history

• Punishments used as deterrents


  • Execution (hanging, beheading, burning, stoning, drowning)
  • Cutting off tongue
  • Fines
  • Confiscation of property
  • Beatings, floggings
  • Stocks or pillory
  • Cutting off hands or feet
• Execution by beheading, burning or hanging


  How some serious crimes were punished
• Execution by hanging

  How some serious crimes were punished
• The church favoured punishments that maimed but did not kill, giving the criminal a chance to repent of their crime before God, as a chance at rehabilitation
• Crimes against authority

  During this period, witchcraft ceased to be a crime and changes of treason fell. However, the government found other ways of dealing with challenges to authority.
• Significance of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

  • The incident highlights how authorities used laws to criminalise people they viewed as a threat
  • The pardoning of the Martyrs illustrates the impact of public opinion
  • The Martyrs inspired some to fight for workers' rights
• Witchcraft

  1. After the Civil War the number of prosecutions of witchcraft declined

  2. All laws concerning witchcraft were appealed by the Witchcraft Act of 1736

  3. People who claimed to use magic were subject to fines or imprisonment

  4. Some still clung to their superstitious beliefs
• Why witchcraft stopped being a crime


  • Economic and social changes led to more prosperity and political stability
  • Some still believed in witches and the devil, but others (especially the educated) became less superstitious
  • The Royal Society, set up by Charles II, led to increased scientific experiments, which explained things previously thought to be the work of witches
• The Tolpuddle Martyrs were arrested and transported to Australia for swearing secret oaths. They were returned to England after public outcry.
• The Witchcraft Act of 1736 repealed laws concerning witchcraft.
• Industrialisation and urbanisation were major factors that increased the crime rate after 1700
• As a consequence, this period saw the development of more official forms of policing
• Transportation to Australia increased due to the increase in the crime rate
• Transportation to Australia ended by 1868 because Australia no longer needed forced labourers, it was too expensive, and more prisons had been built
• Prison reformers

  • Believed prisons should be improved to increase the likelihood of rehabilitation
• John Howard's work

  Led to the 1774 Gaol Act, which suggested how health and sanitation in prisons could be improved
• Elizabeth Fry

  Began visiting women in Newgate Prison in 1813, set up educational classes, improved living conditions, and treated prisoners with kindness and respect
• The Bloody Code was not working and a new strategy was needed to deter people from crime
• Factors that changed views on the purpose of punishment

  • Punishments should be equal to the crime committed
  • Corporal and capital punishments were inhumane
  • Punishment should also be about rehabilitating the offender
• The change in attitude helped lead to the ending of public executions in 1868
• Pentonville Prison

  Built in 1842, it was a model for a new idea about how prisons should be run and prisoners treated - the separate system
• Separate system

  • Cell walls were thick to prevent communication between inmates
  • There were outside areas for fresh air and exercise
  • Inmates were masked to prevent communication
  • Cells had a bed, wash basin, toilet, a barred window and a loom for working on
• Reasons for the separate system

  • For rehabilitation - solitude was thought to be the best way to provide prisoners with an opportunity to reflect on their crimes, turn to religion and therefore reform their ways
  • For retribution - the isolation and boredom made the criminal 'pay' for their crime
  • As a deterrent - it was a serious punishment and was therefore thought to act as a deterrent to committing crimes
• Strengths of the separate system

  • Compared with previous prisons, it was clean and there was far less disease
  • Many people thought that it provided the right level of punishment - it was seen as harsh but not overly so
• Weaknesses of the separate system

  • The continuous isolation led to mental illness and a high suicide rate
  • There was no education or instruction to provide new skills for prisoners to use when they were released
• Metropolitan Police officers

  • Usually unarmed and trained to use minimum physical force only as a last resort
  • Carefully selected and well trained, it was a full-time and fairly well-paid job
  • The central aim was to prevent crime and disorder and to be totally impartial and objective
  • Focused on patrolling areas where crime was high, successfully reduced street crime and disorder
  • Not popular at first, but soon recognised by the public as being honest and trustworthy
• The Metropolitan Police Force (the Met) was a government-directed police force policing the whole of London (except for the City of London, which had its own force)
• Police recruits for the Met

  Most came from outside London and were attracted by the relatively good pay, some had been soldiers but most had backgrounds in labouring or farm work
• By 1885, the Met totalled just 13319 to police a population of over five million people, with only 1383 on duty at a time
• Attitudes towards the police varied widely, with many working-class people feeling the police were 'against them, and only worked for the middle and upper classes
• The Met was directly under the control of the Home Secretary, who appointed the commissioner
• Whitechapel


  An area of London just east of the City, with very high levels of poverty and poor living and working conditions in the late 1880s, including 'rookeries' (overcrowded slum areas) and lodging houses
• The Peabody Estate (1881) was an attempt to improve housing in the area, with 11 blocks of flats with reasonable rents in a former slum
• Workhouses were also present in the area, housing inmates
• Whitechapel

  • Inner-city area of poverty, discontent and crime
  • Low income levels led to stealing for survival
  • Unreliable (or lack of) work led to alcoholism, disruptive behaviour and violence
  • Overcrowding led to tensions between residents
  • High levels of prostitution led to violence against women
• People in Whitechapel lived in poor conditions and extreme poverty
• Jobs were scarce and the economy was in a depression
• Poor living conditions and discontent led to an increase in crime
• Irish immigrants

  • Many left Ireland for the USA in the 1840s but ended up in London instead
  • Poverty meant most could only afford to live in the least expensive parts of London
  • Most worked as navvies or dockers
  • They had a reputation for being drunk and violent and were also associated with terrorism
• Anarchists and socialists

  • Anarchism opposed organised government, and socialism aimed to redistribute wealth and industry to the workers
  • Both movements were feared by the authorities, and middle and upper classes, but attracted some support from residents of Whitechapel