Crime and Punishment
Medieval ideas about crime
From about 1450 onwards, medieval crimes were divided according to just how serious they were
thought to be. Though there are some surprises, these essentially ran along the following lines:
Felonies – crimes for which the punishment was hanging:
Theft, murder, arson, robbery, treason and rape.
Trespasses – usually punished by monetary fines:
Selling goods for the wrong price, assault, breaking legal agreements and paying too high a wage to
attract workers away from other villages.
There were also different courts dealing with different groups of people. Royal Courts dealt with any
serious crime and all sorts of people. Church Courts dealt with priests, monks and nuns who had
broken church rules. Manor Courts dealt with ordinary villagers, making sure they obeyed rules set
by the local landowners.
Prison as a form of punishment is largely a modern invention dating from the late 18th and early 19th
centuries. It was not until 1576 that ‘houses of correction’ were built by local judges which were
largely used to house beggars or people awaiting trial. Generally, convicted criminals were hanged,
fined or forced to leave the country.
Medieval ideas about preventing crime and catching criminals
Crime prevention and crime detection in medieval England were very different than they are today.
In terms of criminal prevention, medieval authorities relied on:
*making groups of people responsible for each others actions.
*deterring people by the threat of punishment.
*Church teachings about right and wrong.
In terms of detection, medieval authorities relied on:
*catching a person as they committed a crime.
*local people decided if a neighbour was the kind of person likely to have committed a crime, based
on past behaviour.
Unsurprisingly, evidence from the 14th and 15th centuries showed that more people were punished
for stealing when unemployment increased. War also caused increased crime, as taxes were
increased to pay for armies, thus forcing some people into poverty.
Two methods were used to decide a person’s guilt or innocence. A person would usually be found
innocent if he or she could summon enough neighbours to swear on oath concerning their past good
behaviour. Alternatively, trial by jury would involve looking at evidence, listening to witnesses and
making a decision.
Punishing the poor: victims of poverty or criminal beggars?
In 16th century Elizabethan England, there was great concern about the growing number of beggars.
This led to these beggars being thought of as criminals – and punished. There are many reasons why
the number of beggars increased during this period:
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Problems in the cloth industry increased the number of unemployed people.
Inflation caused prices to go up faster than wages.
Landowners kept sheep, instead of growing crops, which needed fewer workers.
Closure of monasteries took away support for the poor.
The end of wars led to soldiers being out of work.
A population increase put pressure on jobs and food.
There was no national system to help the unemployed and sick.
The cost of supporting beggars was resented by the communities they ended up in.
Acts of charity were not enough to meet the rising demand from the poor people.
Poor people were more likely to turn to other crimes such as theft.
Large numbers of beggars travelling on the roads seemed to threaten a society where
people were expected to know their place within the local community.
In some places, such as York, badges were issued to sick or injured beggars (deemed as the
‘deserving poor’). This separated them from the ‘sturdy beggars’ who were considered lazy. In 1531
Parliament passed a law that beggars were either classed as deserving a licence or punished by
Justice of the Peace. In 1547, the Vagrancy Act, forced beggars to work. Eventually, the law was
repealed because it was impossible to enforce.
Treason and plot! Why rulers felt under threat and the impact of this on the treatment of crime
Prior to the War of the Roses in 1485, the law of treason was used against those who rebelled
against the king. However, as they came to power during an unsettled time, the use of the Treason
laws became more frequent under the Tudors.
As they’d seized power by force, some questioned the Tudors’ right to rule. These tensions increased
when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and continued throughout the Tudor period. In
1605, Catholic opponents tried to murder the first Stuart monarch – King James I – in the
Gunpowder Plot, with the view of starting a Catholic rebellion. When the rebellion failed, the leaders
were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Those convicted of treason were sentenced to
be hanged, drawn and quartered until 1870.
