Crime and punishment have changed dramatically throughout human history. Today, citizens of the western world tend to believe there is a fair and just legal system in place, able to determine guilt and administer appropriate justice for the crimes committed. However, the current method of justice has taken a long time to design and execute, and it is still far from being perfect.
The Death Penalty: A Popular Deterrent
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the death penalty had been used quite extensively. However, by the early 19th century, the death sentence tended to be repealed from use in less serious crimes, such as arson, in favour of fines, or imprisonment.
For centuries, the use of execution had been to “inspire terror in those whose duty it was to obey” and the people actually loved public executions; it was a spectacle for everyone to behold. Citizens would bring the entire family to watch the execution, both as a form of entertainment and to teach their children obedience and to scare them straight. Moreover, the use of the death penalty can also be attributed to the demographic growth of London, and the surrounding countryside. By 1750, “the population of London had reached almost 700, 000 and 1800, it was over a million.”
Close Habitation: A Breeding Ground for Crime
Linked to this enormous growth was the inevitable crowding associated with so many people living in such a tight space. This was due to “a failure to regulate building and environmental standards, inequalities in the housing market, and above all poverty […] the consequences of overcrowding, not only on the labouring poor but decent working-class families.” The homes were built incredibly close together, with several families often occupying one residence.This is another influencing factor as to why the death penalty was so prevalant. Town officials wanted to discourage crime in such a large city, and they viewed execution as the most viable means of doing so.
The End of the Death Penalty
The beginning of the 19th century, however, marked a dramatic shift in British society; advocates of reform felt that the terror associated with the death penalty were “too powerful; the lesson offered to the lower class was contradictory and dangerous.” Reformers believed that they should establish punishment based on sympathy and reform, and they sought to “identify with the poor, the criminal, and the outcast because they expected to receive a reciprocating identification.” Reformers wanted to focus on rehabilitation and correction of deviant behaviour, and reduce the use of the death penalty in Britain.
The First Crime Scene Investigators
According to early court documents attained from the 17th and 18th centuries, the court had actively tried to attain a “guilty” plea from the accused individual. This is due to the fact that evidence for many crimes in those days was hard to decipher, or even uncover. There were no CSI detectives in those days. Furthermore, many criminals pled guilty under their own will because they believed that if they pled guilty, then God would forgive their sins and admit them into heaven. However, by examining later trials it became obvious that the courts begin to try to investigate the crimes with greater diligence and accuracy in order to discover the guilty party.
New Concept of Reform Prisons Emerges
The main reason for why the death penalty decreases in popularity following this period is that “new attitudes towards imprisonment developed. It was thought that prisons could be used to reform offenders, so that they could re-enter the community as productive citizens.” This is linked to the fact stated earlier in this paper which stated how city officials and prison reformers wanted to get away from capital punishment as a tool used for crimes which, in the long run, did not really require it. Increasingly, administers of justice wanted to use prison or fines as a means of controlling lesser crimes in Britain.
The advancement in attitudes towards crime is clear. The earliest trials were short, and most ended in the death sentence for the accused in order to simply try and deter future crime. Later trials are incredibly complex, rely on the art of rhetoric and persuasion, and the beginnings of investigation and forensics is even visible. Further advances in punishment are made obvious as well; initial views of punishment were centered on retributive acts such as death or public humiliation, however by the 19th century the middle and upper class became increasingly “alarmed by the brutality of the ceremony, and the hardened indifference to suffering in a crowd.” The advances made in criminology, psychology, and law during this crucial era all contributed to the legal system that is so well known in western society today.
Sources:
Hitchcock, Tim, and Robert Shoemaker, (2006). ‘The Population History of London’, Old Bailey Proceedings Online.
McGowen, Randall, (1996). “A Powerful Sympathy: Terror, the Prison, and Humanitarian Reform in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain,” The Journal of British Studies.
McLynn, F. Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth-Century England. London: Routledge. 1989.
