Early Modern Crime and Punishment 1500-1750

Early Modern Crime and Punishment 1500-1750

1. Enforcement

   • Continuity
     • Hue and cry
     • Enforcers
       • Still unpaid
       • mostly new people dealing with
       • relied on help of local people
       • Repeat offenders a problem
         • BUT - John Ayley - repeat offender chosen as constable!
     • Structure of courts
   • Changes
     • Sheriff far less imp - JPs take over
     • As towns grow watchmen more imp
   • Courts
     • Assizes
       • Serious cases
         • e.g. murder, arson, rape, highway robbery
           • Capital crimes
       • County - six 'circuits' two judges each, 2x per year
     • Quarter sessions
       • JPs
         • New powers under Eiizabeth I
           • Fix roads
           • fix wages
           • arrest vagrants
       • Less serious cases
         • Most = petty crime
           • Theft less than 1 shilling
     • Petty sessions
       • small groups JPs met in local areas
       • Because not all cases can be cover by quarter sessions
       • Petty crime
         • Minor assaults, drunkeness
       • Gradually took over from manor courts
     • Manor Courts
       • Same as Medieval
         • Became less imp - petty sessions took over
     • Church courts
       • same as medieval
         • particularly important during late 1500s -early 1600s - puritans influence

2. Crime and Criminals

   • Changes
     • Crimes of Concern
       • These aren't necessarily new crimes - some = crimes that already existed but became became increasingly feared
       • Vagrancy
         • Begins after BD but becomes big prob in EM period
         • Causes
           • Increased pop - 2.4million (1520) to 4.1million (1600)
             • Lack of work - people wander - look for work/steal
             • Rising Prices
             • Made worse when Harvest fail or wool trade declines
         • Examples
           • Upright man
             • Carries staff. Demands money
           • Counterfeit crank
             • Pretends to be ill e.g. soap trick
         • Greatly feared but not reality - Printing press = books/pamphlets e.g. Harman
           • Exaggerate threat - very few 'gangs' most travel alone or in 2s or 3s
       • Moral Crime
         • Puritans influence increase = more 'crimes' punished
         • Examples
           • Swearing
           • having affairs
           • not going to church
       • Organised Crime
         • Smuggling
           • Why?
             • High taxes on imported goods
             • Easy way to make money
               • Earn as much in one night as weeks wage
           • What?
             • 1600s = Tobacco
             • After 1720s Brandy, tea, silk (taxes increase to 30%)
           • How?
             • Gangs - 40-50 people. Often had support of locals
         • Highway robbery
           • First a prob in Elizabethan times - 1558-1603
             • New/better roads
               • Unlit, through remote areas - easy targets
             • Stagecoaches introduced
           • Often v violent
             • Rob and rape women
             • 1722 - Woman who said she knew who highway men were - tongue cut out
       • Witchcraft
         • Number of trials varies across period
           • Different kings e.g James I was very interested in witchcraft - wrote books
             • Macbeth was written for him He wrote 'Demonology' - how to spot witches
           • Increase in times of famine/plague - blamed for what don't understand
           • During Civil War (1642-49) trials increase
         • Who?
           • Those accused often weak - easy targets
           • Way to get own back on someone
           • Women (mostly)
     • End violence to from nobles
       • End of Wars of Roses - Tudors = more settled dynasty
         • Although this ignores the fact that Eng Civ War 1642-1649
     • Change in Crime rates
       • rise to peak in 1620 then decline
         • True for Murder and theft
         • Decrease when less pressure on economy
         • Due to pop increase, rising prices, falling wages
           • When people are poor, they can't find jobs and prices are high crime increases - pretty obvious really!
   • Continuity
     • Similar types of crime to Medieval
     • Petty crime most common
       • Theft most common crime
     • Violent nature of crime continued
       • High homicide rate
         • people carried weapons
         • Poor medical care

3. Punishments

   • Public humiliation/shaming
     • Cucking/ducking stool
     • Whipping/branding
     • Scold's bridle
     • Stocks/pillory
     • Penance
     • continued from Medieval - became more widespread
   • Capital punishment
     • Changes
       • Bloody Code
         • 1723 - Black Act
           • Poaching deer/hrabbit/fish = death
         • Increase in crimes punishable by death
           • 50 in 1688 to 200 in 1820
           • BUT - numbers of people hanged decreases
             • Judges unwiling to sentence to death for minor crimes
               • Reduced value of goods stolen
               • Acquitted due to little evidence
               • Used transportation rather than death
     • most common =hanging
       • long, slow, painful - strangulation
     • treason
       • Noblemen- Axe
       • Everyone else = HDQ
   • Imprisonment
     • Bridewells
       • For vagrants - became workhouses
     • Prisons
       • Little change
         • for debtors
         • awaiting trial
         • have to pay for food etc.