Nobody is completely sure when this punishment was first used. However, it is thought that King
Edward I introduced this method of punishment and deterrent in the 13th century when he was
attempting to impose English rule on Wales and Scotland. Those who thought of themselves as
‘freedom fighters’ were deemed to be ‘traitors’ by Edward I and punished accordingly.
Rulers and ruled: what beliefs affected attitudes towards crime and punishment, and who
challenged the system?
The early 16th century began with demands for religious changes at a time when rulers were starting
to feel more and more insecure. There was also a strong belief that God gave power to kings and
queens and that to break the law was to challenge God and his representatives. There was a strong
hierarchy in terms of power, wealth and rights whilst men were in charge of women and adults had
strict authority over children.
The richest people owned almost all the land and property and only wealthy people were
represented in parliament. As a result, laws protected the rights and property of the wealthy and
any challenge to these laws was viewed as an offence against God for which individuals should be
strongly punished. Accordingly, corporal and capital punishment were widely used.
Challenging the system
Huge rises in the population of England led to increased urban growth and unemployment. Rulers no
longer knew the people they governed and order was more difficult to maintain.
Initially, most crimes committed by the poor were crimes against property rather than crimes
against the person. Street criminals were known as footpads and due to road improvements in the
first half of the 18th century, the number of highwaymen such as Dick Turpin increased. The increase
of country parks around great houses – which had previously been common land – led to a dramatic
increase in poaching. Poachers would often organise themselves into gangs so they could fight off
anyone trying to arrest them.
In 1614 exporting wool was made illegal and in 1661 it was made punishable by death. So whilst
smugglers were encouraged to take wool out of the country illegally, they also carried weapons to
avoid arrest. Increased taxes on tea and brandy made the smuggling of these items hugely
profitable. Organised gangs, such as the Hawkhurst Gang, dominated smuggling from Kent to Dorset
in the middle of the 18th century.
Rulers and ruled: how did rulers meet the challenges they faced?
Begging was regarded as a crime and in 1554 a law was passed that allowed gypsies to be hanged.
Punishments also varied according to a person’s social status; commoners were hanged, drawn and
quartered for treason but nobles were beheaded. Priests were tried in far more lenient church
courts. Women who murdered their husbands were burnt at the stake because a husband was
thought to be a natural master of his wife.
Essentially, the lack of any real system ensured that transgressors were punished by execution, fines
or by hurting and humiliating them. Stocks or pillory were a popular method of the latter.
What historians would later refer to as the ‘Bloody Code’ described the number of crimes carrying
the death penalty; 50 in 1688 rising to an incredible 225 by 1815. Although these severe
punishments were aimed to deter, they failed in their aim as many juries refused to find a person
guilty if a death penalty would follow. In 1823, Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the modern police
force, reduced the number of crimes punishable by capital punishment by over 100 offences.
From the 17th century until American independence in 1776, convicts were transported to the
Caribbean and North America to be used as labourers on plantations. If people are very critical of
earlier punishments, this is because modern attitudes towards crime differ greatly from those of the
18th century. This reminds us that, whilst some ideas about crime remain fairly constant, others vary
according to the values of society.
The career of Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild (1683-1725) was the most famous criminal in 18th century Britain. Whilst running a
successful gang of thieves he also seemed to be the most successful policeman in the country. As he
kept the goods his gang stole, he waited for their theft to be reported in newspapers then claimed
they had been recovered by his agents. He would then return the goods for a reward.
When Wild ‘caught’ thieves they were usually members of rival gangs or members of his own gang
who had refused to obey him. He claimed to have had over 60 thieves hanged. After his criminal
activities were finally exposed, he was hanged at Tyburn, London, in 1725.
The impact of industrial and agricultural change on crime and punishment
Huge growth in sizes and towns and cities after 1750 led to:
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Extreme poverty in slums and the growth of a criminal underclass.
Increased street crime and burglary.
Growth in alcoholism, disorder and riots.
Theft of clean water.
