Crime and punishment (Early Modern)

Nota:

• c1500-c1700

1. Changes in society

   Nota:

   • there were two types of changes - social - religious 
   1. Lead to crimes against the person

      Nota:

      •  - The increase of street criminals and petty thieves
      1. increase in population and a crime of feudalism lead to higher unemployment, which meant more people moved to urban areas in search of work so towns and cities grew

         Nota:

         • The more people in the towns and cities, the easier petty crimes became
   2. Lead to crimes against property

      Nota:

      • - For example poaching as more land owners restricted the land the commoners from hunting on their land
      1. The end of feudalism and new farming methods lead to enclosure of land.

         Nota:

         • Enclosure = fencing it off for the exclusive use of the land owner
   3. Lead to crimes against authority

      Nota:

      • - as more people committed heresy and high treason -Heresy first became a crime in 1382.
      1. Why was there an increase of crimes against authority?

         Nota:

         • This included high treason because the crime is plotting or acting to overthrow or harm the ruler or country
         1. Early modern England was ruled by the Tudors and then the Stuarts. It was a time of religious change and many rebellions and plots against the monarchy

            Nota:

            • Everyone one who committed crimes against authority were mostly executed by the King or Queen
      2. changes in peoples religious beliefs and religion of the Monarch

         Nota:

         • Different rulers had different religions that wanted the whole country to believe in
         1. The Timeline of religious leaders

            Nota:

            • Illegal to be unemployed and homeless, forcing them to beg for money
            1. 1509-47 ~ Henry VII was a strict Catholic until he changed to Protestant but still enforced Catholic ideas

               Nota:

               • New factors in society led to new crimes
               1. 1547-53 ~ Edward VI was Protestant

                  Nota:

                  • This was because of falling wages, not as many jobs and no system to help the poor as the monasteries were shut down.
                  1. 1553-58 ~ Mary I was a strict Catholic

                     Nota:

                     • - It was given the death sentence - The community thought that because of the move from Catholic to Protestant that there were witches scheming with the devil.
                     1. 1558-1603 ~Elizabeth I was a Protestant but was allowing mild Catholism

                        Nota:

                        • Macbeth
                        1. 1603-25 ~ James I was a strict Protestant

                           Nota:

                           • -They were seen as lazy 
2. New crimes

   Nota:

   • New factors in society led to new crimes
   1. Moral crims

      Nota:

      • Crimes that went against someones morals
      1. Cromwell banned leisurely activities to make England more Godly and got rid of the recusancy law

         Nota:

         • Recusancy = fined for not going to church 
      2. Between 1649-1660 there was no king or queen, Oliver Cromwell ruled asd Lord Protector, he was a strict Protestant that was called a Puritan

         Nota:

         • He believed that fun was a sin
         1. New laws were put in place to help resolve the problem

            Nota:

            • Banned everything fun
            1. He banned: being drunk, over eating, Christmas

               Nota:

               • time for more prayers
            2. Sabbath

               Nota:

               • You were not allowed to play sports on the Sunday
   2. Rural Crimes

      Nota:

      • - eg. poaching  -crimes that effected people living in rural areas
      1. Landowners wanted to make a profit from the enclosed land, but the poor kept hunting and fishing on the land

         Nota:

         • Poaching became a social crime
      2. Many land owners enclosed their land, preventing the poor from being able to use the common land,.

