Factors and change map

• Most crime was petty theft, often of food or animals, by poor people.
• The Normans' Forest Laws made hunting in royal forests a crime, so poaching became far more common.

Notes: Anglo-Saxon and Norman justice

• Most crime was still petty theft.
• After the Reformation, heresy and treason became more important crimes against authority, as the Gunpowder Plot shows.
• New crimes: vagabondage, and witchcraft (Acts of 1542, 1563 and 1604).

Notes: Crime in early modern England · The Gunpowder Plotters · Matthew Hopkins and the witch-hunts

• Petty theft was still the most common crime.
• Highway robbery, poaching and smuggling rose, then fell.
• Changing definitions: the Witchcraft Act of 1736 ended witchcraft prosecutions, while the Tolpuddle Martyrs were punished for a union oath (1834).

Notes: Crime in the 18th and 19th centuries · The Tolpuddle Martyrs

• Theft is still the most common crime.
• Old crimes take new forms: car crime and cyber crime; drug and people smuggling.
• New laws created driving offences, race crimes and drug crimes; refusing to fight was treated as a crime against authority.

Notes: Crime in modern Britain · Conscientious objectors

• No police: the community enforced the law through tithings and the hue and cry.
• Royal officials grew in number: sheriffs, coroners, travelling judges and, from the 14th century, Justices of the Peace.
• Trial by ordeal ended after 1215, and trial by jury took its place.

Notes: Anglo-Saxon and Norman justice · Law and punishment in later medieval England · The Church and crime

• Still no police: unpaid parish constables, town watchmen and the hue and cry.
• Justices of the Peace became more important.
• Growing towns made the old system, where everyone knew everyone, work less well.

Notes: Early modern law enforcement and punishment

• The Fieldings' Bow Street Runners (1749) were London's first paid law-enforcers.
• Peel's Metropolitan Police (1829) patrolled beats to prevent crime.
• Every county and town had a force by 1856; the CID began in 1878.

Notes: Robert Peel and the police

• Specialist units, from the Flying Squad (1919) to the National Crime Agency (2013).
• Fingerprints, the 999 number, the Police National Computer, DNA and CCTV.
• A move towards prevention, with the community again helping: Neighbourhood Watch (1982).

Notes: Modern policing

• Aims: deterrence and retribution, so punishments were public and harsh.
• Fines were the most common punishment; also the stocks, pillory, whipping and mutilation, and hanging for serious crimes.
• The wergild ended: fines were paid to the king, not the victim.

Notes: Law and punishment in later medieval England · Anglo-Saxon and Norman justice

• Still public and harsh: the stocks, pillory and whipping; hanging; burning for heresy.
• Traitors such as the Gunpowder Plotters were hanged, drawn and quartered (1606).
• New: transportation to America, and the start of the Bloody Code (about 50 capital crimes by the 1680s).

Notes: Early modern law enforcement and punishment · The Gunpowder Plotters

• The Bloody Code grew to over 200 capital crimes, then was cut back from the 1820s.
• Transportation to Australia (1787–1868); public executions ended in 1868.
• Prisons replaced them, aiming to reform: Pentonville's separate system (1842).

Notes: Punishment and prison reform, c1700–c1900 · Pentonville prison

• The death penalty for murder was suspended in 1965 and abolished for good in 1969.
• Prisons aim to reform; open prisons, and separate treatment of young offenders.
• Non-custodial sentences: probation, community service and electronic tagging.

Notes: Modern punishment · The Derek Bentley case

• The community was responsible for keeping order.
• People believed God would show the truth, so trial by ordeal was accepted.
• Harsh public punishment was accepted.

Notes: Anglo-Saxon and Norman justice · Law and punishment in later medieval England

• Fear of vagabonds: the 'undeserving poor' were seen as a threat to order.
• Most people believed in witches; religious change and hard times bred fear.

Notes: Crime in early modern England · Matthew Hopkins and the witch-hunts

• A growing belief that punishment should reform criminals, not just deter.
• Juries refused to convict under the Bloody Code; public pressure freed the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Notes: Punishment and prison reform, c1700–c1900 · The Tolpuddle Martyrs

• Unease after cases such as Derek Bentley's helped end the death penalty.
• Concern about race and drugs led to new crimes; COs were treated more fairly in the Second World War.

Notes: The Derek Bentley case · Crime in modern Britain · Conscientious objectors

• Kings: crime became an offence against the king's peace; William I's Forest Laws and murdrum fine.
• The Church: its own courts, benefit of clergy and sanctuary; in 1215 it ended trial by ordeal.

Notes: Anglo-Saxon and Norman justice · The Church and crime

• Monarchs changed the official religion, making heresy and treason major crimes.
• James I wrote about witches; Hopkins and Stearne led the witch-hunts of 1645–47.
• Parliament, made up of landowners, began the Bloody Code.

Notes: Crime in early modern England · Matthew Hopkins and the witch-hunts · Early modern law enforcement and punishment

• The Fieldings and Robert Peel changed policing.
• John Howard and Elizabeth Fry exposed prison conditions; Peel's Gaols Act (1823).
• Parliament passed the Acts that made the changes.

Notes: Robert Peel and the police · Punishment and prison reform, c1700–c1900

• Government laws created new crimes, such as the Race Relations Act 1965 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
• Specialist police units; the Bentley family's campaign won a partial pardon (1993), and his conviction was quashed (1998).

Notes: Crime in modern Britain · Modern policing · The Derek Bentley case

• Little effect: law enforcement relied on people, not technology.

Notes: Factors and change

• Printing spread ideas, such as pamphlets about witches.

Notes: Factors and change · Matthew Hopkins and the witch-hunts

• Faster transport and the telegraph.

Notes: Factors and change

• Fingerprints, DNA, CCTV and computers help identify and catch criminals.
• But cars and the internet also created new crimes.

Notes: Modern policing · Crime in modern Britain