Increased prostitution – including child prostitution.
Opportunities for crime with rich and poor living closely together.
Movement of population after 1750 led to:
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Immigrants moving into areas of terrible poverty and exploitation and many turned to crime
to survive.
It became harder to know and keep track of people.
Navvies (road workers) moved through country areas and brought new crime.
The impact of industrial and agricultural change on crime and punishment
In the period 1800-1815, more soldiers were protecting factories against Luddites (workers breaking
up machines that took their jobs) in northern England than were fighting the French in the
Napoleonic Wars. Without a police force it was hard to control this unrest, as challenges to authority
could be listed as follows:
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Poor living and working conditions made many workers desperate for reforms.
The Revolution in France of 1789 encouraged some people to hope for a similar change to
the system in Britain.
Many people made moderate demands: the right to vote, the right to strike and the right to
criticise the government.
The government had no police force until 1829, so it used soldiers to put down uprisings and
revolutionary meetings.
The outbreak of revolution in France in 1789 made the government and ruling classes very nervous
and they sought to repress any groups looking to change the way Britain was ruled. In 1817 habeas
corpus was suspended which meant that prisoners could be held without trial. In 1819 a group
demanding a reform of parliament and the right to vote met at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester.
Attempting to force their way through a 50,000 crowd, soldiers drew their swords and killed 18
unarmed civilians in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre. Following this event, six
draconian acts of parliament exacerbated the problem by attempting to restrict future acts aimed at
increasing democratic freedoms.
In 1833, a peaceful group of Dorset farmers from the village of Tolpuddle formed a trade union to
try and stop their wages going down. This time the government didn’t use violence and a law from
1797 – aimed at preventing the swearing of secret oaths – was used against them. The farmers were
arrested and transported to Australia for seven years. After huge protests the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’
were eventually released in 1836.
Smugglers: criminals or popular heroes?
Large scale smuggling first began in around 1300, when a customs duty was placed on the export of
English wool.
Smuggling became a huge problem to the government in the 18th and early 19th centuries when large
amounts of money were raised by taxing a variety of imported goods. Hence there was a lot of
money to be made from illegally importing goods for which there was a huge demand.
Where goods were legal and harmless, many people were sympathetic to smugglers and blamed the
government for acting unreasonably. Smugglers flourished in coastal areas and harsh punishments
meted out for the ‘social crimes’ they committed merely increased their popularity. Thus there was a
huge difference between the official and popular view of smuggling. Their popularity masked the
fact that many smugglers were prepared to use extreme violence to intimidate witnesses, kill
informers and fight off customs officers.
The views we hold today are similar to those that prevailed in the 18th and 19th century. Whilst we
might be shocked about the smuggling of drugs, guns, explosives or people, many would take the
illegal importing of alcohol and cigarettes far less seriously.
From prevention to detection: the creation of the modern police force.
The forerunners of the modern police force were the Bow Street Runners who were established by
Henry Fielding in 1749. Initially, they did not patrol so didn’t contribute to crime prevention.
However, Fielding’s brother John introduced mounted patrols in 1754 to give the force a presence
on the streets. Even so, they were not present in sufficient numbers to deal with London’s needs.
Those criminals that were convicted were usually those caught in the act, whilst the army were
brought in to deal with large scale disorder. The latter sometimes created more problems than it
solved – see Peterloo Massacre 1819.
In 1829, Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel persuaded parliament to pass the Metropolitan Police Act,
which established the first uniformed police in London. In a manner that did not add tensions to
society, the police not only began to catch criminals but deterred crime by their very presence. Soon,
counties around the country were copying the example set by London and establishing their own
police forces.
Improved pay and training meant the police developed a reputation for honesty which improved
public trust. Targeting uniformed patrols in high crime areas helped to reduce street crime and in
1842 a detective department – later to be known as the CID – was set up to solve crimes, rather than
just prevent them.
