1750-1900
Crime and punishment at the time of the Industrial Revolution
Changing society
Britain was changing because of growing industry.
Huge growth in sizes of towns and cities led to
 Extreme poverty
 More street crime and burglary
 Alcoholism and riots
 More chances for crime with rich and poor living close together
 Prostitution (including children)
 Immigrants moving into areas of poverty, many turning to crime to survive
In the cities it was harder to know and keep track of people
Dealing with protest and unrest
Poor living and working conditions.
Many workers desperately wanted change.
They saw the Revolution in France (1789) and hoped for the same thing in Britain.
Some
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of the people’s demands:
The right to vote
The right to strike
The right to criticise the government
No police force, so the government used soldiers against the people.
They also used law against people who protested.
1817 a new law said prisoners could be held without trial
1819 soldiers attacked a peaceful protest in Manchester – 18 people killed and 500 injured.
This was known as the ‘Peterloo Massacre’.
So the government passed strict laws:
 No training with weapons except for soldiers
 No public meetings unless the government agreed
 Heavy punishment for criticising the government
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The Tolpuddle Martyrs
1833 peaceful farm workers formed a trade union to stop their wages going down.
It was against the law to swear a secret oath. Rich farmers and the government used this
against the farm workers. They were arrested and transported to Australia for 7 years.
Big protests led to their release in 1836.
Later in the 19th century governments improved conditions for poor people.
As a result there were less protests.
Smugglers
The government put up taxes on tea and alcohol.
So gangs of smugglers made money from illegal trade.
The Hawkhurst gang was very well organised and very violent.
There was huge demand for smuggled goods.
Taxes went up to pay for the war against France. This led to more smuggling.
Many ordinary people supported the smugglers. Many people living near the coast helped the
smugglers. Smugglers were punished very harshly. This made people see them as heroes.
When the government reduced the tax in the 1840s, smuggling ended.
Police.
Policing before 1829:
 Watchmen who kept an eye on property
 Part-time soldiers to put down riots
 Constables who dealt with minor crimes and beggars
 Bow Street Runners, a small private force in London
 A few horse patrols in London to deal with highwaymen
The first government run police force was set up by Sir Robert Peel (the Home
Secretary) in 1829. This was the Metropolitan Police in London
Peel was careful to make the police look different from the army.
Their main job was to deter people from being criminals.
In the next few years other cities set up police forces.
At first the police were not popular but this slowly changed during the 19th century.
Police pay and training got better. Police became better at catching criminals.
In 1842 the first detectives began work in London. Their job was to solve crimes. The
detective department was later called the CID.
Police began to use photos of suspects to help them catch criminals.
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New ways of dealing with crime in the 19th century
The end of the ‘Bloody Code’
By the start of the 19th century the ‘Bloody Code’ was not working.
Although the punishment for most crimes was death, the number of criminals actually being
hung was small. The crime rate was going up.
Reasons why the ‘Bloody Code’ was failing:
 People on juries often refused to find a person guilty if the punishment was death.
 Public executions did not scare most people: people found them entertaining.
 Crime was caused by growing population, poverty and industrialisation.
It was also a time when the authorities did not have wide support from the people.
 Most people could not vote
 Times were hard
 There were many protests against the government.
In 1823 Robert Peel reduced the number of crimes punishable by death.
In 1869 public executions were banned.
New punishments
(a) Transportation.
Convicts were sent to America and the Caribbean to work on plantations.
In 1776 America won its independence so Britain could no longer transport convicts there.
After 1776 criminals were transported to Australia by ship.
Reasons for transportation
 Prisons and prison ships (hulks) were overcrowded and diseased
 The government wanted to get rid of criminals
 They thought the idea of being sent so far away would scare people from committing
crimes
 They wanted to stop the rise in crime in the cities
 They wanted to get rid of protesters against the government
 They wanted free workers to build up Australia
 They wanted to stop enemies like France getting hold of Australia
Most transported convicts were small thieves and petty criminals.
Over 16,000 people were transported to Australia.
A prison hulk
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Transportation ended in 1868.
 Australia did not need forced workers any more.
 Criminals could be dealt with in the new improved prison system.
 Many people were against transportation, saying it was too expensive.
 Some people thought transportation did not work because it gave criminals a new better
life so it did not deter (scare) people.
 Other people thought it was too harsh and cruel a punishment for small crimes.
(b) Prison reform
Before the 19th century prison was not usually a punishment.
 It was used to hold people before they were executed or transported.
 It was also used to hold people who owed money.
 Prisons were privately run as a business.
 For poor people conditions were very bad: overcrowding, disease and violence.
 Richer people could pay for better conditions.
Thinking about prisons began to change.
Some reasons for prisons:
Retribution – to punish people for doing wrong
Deterrence – to put other people off doing crimes
Removal – to keep criminals away from everyone else
Rehabilitation – to change people for the better
Restitution – to make criminals do work to pay back to society
Newgate Prison in the
18th century.
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Prison reformers
John Howard
He was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire and was shocked by conditions in the prison
He travelled round Britain and Europe looking for better ideas for running prisons.
His 1777 report on prisons called for
 Decent food
 Useful work
 Christian teaching
 Visits by doctors
Elizabeth Fry
She was a Quaker and very religious. She visited women in Newgate Prison, London.
She found women and children mixed with men and
suffering extreme violence and disease.
She set up education classes for women
She got prisoners to vote for rules to improve their conditions
Her 1825 book called for changes to prisons, especially for women
and children.
Sir Robert Peel
He was Home Secretary in the government.
He got Parliament to pass a law – The Gaols Act 1823 – to set up a proper system of prisons
run by the government.
 Useful work for prisoners so they could learn a trade
 Separate accommodation for women with female prison officers
 Proper inspections of prisons
 Uniforms
 Visits by doctors and chaplains
 Basic education
 Clean, separate cells
Many new prisons were built. The first was Pentonville in London
Howard and Fry had wanted rehabilitation and reform.
But many in the government wanted retribution and deterrence.
So the system in the new prisons was harsh:
 Strict rules and uniforms
 Pointless work: the crank, the treadwheel and picking oakum
 The Separate System and the Silent System which led many to kill themselves.
The 1820s were a time of great change in dealing with crime.
When Sir Robert Peel was Home Secretary the Bloody Code was
ended, the first police force was set up and the new prison
system was started.
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