Crime and Punishment
Early Modern Britain
1450-1750
Medieval ideas about crime and
punishment
• Crime was dived into groups of seriousness.
Stealing was in the same group as murder and
rape.
• This was mainly because medieval society was
hierarchical and the rich wanted to be protected.
• Royal courts dealt with serious crimes and all
types of people.
• Church courts dealt with the clergy
• Manor courts dealt with ordinary villagers
Medieval ideas about crime and
punishment
• Most minor stuff was dealt with at manor
courts
• People were most likely to be fined and
punished. Villeins who were unfree
farmers were often punished for breaking
the rules and the manor courts were there
to protect the rights of the villeins.
Medieval ideas about crime and
punishment
• Murder, robbery, treason, rape, arson and
theft of goods worth more than 12p were
all punishable by death
• Selling goods for the wrong price, breaking
legal agreements and assault were all
punishable by fines.
Preventing crime and punishment
• Prevention
• Making groups of people responsible for each
others actions
• Deterring people by the threat of punishment
• Church teachings about right and wrong
• Detecting
• Catching a person as they committed the crime
• Local people deciding if their neighbour was the
kind to commit a crime based on pass behaviour
Vagabonds victims of poverty or
criminal beggars
• In Elizabethan England there was a great
concern over the amount of beggars. This
lead to beggars being though of as
criminals and punished as a result.
Reasons for increase in
vagabonds
• Problems in the cloth industry increased the numbers of
unemployed
• Inflation caused prices to go up faster than wages
• Landowners kept sheep instead of crops and so needed
less workers.
• Closure of monasteries took away support for the poor
• End of the war in England led soldiers to be out of work
• Population increase put pressure on jobs
• No national system to help the unemployed
• Large number of travelling beggars threaten a
hierarchical society
• Cost of supporting beggars was resented by society
• Acts of charity was not enough
• Poor people were more likely to turn to crimes like theft
Dealing with the vagabonds
• Some places issued badges to sick or injured beggars
who were thought to deserve help. This separated them
for the ‘sturdy’ – lazy beggars.
• In 1531 an act was passed where al beggars were
classed with a deserving licence or they were punished.
JPs enforced this.
• In 1547 the vagrancy act forced all beggars to work. It
orders that they should be whipped and branded. This
was difficult to enforce but it shows how worried the rich
were
• In some places houses of correction were built to deal
with them
Impact of treason
• Before 1485 charges of treason were used for those
who rebelled against the king. It only became
frequent during the Tudor reign as it saw the end of
the war of the roses.
• Guy Fawkes and gunpowder plot
• Punishment was hanging drawing and quartering
• It was deliberately designed to show how terrible a
crime this was thought to be. Since it was believed
that god had given power to the king, treason was
thought to be a crime against god
• Some nobles got away with just a beheading.
Changing attitudes to crime and
punishment
• Divine right: god gave power to the king
therefore people would be challenging god
• Hierarchy: society should have a strict order in
terms of power, wealth and rights. Men were
also considered higher than women
• Property: the richest people owned the most
property, they were represented in parliament.
As a result laws were made to benefit them.
Challenging the system
• Increasing population: in 1450 population
was 2 million by 1750 it had risen to 7 million
• Increased urban growth and unemployment:
in growing towns people were more difficult to
control
• Crimes against property: increase in highway
robbery with better roads, poaching
increased and the introduction of early
smugglers
How did the rulers deal with the
challenges
• Criminalising beggars: begging was a crime and
harshly punished
• Different experiences of the law: fate was based
on social status – commoners were hanged,
drawn and quartered for treason while nobles
were beheaded.
• Some first time offenders were usually acquitted
• Use of fear – with no prison system punishment
depended on removing them from society, fining
them or humiliating them through stocks and
pillory
The bloody code
• Historians used the phrase ‘bloody code’ to describe
the number of crimes carrying the death penalty
from the late 17th century to the 19th century.
Crimes like sheep stealing, damaging trees and
stealing rabbits were all punishable by death. The
severe punishments were meant to deter people
from committing crimes. In fact the bloody code
failed. Many juries refused to find a person guilty if
they knew the death penalty followed. So fewer
people ended up being hung. Eventually Robert
peel reduced the number of crimes punishable by
death by over 100.
Transportation
• Early in the 17th century some convicts
were transported to the Caribbean and
north America. Usually for political crimes.
Highway robbery
Highway robbery increased
• due to better roads and transport
• There was no police force to monitor them
• Many people travelled alone
• Horses were cheap to buy
Highway robbery decreased
• People stopped carrying money when travelling
• Mounted police were set up in London
• The population expanded so more open space was used
for housing
• Coaches became more frequent so a highway robber
was unable to hold a coach for long
Poaching
• Laws that banned poaching were very unpopular
• Only landowners who had land worth £100 or more were
allowed to hunt anywhere. This meant some people
were not allowed to hunt on their own land!
• Poaching became an offence punishable by death
• Poor people used to hunt for fun and some poor people
needed to hunt for food
• It was unfair that only rich could do it
• Wealth people wanted to protect their land and their
authority
• They didn’t want anyone to make money out of poaching
Smuggling
• During the seventieth century the government
increased taxes on goods
• This led people to smuggling in goods like tea,
brandy, spices
• Smugglers usually worked in gangs so were
hard to fight against
• There was no police force so it was easier to get
away with
• The people supported it as it allowed them
luxuries at small prices
• It was a good way for people to make money
Local law enforcement
• Hue and cry was the main way of dealing with this.
• Although highway robbery and smuggling did take
place the most common crime still remained theft
and violence.
• No professional police force – people were opposed
to the cost and harsh punishment was a cheaper
option and people were afraid that the government
might use force to stamp out the opposition.
• The army was sometimes used to crack down on
petty criminals but usually there work was to find
and deal with smugglers.
Justices of the peace (JPs)
• First introduced in the middle ages
• JPs were usually unpaid local landowners
who dealt with less important crimes for
instance drunkenness and fighting
• JPs enforced some laws such as dealing
with wages, prices, road building and
enforce the vagrancy and poor laws
constables
• Each village or hundred was meant to
have its own constable
• Usually two people of a more wealthier
background were chosen
• They were unpaid, part time officials.
• They did not have weapons or a uniform
and generally acted as JPs assistants
making arrests and escorting prisoners to
gaol.
Courts
• Two or three JPs met regularly in their district to
deal with more serious cases
• JPs also met in quarter sessions to deal with
serious crimes with a jury.
• The most serious crimes were heard by the royal
judges.
• JPs often gave a out lenient punishments like
stocks and pillory and fines but could pass the
death sentence in quarter sessions