In 1901 the first Fingerprint Bureau was set up, whilst the use of photographs of suspects and other
new technology aided crime detection.
Changes in punishment
In the middle ages, during which there was no prison system, crimes against property were far more
severely punished than they are today, with many petty criminals being hanged. From the early 17th
century – a time that coincided with an increase in petty crime – execution was thought to be far too
harsh a punishment for minor crimes. Accordingly, convicted criminals were sentenced to work as
labourers in the new British colonies; first in America and then in Australia.
Transportation was abolished in 1868 after a remarkable 160,023 people were transported to
Australia. It was abolished because:
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Australia no longer had a need for forced labourers and did not want the kind of people that
transportation brought.
Since the 1820s an improved prison system offered an alternative to transportation.
Some began to question transportation as a deterrent, as it offered some criminals the
prospect of a better life.
The end of public execution
After a campaign that had run for many decades, public executions were banned in Britain in 1869. It
did not act as a deterrent and pickpocketing was rife amongst crowds watching an execution. There
was a carnival atmosphere at many hangings and if the crowd showed sympathy for the victim, there
were occasional riots against the authorities. With the end of transportation and reductions in the
use of the death penalty, imprisonment became the usual punishment for petty crime.
How successful were the 19th century prison reformers?
WHY PRISON?
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To punish people from doing wrong – Retribution.
To discourage others from committing crimes-Deterrence.
To keep them away from society to protect others-Removal.
To work to make a payment back to society – Restitution.
To change a person for the better – Rehabilitation/Reform.
Born in 1726, John Howard was a prison reformer of the age. Appalled by conditions in county gaols,
in toured Britain and Europe to try and discover ways of running better prisons. He called for
prisoners to have Christian teaching, work and decent food and visits by chaplains and doctors. He
wanted prisons to be cleaned and prison guards to be paid. As a result of his work, The 1774 Gaol
Act was passed and although most gaolers ignored the acts recommendations, later reformers built
on his work.
Born in 1780, Quaker Elizabeth Fry was determined to use God’s love to improve the lives of women
in London’s Newgate Prison. She set up education classes and treated the prisoners with kindness
and respect. In 1825, Fry published her ideas on how to improve prisons, which helped to change
the attitudes of individuals and larger institutions.
Fry’s work coincided with Sir Robert Peel’s time as Home Secretary and her work persuaded him
that action was needed. The Gaols Act of 1823 paid gaolers, provided work for prisoners, inspections
of prisons, visits from chaplains and doctors and basic education. A huge new prison building
programme took place, the first being built at Pentonville, London, in 1842. By 1877, 90 new prisons
had been built whilst Peel reduced the number of death penalty offences.
Changes in policing and combating crime since 1900
20th century technology made a huge impact on fighting crime:
A fingerprinting department was set up in New Scotland Yard in 1901. Nowadays, a fingerprinting
identification system allows every force in England and Wales to compare fingerprints found at
crime scenes.
The police first used radios in 1910 and the technology continues to develop today.
The first National Police Computer saves a huge amount of police time and spots information that
people might miss. Monitoring websites and emails allows police to hunt for those planning acts of
terrorism.
In 1995, the DNA National Database Library was set up, allowing police to identify both victims and
criminals from tiny quantities of hair, skin and blood.
Cars and motorbikes allow police greater mobility and to get to crime scenes faster.
CCTV allows peoples’ behaviour on the streets to be checked, not only as events are happening but
at a later date.
Neighbourhood watch scenes have also sprung up around the country, which is comparable with
15th century Britain when local communities were made responsible for the behaviour of their
neighbours and reporting crime.
Challenges facing policing in the 21st century
Although the police feel they are more effective in cars, many of the public want the reassurance of
a police officer walking down the street as a deterrent to crime.
The threat of terrorism from groups such as Al Qaeda means that police must share intelligence
across the world. Also, armed police now look like soldiers, which is exactly what Sir Robert Peel was
looking to avoid.