         Nota:

         • This meant that animals could not graze anywhere, which created many problems for farmers
         1. New laws were put in place to help resolve the problem

            Nota:

            • 1671 - The Game Act
            1. The Game Act

               Nota:

               • This made poaching illegal
   3. Witchcraft

      Nota:

      • introduced the death penalty for summoning the evil spirits
      1. Witchcraft had been a minor crime until The Early Modern where is became serious as people saw it as harmful

         Nota:

         • This meant that animal could not graze anywhere, which created many problems for farmers
         1. New laws were put in place to help resolve the problem

            Nota:

            • time for more prayers
            1. Witchcraft Act

               Nota:

               • Banned everything fun
            2. The Witchcraft and Conjurations Act

               Nota:

               • introduced the death penalty for summoning the evil spirits
      2. The media and William Shakespeare also made people more aware of witchcraft

         Nota:

         • Macbeth
   4. Vagrancy

      Nota:

      • 1494 - Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1547 - Vagrancy Act 1597 - Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601 - Poor Laws
      1. Vagrancy grew and became a crime because of the increasing unemployment rate

         Nota:

         • -The 'deserving' poor were given poor relief by the local parish. -The 'undeserving' could be branded with the letter V, whipped or sent to a correction house.
         1. New laws were put in place to help resolve the problem

            Nota:

            • He believed that fun was a sin
            1. The Vagrancy Act

               Nota:

               • Recusancy = fined for not going to church 
            2. The Poor Laws

               Nota:

               • You were not allowed to play sports on the Sunday
      2. They were feared and hated by the settled population

         Nota:

         • Poaching became a social crime
   5. Smuggling

      Nota:

      • Goods entering the country illegally
      1. Because Britain was building an empire and therefore the government introduced import duties (tax) to make more money

         Nota:

         • Tax's meant prices raised 
         1. New laws were put in place to help resolve the problem

            Nota:

            • 1671 - The Board of Custom Established 
            1. The Board of Customs Established

               Nota:

               • Established to help monitor and enforce smuggling laws
      2. It was easy to get the goods into the country without having to pay tax and therefore the prices would be lower meaning more people were willing to buy the smuggled goods.

         Nota:

         • This is because the UK is an island and the whole coast can not be watched
3. The Gun powder plot - 1605

   Nota:

   • treason and crimes against authority
   1. Why the Gun Powder Plot happened

      Nota:

      • They wanted to kill the King and other Protestant leaders
      1. Catholics wanted freedom so the so the Pope told them to depose Elizabeth I

         Nota:

         • There were more laws imposed that prevented Catholics from practising their faith
      2. But James I continued with anti-Catholic laws

         Nota:

         • The plotters wanted James' daughter, Elizabeth, to be Queen
   2. How the Gun Powder Plot happened

      Nota:

      • 5th of November
      1. The Plotters rented the house next to Parliament, above the cellar

         Nota:

         • Parliament = Houses of Parliament
         1. They filled the cellar with barrels of gun powder

            Nota:

            • They were put in before the 5th
            1. Guy Fawkes was sent to set it off

               Nota:

               • No one else was there
               1. The other men tried to flee and hide but were still caught

                  Nota:

                  • Everyone was caught
   3. What happened the Plotters after they were caught

      Nota:

      • Only Guy Fawkes was arrested at the time
      1. Guy Fawkes was tortured

         Nota:

         • He was tortured on the rack, which was mean to be illegal
      2. until he gave up his fellow conspirators

         Nota:

         • They had all left and were in other villages hiding
      3. They were all hung, drawn and quartered

         Nota:

         • January 1606
   4. Why did the Plot fail

      Nota:

      • written confession was given to James
      1. Lord Monteagle gave the letter to Robert Cecil (James I's spy-master)

         Nota:

         • One of the plotters was the Lords friend
      2. Cecil ordered a search of the basement and he found Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder

         Nota:

         • Therefore the plot was stopped before it began
4. Law Enforcement

   Nota:

   • Traditional methods became useless
   1. Law enforcers

      Nota:

      • people who enforced the law after crimes and before crimes could happen
      1. Thief-takers

         Nota:

         • gang members
         1. Criminals that turned rival gangs in for rewards

            Nota:

            • They stepped in when the other enforces weren't effective
      2. Night watch men

         Nota:

         • volunteers
         1. Volunteers with other jobs as well, a male from each household is meant to serve.

