Early Modern Crime and Punishment 1500-1750

Nota:

• Key controversy: More of the same or significant change?

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

         Nota:

         • These aren't necessarily new crimes - some = crimes that already existed but became became increasingly feared
         1. Vagrancy
            1. Begins after BD but becomes big prob in EM period
            2. Causes
               1. Increased pop - 2.4million (1520) to 4.1million (1600)
                  1. Lack of work - people wander - look for work/steal
                  2. Rising Prices
                  3. Made worse when Harvest fail or wool trade declines
            3. Examples
               1. Upright man
                  1. Carries staff. Demands money
               2. Counterfeit crank
                  1. Pretends to be ill e.g. soap trick
            4. Greatly feared but not reality - Printing press = books/pamphlets e.g. Harman
               1. Exaggerate threat - very few 'gangs' most travel alone or in 2s or 3s
         2. Moral Crime
            1. Puritans influence increase = more 'crimes' punished
            2. Examples
               1. Swearing
               2. having affairs
               3. not going to church
         3. Organised Crime
            1. Smuggling
               1. Why?
                  1. High taxes on imported goods
                  2. Easy way to make money
                     1. Earn as much in one night as weeks wage
               2. What?
                  1. 1600s = Tobacco
                  2. After 1720s Brandy, tea, silk (taxes increase to 30%)
               3. How?
                  1. Gangs - 40-50 people. Often had support of locals
            2. Highway robbery
               1. First a prob in Elizabethan times - 1558-1603
                  1. New/better roads
                     1. Unlit, through remote areas - easy targets
                  2. Stagecoaches introduced
               2. Often v violent
                  1. Rob and rape women
                  2. 1722 - Woman who said she knew who highway men were - tongue cut out
         4. Witchcraft
            1. Number of trials varies across period
               1. Different kings e.g James I was very interested in witchcraft - wrote books

                  Nota:

                  • Macbeth was written for him He wrote 'Demonology' - how to spot witches
               2. Increase in times of famine/plague - blamed for what don't understand
               3. During Civil War (1642-49) trials increase
            2. Who?
               1. Those accused often weak - easy targets
               2. Way to get own back on someone
               3. Women (mostly)
      2. End violence to from nobles
         1. End of Wars of Roses - Tudors = more settled dynasty

            Nota:

            • Although this ignores the fact that Eng Civ War 1642-1649
      3. Change in Crime rates
         1. rise to peak in 1620 then decline

            Nota:

            • True for Murder and theft
            1. Decrease when less pressure on economy
            2. Due to pop increase, rising prices, falling wages

               Nota:

               • When people are poor, they can't find jobs and prices are high crime increases - pretty obvious really!
   2. Continuity
      1. Similar types of crime to Medieval
      2. Petty crime most common
         1. Theft most common crime
      3. Violent nature of crime continued
         1. High homicide rate
            1. people carried weapons
            2. Poor medical care
3. Punishments
   1. Public humiliation/shaming
      1. Cucking/ducking stool
      2. Whipping/branding
      3. Scold's bridle
      4. Stocks/pillory
      5. Penance
      6. continued from Medieval - became more widespread
   2. Capital punishment
      1. Changes
         1. Bloody Code
            1. 1723 - Black Act
               1. Poaching deer/hrabbit/fish = death
            2. Increase in crimes punishable by death
               1. 50 in 1688 to 200 in 1820
               2. BUT - numbers of people hanged decreases
                  1. Judges unwiling to sentence to death for minor crimes
                     1. Reduced value of goods stolen
                     2. Acquitted due to little evidence
                     3. Used transportation rather than death
      2. most common =hanging
         1. long, slow, painful - strangulation
      3. treason
         1. Noblemen- Axe
         2. Everyone else = HDQ
   3. Imprisonment
      1. Bridewells
         1. For vagrants - became workhouses
      2. Prisons
         1. Little change
            1. for debtors
            2. awaiting trial
            3. have to pay for food etc.