The complexity of international crime such as terrorism and fraud poses questions about how long
police should be allowed to hold a suspect without charge and if ordinary people on a jury can
understand the complexities of a trial.
Changing patterns of crime since 1900
Ideas about what constitutes a crime change over time. For example, the rights of conscientious
objectors would not be respected within the law, whilst ‘cowardice in the face of the enemy’ might
now be treated as a mental illness known as shell shock. Laws have also developed to meet the
demands of new attitudes and technology.
For example, speeding, dangerous driving and driving whilst using a mobile phone whilst driving are
all crimes today, but clearly weren’t a problem at the start of the century. By the same token,
attitudes have hardened to make drink driving unacceptable and punishable by law.
As Britain has become more multicultural, racists crime has become an issue. The Race Relations Act
of 1968 made it illegal to refuse housing, employment or public services to a person on the grounds
of colour, race or national or ethnic origins.
As women and children’s rights have improved, laws have evolved to combat the ‘hidden crime’ of
Domestic Violence.
Increases in crime levels
Crime has increased dramatically since 1900, as is illustrated in the increase in the prison population.
The number of offences per thousand people in 1900 was 2.4, rising to 89.1 by 1997.
Although historians have often looked at problems in the economy to explain increased crime, this
doesn’t always tell the whole story. Crime actually went down in the period 1901-1914, despite this
being a time increased unemployment and industrial unrest. In the addition, the prison population
was at its lowest during the high unemployment of the 1930s. By contrast, the prison population
increased between 1946 and 1986 when living standards were rising. The answer may be cultural if
individuals have less respect for others and authority. In a consumer culture when people assume
they can have what they want, the may commit crime if they can’t get it by other means. Better law
enforcement and sentencing may also be a factor.
The increased influence of the Women’s Movement has increased awareness of violence towards
women, leading to more successful prosecutions for domestic violence and rape.
Some statistics seem to indicate that crime has gone down since its peak in 1992. However,
increased media coverage of crime, particularly burglary and street violence, has led to some people
believing the crime rate is worse than it really is.
Why was capital punishment abolished?
In 1908 the execution of under 16s stopped, whilst under 18s were not hanged after 1933. Changes
in society meant that more and more people thought that executing another person was wrong and
these views were enhanced by a number of controversial executions in the 1950s.
In 1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for killing his wife and baby. Later evidence revealed that the
murders had been committed by a man called Christie who lived in the same block of flats as the
Evans family. Evans was posthumously pardoned in 1966.
In 1952, Derek Bentley (aged 19) and Christopher Craig (aged 16) broke into a London warehouse.
Craig shot and killed a policeman. Derek Bentley had serious learning difficulties and a mental age of
11. Both were charged with murder, but only Bentley was executed as Craig was under 18 years old.
Bentley was posthumously pardoned in 1998.
The story of Ruth Ellis became a very controversial case after she shot a boyfriend who had
constantly subjected her to violent abuse. As the killing was planned and Ellis was sane, the jury had
no other choice but to find her guilty of murder, as no other sentence was available. In 1955, she
was the last woman to be hanged in the UK.
***The stories of Evans, Bentley and Ellis have all been made into films being (respectively) 10
Rillington Place, Let Him Have it and Dance with a Stranger.
In 1957 a change in the law limited the death sentence to five types of murder.
In 1965 another change in the law abolished capital punishment, but allowed another vote five years
later. Many argued that the number of murders would increase dramatically once the death penalty
deterrent was removed. However, after statistics stayed much the same over the course of the next
four years, capital punishment for murder was finally abolished in 1969.
In 1971 arson in the royal dockyards stopped being a capital offence, whilst high treason and piracy
with violence stopped being capital crimes in 1998.
In 1999, Home Secretary Jack Straw signed the 6th protocol of the European Convention on Human
Rights, formally abolishing the death penalty in the UK.
