Early modern crime and punishment (c.1500–c.1750)
This period sees significant new crimes emerge — vagrancy and witchcraft — and the full flowering of the Bloody Code. OCR papers frequently ask students to compare continuity and change across periods; knowing what is new in the early modern period is as important as knowing the facts themselves.
New crimes: vagrancy
Economic and religious upheavals of the 16th century (dissolution of the monasteries, enclosures, failed harvests) produced thousands of homeless wanderers. Parliament responded with harsh vagrancy laws:
- 1547 Vagrancy Act: vagabonds could be branded and enslaved for two years for a first offence; executed for a third.
- The attitude was that poverty was a moral failing — the "sturdy beggar" was a threat to social order.
- This reflects a new crime: created by social change rather than an ancient wrong.
Witch trials (c.1550–c.1700)
Belief in witches was ancient, but prosecutions peaked in the 16th–17th centuries:
- Causes: religious upheaval (Reformation), fear of the Devil, community scapegoating of elderly women, and publications such as Malleus Maleficarum (1486) that systematised witch beliefs.
- Matthew Hopkins (Witchfinder General): active c.1644–46 in East Anglia; responsible for the execution of around 300 people.
- Evidence: spectral evidence, swimming tests, searching for "witch's marks".
- Witch trials declined after c.1700 as Enlightenment rationalism made such evidence less acceptable in courts.
Key OCR point: witch trials show how fear, religion and social change can create new crimes — the pattern recurs in every period.
The Bloody Code
The number of capital offences escalated from around 50 in the medieval period to over 200 by the early 18th century. Offences as minor as stealing goods worth over 12 pence from a shop became capital.
Reasons for continuation:
- Property-owning classes made the laws and feared crime.
- No police force: hanging was seen as the only deterrent.
- In practice, not all sentences were carried out — benefit of clergy, royal pardon and jury nullification softened the code.
Why the code was ineffective:
- Juries refused to convict for minor offences knowing death would follow.
- Public executions became entertainment, not deterrents.
- Crime rates did not fall.
Transportation
As an alternative to execution:
- 1718: Transportation Act sent convicts to American colonies for 7 or 14 years.
- After American independence (1783) transport to America ended.
- 1788: First Fleet transported convicts to Botany Bay, Australia.
- Transportation was meant to: (a) remove criminals from society, (b) provide cheap labour for colonies, (c) offer an alternative to the death penalty for some crimes.
Transportation was abolished in 1868 (to Australia).
Continuity and change
| Feature | Medieval | Early modern |
|---|---|---|
| Capital punishment | 50+ offences | 200+ offences (Bloody Code) |
| New "crimes" | Heresy, poaching | Vagrancy, witchcraft |
| Alternative punishments | Mutilation, pillory | Transportation |
| Church role | Very high | Declining (Reformation) |
| Police | None (hue and cry) | None (parish constable) |
Common OCR exam mistakes
- Saying transportation started after the Bloody Code — transportation was part of the Bloody Code era as an alternative to death.
- Confusing Matthew Hopkins dates (1640s, English Civil War era) with the Salem trials (1692, America — NOT on OCR J410).
- Treating the Bloody Code as increasing crime rates — it didn't, which is evidence it was ineffective.
✦Worked example— Worked example: significance question
Explain the significance of Matthew Hopkins for the history of crime and punishment. [8 marks]
Key points: Hopkins shows how hysteria + authority + social fear = mass injustice. Significance: demonstrates that "crime" is socially constructed; links to the broader pattern of witch trials as a product of religious and social disruption; also shows limits of evidence (spectral evidence was unreliable) — anticipates later Enlightenment demands for rational proof.
AI-generated · claude-opus-4-7 · v3-ocr-history