Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Crime and Punishment 1700-1900s
- Increased crimes
- Highway
robbery
- Robbing people who
passed by on the road
- Done because there were not enough
jobs for everyone so it was either
starvation or robbing people
- Increased because
- Better roads meant
more people were
travelling
- Increased trade between
towns meant more
goods were being
transported by road
- Many roads were isolated
making it easier to get away
with highway robbery
- Smuggling
- Selling goods to
people without
paying tax
- Done to make more
money as they didn't
lose money from taxes
- Increased because
- Tax on imported goods was
very high
- Smugglers made
large profits as
goods were in high
demand
- Large gangs of
smugglers formed
like the Hawkhurst
gang
- Was hard to prosecute
smugglers because they
could be anywhere along
the large coasts
- Poaching
- Illegally hunting animals on
someone else's land
- Done by the poor so that
they and their families
wouldn't starve
- Increased because many people
were desperate and needed food
to survive
- However, witchcraft stopped being a
crime because
- Economic and social changes
led to more prosperity and
political stability
- Although people still
believed in withches and
the Devil, they became
less superstitious
- The Royal Society - set up by Charles II - led to increased
scientific experiments, which explained things previously
though to be witchcraft
- Causes of the increase in crime
- Travel and urbanisation
- People were travelling more
and moving into towns so
fewer people knew
eachother and communities
were less close
- Larger towns made it easier for people
to hide and escape being caught
- Key individuals
- Some criminals became
'professional' and formed gangs
of thieves
- Wealth and poverty
- Extreme poverty led to a rise in
'survival'crimes such as stealing
food
- Purpose of punishment
- Deterrence
- People believed that the aim of punishment
was to prevent others from committing crime
for fear of the consequences
- 1000 - 1700s
- Reforming criminals
- People believed that the aim of punishment
was to prevent criminals from re-offending by
teaching them how to function in society
- 1700s - present
- Pentonville prison
- Built in 1842 and was a model
for a new idea about how
prisons should be run and
prisoners treated
- The Separate System
- The prisoners in Pentonville PrIsondid not interact at all
but were kept in isolation
- Resons for the Separate System
- Rehabilitation
- Solitude was thought to be the
best way to provide prisoners
with the opportunity to reflect on
their crimes. It also meant that
prisoners were not influenced by
other criminals
- Retribution
- The isolation and boredom made
the criminal pay for their crime
- Deterrent
- It was a serious
punishment and
therefore acted as a
deterrent to
committing crimes
- Picture of
Pentonville Prison 1844 →
- Picture of a cell at Pentonville Prison 1862 →
- Each cell was 4m x 2m, had a small barred
window, a bed, toilet and sink and something
for the prisoner to work on
- The wings had dozens of individual cells and a
staff base. The walls between the cells were very
thick so the prisoners couldn't talk to each other
- When the prisoners
were outside to exercise,
they were masked to
prevent communication
- Strengths of the separate system
- compared to previous prisons is
was clean and there was far less
disease
- Many people thought that it
provided the right level of
punishment - was seen as harsh
but not overly so
- Weaknesses of the separate system
- The continuous isolation led to
mental illness and a high
suicide rate
- There was no education or
instruction to provide new skills
for prisoners to use when they
were released
- Introduction of the Police
force
- The Bow Street Runners
- Established in London in
1749 by Henry Fielding, Chief
Magistrate at Bow Street
Court
- Done to try to tackle
the huge crime
wave of 18th
century London
- Introduced new methods
of finding evident to bring
criminals to justice - the
first modern detectives
- Branched out to patrolling major
roads both on foot and horse
(mounted patrols). Patrols were
less successful than the detecting
as there were not enough people
to deal with the increasing crime
rate
- Shared information on
crimes and suspects
with others - the
beginning of the crime
intelligence network
- Watchmen continued to
patrol cities on foot at night
and parish constables dealt
with petty crime
- Development of the police force 1829-1900
- 1835 - Municipal Corporations Act
- Borough councils could set up police
forces in their area - but only around
half did so
- 1845 - Detective Department
set up
- Set up at the Metropolitan Police Force
headquarters in London
- 1878 - Criminal
investigation
Department (CID)
set up
- Set up for the
Metropolitan Police Force
- 1829 - Metropolitan Police Act
- Began Britain's first
professional police force
in London
- 1839 - Rural
Constabulary Act
- Counties could set up police
forces - two thirds of the
counties did so
- 1856 - Police Act
- Forced all towns and
counties to set up a
professional police force
- Robert Peel
- Had a huge influence on both
punishment and law
enforcement during the 1820s
- Prison Reform
- Partly due to the influence of reformers like
Elizabeth Fry, Peel tried to improve conditions in
prisons. He did this by persuading parliament to
pass the 1823 Gaols Act.
