1200-1500
  • 1500-1700
  • 1700-1900
  • 1900-present
• Anglo Saxon Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: crime against the person, property or authority
  • Law Enforcement: tithings, hue and cry and trial by ordeal
  • Punishments: fines, maiming and capital punishment
• Norman Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: forest laws, murdering a Norman soldier
  • Law Enforcement: foresters, shire reeves, trial by combat
  • Punishments: capital punishment, murdrum fine
• Late Medieval Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: heresy, treason, urban crime
  • Law Enforcement: Coroners, Justices of the Peace, Royal Judges
  • Punishments: church courts
• Early Modern Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: heresy, treason, witchcraft, smuggling, poaching
  • Law Enforcement: town constable, night watchman, thief taker
  • Punishments: bloody code, transportation, bridewells
• Industrial Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: Tolpuddle Martyrs, smuggling, high-way robbery, poaching
  • Law Enforcement: Bow Street Runners, Metropolitan Police
  • Punishments: Transportation, prisons, capital punishment
• Modern Crime and Punishment


  • Definitions of Crime: New crimes influenced by changing social attitudes, old crimes changed by technological advancement
  • Law Enforcement: developments in policing, changing treatment of juvenile delinquents, community watch
  • Punishments: end of capital punishment, alternative punishments to prison (ASBO, parole)
• Whitechapel: Environment


  Housing and working conditions, impact of immigration, impact of poverty on crime
• Whitechapel: Failures of the Ripper Investigation

  H division, tactics of H division and CID during the Ripper investigation, reasons for police failings, lessons learnt after the Ripper investigation
• For each period you need to know: Definitions of Crime, Law Enforcement, Punishments
• Law Enforcement: What methods did people/authorities use to prevent crime and catch criminals?
• Punishments: How did punishment change over time. Deterrence, retribution or rehabilitation?
• Anglo Saxon Crime and Punishment


  • Crime and community: King made the laws and keep king's peace, Three tiered system- nobles, freemen, serfs, Crimes against authority= threats against social structure, crimes against person= murder, crimes against property= theft, Towns crime was easier, villages not so easy- collective responsibility, each area has a reeve to carry out punishments, Church very powerful deal with moral crimes= not meeting expectations of society
  • Law Enforcement: King makes the laws, communities enforce law, God is the final judge on innocence or guilt, Shires are divided into hundreds, then further divided into tithings- one man from each meet with shire reeve to tackle crime, If witness a crime use hue and cry system- shout for help, then the community to hep capture the criminal, Oath of innocence used, as people would not swear oath to God if guilty
  • Punishments: Trial by ordeal- testing innocence in eyes of God- either hot water, hot iron or cold water, Wergild- fine paid by murderer to victims family (amount varied on status of victim) Supposed to reduce blood feuds (revenge killings), Capital punishment= death penalty corporal punishment= harm to body. Form of retribution (punishment to match the crime), Stocks (ankles) and pillory (wrists) use as humiliation and deterrent
• Norman Crime and Punishment


  • Increased power of the Normans: Harrying of the North, building of castles, setting up the feudal system (Anglo Saxon nobles replaced with Normans and all owe service to the level above), Murdrum= fine if a Norman killed paid by the hundred where body found, Forest laws= 'royal forests' take over what was common land- causes tension as people used to hunt and live off the land- laws very strict but became a 'social crime', Foresters protected the land and gave overly harsh punishments (like blinding) to poachers as a deterrent, Anyone avoiding trial and punishment= outlaw, Strong links with the forest and normally associated with gangs (e.g. Folville Gang)
  • Community and changes: Very similar law enforcement, but wergild paid to king now= centralisation of law enforcement, Kings peace becomes kings mund- more power and more crimes punished with death, Trial by ordeal continued and introduced trial by combat (fight to the death) seen as more dignified for wealthy
  • Law Enforcement: Collective responsibility and hue and cry stay the same, Continuation of small village communities enable law enforcement to stay very similar
• Middle Ages Crime and Punishment


  • Community and change: Henry II changes= recognised courts and set up prisons for people awaiting trial, royal judges to visit counties twice a year to hear serious cases- stronger centralised system, rules for judges making it a more uniform system, Growth of towns= more opportunity for crime. Move from communities to gov. appointed officials, Towns still divided into wards to help catch criminals, tythingmen become constables
  • Laws and crimes: Statute of Labourers= wages could not be higher than before the Black Death. Important as following similar ideas of Normans with protecting rights of upper classes at expense of lower, BUT first example of parliament passing law not using authority of king alone, Heresy= people who question religious beliefs of Christian Church. Punishments for heresy severe from 1401 included burning at stake. 1414 JPs could arrest heretics showing gov. officials and the church working together
  • Law and order: Hue and cry kept in ward areas, but new roles of JPs and coroner introduced. 1194- Richard I introduces coroners to deal with suspicious deaths and 1195 he makes knights keepers of the kings peace in unlawful areas. 1327 Edward III expands system to all areas and by 1361 they are known as JPs appointed by the king as good and lawful people. JPs being appointed by king centralises law and order. Punishments very similar- but hung, drawn and quartered punishment for high treason starts
• Case study- Influence of the Church


  Powerful institution that controlled people's thoughts and actions- important in influencing change and continuity, Important outside religion too- owned 1/5 of country's wealth and collected Church taxes, had an important role in deciding innocence of guilt of an individual, 1215 the Pope order priests to stop trial by ordeal- system comes to an end which means that trial by jury is introduced, Church courts set up by William I to deal with moral crimes. Their focus was on repenting and reflecting on crimes- maiming was used instead of execution as they believed retribution was wrong, Henry II tried to limit the power of the church- Constitutions of Clarendon introduced to try to being Church laws more in line with the king's laws, Members of clergy only tried in Church courts, which were more lenient. Henry II did not like this, as system was open to abuse- if you could recite Psalm 51 it was seen that you belonged to the clergy- became known as 'neck verse' as you could 'save your neck' if you learnt it, Sanctuary offered by churches- criminals could ask for sanctuary, they would be reported to the authorities but the church would give the option to swear an oath agreeing to leave the country in 40 days- this system ended under Henry VIII
• Quick Quiz
• Which three groups made up the social structure of Anglo-Saxon England (apart from the king!)?
• Name two Anglo-Saxon methods for trial by ordeal.
• What name is given to illegal hunting of wild animals?
• Name one punishment that could be given for breaking the Forest Laws
• What law was introduced in 1352, restricting wages for peasant farmers?
• What crime was punished by being hanged, drawn and quartered?
• Whose decision brought an end to trial by ordeal in the 13th Century?
• What was the 'neck verse'?
• Quick Quiz Answers!
• Nobles, freemen, serfs
• Trial by hot water, hot iron or cold water
• Blinding, castration, mutilation or hanging
• Someone who has run away to avoid being arrested or facing trial
• Statue of Labourers
• High treason
• The Pope
• A passage from the Bible people could recite in order to show they were a member of the clergy and could be tried in a more lenient Church Court
• Explain why 'trail by ordeal' was used c1000-c1200.
• You may use the following in your answer: Trial by hot iron, Church courts. You must also use information of your own
• Crime and Punishment 1500-1700
• Religious Changes Timeline


  • Monarch/Ruler
  • Religion
  • Impact on Crime and Punishment
• Henry VIII


  Church of England, Both Catholics and Protestants punished- Protestants fir heresy, Catholics for treason as they refused to accept new religion