            Nota:

            • They ring a bell, to warn people to go inside or be seen as a criminal
      3. Town constable

         Nota:

         • appointed
         1. Appointed by the local people and they are expected break up fights and stop suspected criminals

            Nota:

            • Their boss was the JP's
   2. What changes were there to the role of the church in the law enforcement

      Nota:

      • changes over time
      1. The Benefit of the Clergy

         Nota:

         • A place where you seek be trialed differently in a church court
      2. Sanctuary

         Nota:

         • it was stopped by James I
   3. The continuity in catching the criminals

      Nota:

      • continuity over time
      1. There was still no national police force and the effectiveness of law enforcement varied widely across the country

         Nota:

         • police force is started in the 18th century
      2. people were expected to to raise and join the hue and cry

         Nota:

         • started in the medieval times
5. Punishment

   Nota:

   • how crimes were dealt with after law enforcement
   1. The most common punishments were corporal and capital

      Nota:

      • corporal - lose a body part capital - death
   2. The punishments that have continued through time

      Nota:

      • not changed
      1. Fines

         Nota:

         • punish minor crimes
      2. Pillory, stocks, flogging and maiming

         Nota:

         • forms of corporal punishment towards beggars, drunkenness and vagrancy
      3. hanging

         Nota:

         • crimes such as theft, murder, smuggling -nobles were beheaded, not hung
      4. Burning

         Nota:

         • crimes such as heresy
   3. The main purpose of crime was still deterrence and retribution

      Nota:

      • deterrence = deter people from doing it retribution = give people what they deserve for their crimes
   4. The Bloody Code

      Nota:

      • - This was a change
      1. There were 50 capital offences but at the end of the century there were 220 crimes punishable by death

         Nota:

         • stealing a loaf of bread to murder
      2. Seen as a deterrent

         Nota:

         • deterred petty crimes
      3. Used between 1688 - 1825

         Nota:

         • grew out of hand 
   5. Transportation to America

      Nota:

      • change
      1. Transported to North America to do manual work

         Nota:

         • The punishment was retribution, deterrent and rehabilitation 
      2. between 50,000-80,000 people were transported

         Nota:

         • this included men, women, and children
      3. They were sentence 7-14 years

         Nota:

         • But they could not afford the journey back to England
         1. This meant that there were less criminals in England but less were being killed

            Nota:

            • This is because prisons were not invented yet
6. Witch-Hunts 1645-47

   Nota:

   • change
   1. Matthew Hopkins

      Nota:

      • The 'Witchfinder General'
      1. employed by a Justice of Peace

         Nota:

         • find witches in Essex and East Anglia
      2. He got 112 hung for witchcraft

         Nota:

         • 300 people were originally investigated
      3. used torture

         Nota:

         • unfair to many
   2. Reasons for the intensity of the Witch-hunts

      Nota:

      • The Civil War caused most of the problems
      1. Lack of Authority

         Nota:

         • The civil war weakened the control of local authorities and in some areas law and order and completely collapsed.
      2. Influence of Individuals

         Nota:

         • - James I had promoted Witch-hunting  - Matthew Hopkins spread fear
      3. Religious change

         Nota:

         • Religious differences meant the Puritans to think that the Royalists were using witchcraft
      4. Social problems

         Nota:

         • -The war left many widows  -There were more strangers around
      5. Economic problems

         Nota:

         • The Civil War and the poor harvests caused huge money problems. People were looking for a scapegoat
      6. James I's book 'Demonologie'

         Nota:

         • encouraged superstitious beliefs 
   3. Evidence used to determined if someone is a witch

      Nota:

      • Most of the evidence was wrong and vague 
      1. Unusual marks on the body

         Nota:

         • birthmarks or scars or moles
      2. Witness accounts

         Nota:

         • Someone else has seen this person be a witch
      3. When they are thrown into water, they float
      4. Confessions of the accused

         Nota:

         • Many were tortured into giving confessions