- 1823 Gaols Act stated:
- Chaplains should
regularly visit
prisons
- Gaolers should be paid
- Prisoners should not be put
in chains
- Persuaded parliament to pass the Metropolitan Police Act in 1829
- In 1922, Peel set up a
parliamentary committee to look
into the issue of policing London,
which helped him come up with
the idea of a centralized police
force across the whole city. The
crime wave resulting from the
economic downturn in 1826
helped Peel get the act through
parliament
- Ended the Bloody Code by reducing the
number of death penalty offences and tried
to reform the prison system
- After 1810 there were an
unprecedented number of
capital crimes. However, in
practice the death penalty
was rarely used for most
crimes as judges thought it
was unfair and ruled
transportation or prison
instead
- In 1825, Peel reduced the number of
capital crimes by 100 because he wanted
- Less harsh
punishments for
petty crimes
- To try and reform
petty criminals rather
than kill them
- Introduced the Metropolitan Police Officers (Peelers)
- Their central aim was to
prevent crime and
disorder and be totally
impartial and objective
- Recruits were carefully selected
and well trained. It was a
full-time and fairly well-paid job
- Members had a uniform so
they could be identified
- They were not popular at first but were soon
recognized by the public as being honest and
trustworthy
- Members were usually
unarmed and were
trained to use as little
force as possible and
only as a last resort
- Focused on
patrolling areas
that had high
crime. This
successfully
reduced the
crime rate
- Tolpuddle
Martyrs
- 1. In 1834 in Tolpuddle, Dorset, a
group of farm workers formed a
'friendly society' (an early form of
trade union) to protest about
their low wages compared to
other farmers' wages
- 2. The farm owners and the
government feared they were
losing control of their workers.
The six men were arrested for
taking secret oaths - an old law
intended to stop Naval
mutinies
- 3. The six men were found guilty at
their trial. They all received the
maximum sentence of seven year's
transportation to Australia in an
attempt to deter others from
forming trade unions
- 4. News of the Tolpuddle Martyrs'
sentences spread quickly due to the
press. There were mass protests and a
petition of 200,000 signatures was
collected in opposition of the harsh
punishment
- 5. The Home Security
decided to continue their
sentence and the six were
sent to Austalia
- 6. Protests continued and in
1836 the martyrs were
pardoned and returned
home
- Incident highlights how authorities
used laws to criminalize people
they saw a threat
- Pardoning of the men shows
the impact of public opinion
- New punishments
- Transportation to
Australia
- The increase in crime rate led to
an increase in transportation to
Australia. Once there, the
criminals worked for 7 years,
providing free labour to build
infrastructure
- Most stayed in Australia after
their sentence ended as they
couldn't afford the fare home
- Transportation to Australia
ended in 1868 because
- Austalia no longer needed
forced labourers (the discovery
of gold made it a popular place
to go)
- People thought it was too expensive and
not a strong enough deterrent to crime
whereas other thought it was too harsh
a punishment
- More prisons had been built and was
increasingly used instead
- Imprisonment
- Instead of being punished quickly or
killed, criminals were locked up in
prisons
- Conditions of 18th-century prisons
were very poor
- John
Howard
- John Howard's work led to the
1774 Gaol Act, which suggested
how health and sanitation in
prisons could be improved
- Punishment Reformers
- Elizabeth Fry
- Visited women in Newgate Prison in 1813
set up education classes to reform
female prisoners so that they could
support themselves when they were freed
- Also got them better food and
clothes and treated them with
kindness and respect
- Set up education classes to
reform female prisoners so
that they could support
themselves when they
were freed
- Samuel Romilly
- Criticized the Bloody
Code becuase it was
cruel and illogical
- Was a successful lawyer
- Succeeded in removing the
death penalty for begging or
pick-pocketing
- By 1850 only 9 executions
happened per year
- However, the Bloody
Code became less
effective and was
eventually abolished
because
- Executions actually
increased the amount of
crime as people
committed many crimes
at an execution such as
getting drunk, fighting
and stealing
- As well as this,
people saw the
executions as
entertainment and
enjoyed going to
watch them
- Judges and juries were reluctant to
convict people and end their lives and
so they let people off or gave them less
harsh sentences which made criminals
more confident as they knew they
could get away with committing crimes