Changing punishments in the 20th century
Before the mid-20th century prison was often seen as the most important way to respond to crime
and it was usually believed that the prison regime should be harsh.
In 1922 the Separate System of confinement was abolished and warders were given training on how
to re-educate prisoners. In 1933, the first ‘open’ prison was established, giving greater freedoms to
those convicted of less dangerous criminals who were close to release. Since 1907, putting offenders
‘on probation’ and monitoring their behaviour instead of sending them to prison was a big change in
the approach to punishment.
In 1948, the Criminal Justice Act abolished hard labour and corporal punishment and set up new
detention centres for some young criminals.
Women and the changing prison system
Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in the number of women sent to prison. However, women
only account for around 6% of the prison population, with many being convicted due to crimes
connected with poverty, drugs and mental health issues.
Women have always committed far less crime than men and it is estimated that only 12-20% of
those transported to Australia were women, usually for crimes such as prostitution and theft which
in turn many be poverty related.
There are currently 14 women’s prisons in England, with four female juvenile units and seven
‘mother and baby’ units. Prison routine is similar for both male and female prisons, through
women’s jails do have some differences with regard to health services provided for women and the
amount of time they are allowed to spend with their children.
Children and the changing prison system
In 1908 prisons called borstals were set up to hold young criminals, in recognition of the fact the
prisons would lead to them being influenced by older criminals. Initially, they were quite successful
but in recent times Young Offenders Institutions have recorded rising levels of violent behaviour.
Campaign groups criticise the UK government for locking up more children than other European
countries and point out that they are children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and have
mental health problems. Re-offending rates remain very high for this group, but governments still
remain under pressure to be seen ‘doing something’ about crime.
Alternatives to prison
As a result of changing attitudes, modern courts do not always use prison, often preferring
community sentences which may include drug or alcohol treatment programmes, work on
community projects or charity work. Some criminals may have to meet the victims of their crimes,
as a means to offenders understanding the effects of their crimes. Such programmes are combined
with measures aimed at tackling illiteracy, unemployment or homelessness which may lead criminals
into re-offending. Since 1998, courts and issue an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) whilst
electronic tagging has provided an alternative to prison whilst still restricting the movements of the
offender.
How new are ‘new crimes’?
Old: Selling of poor girls into prostitution was a problem in 19th century cities.
New: People trafficking. Many people from Eastern Europe and less economically developed
countries are illegally brought into the UK and forced to work for low wages, or no wages at all.
Old: In the 18th century organised criminal gangs smuggled goods.
New: Drug smuggling is a multi-million pound industry.
Old: Impersonating another person to steal their money is an old crime, as is tricking money out of a
person.
New: Computer crime is often used to commit fraud.
Old: Street robbery and other forms of street crime have been a problem for centuries.
New: Street crime and anti-social behaviour causes great concern in many towns and cities.
Essentially, it might be hard to argue against the view that old crimes are simply adapted for a
modern age.
The work of the historian: why are preventing suicide bombings such a challenge to the police in
the 21st century?
On the morning of 7 July 2005, four suicide bombers attacked central London. Three bombs went off
during the morning rush hour on the underground system close to Liverpool Street and Edgware
Road station. A fourth and final bomb exploded on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. The
attacks killed 52 people and injured more than 770.
This was the first time that suicide bombers had struck in London and duly emphasised how crime
detection must change to meet new circumstances. Such a view is perfectly illustrated in the words
of Assistant Commissioner Peter Clark, Head of Counter Terrorism, speaking in April 2007:
“It was thought that the experience gained in during some 30 years of an Irish terrorist campaign
would have equipped us for the new challenges presented by Al Qaeda...To an extent this is true but
only to an extent. The Irish attacks were carried out by terrorists in tightly knit networks who were
desperate to avoid capture and certainly had no wish to die. The use of warnings restricted the
carnage, dreadful though it was.