Changes in Crime and Punishment in Britain c.500 to the Present

Medieval Period (c.500–1500)

In Anglo-Saxon and early medieval England, the concept of crime was community-based. There was no professional police force; communities enforced order themselves.

Community justice:

• Trial by ordeal — God would indicate guilt or innocence: walking on hot coals, plunging an arm in boiling water. The Church administered these.
• Wergild ("man-price") — paying compensation to a victim's family according to their social status.
• Hue and cry — if a crime was committed, all able-bodied men were required to pursue the criminal.

Common crimes: theft, poaching (taking the king's deer was a capital offence), murder.

Punishments: Execution, mutilation (cutting off hands, branding), the stocks and pillory (public humiliation), outlawry (expulsion from the community — effectively a death sentence).

From the 12th century, Henry II established common law courts and royal courts; trial by jury began to replace ordeal (condemned by the Church at the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215).

Early Modern Period (1500–1750)

The Protestant Reformation reduced the Church's role in crime and punishment. The state took greater control.

New crimes: Heresy became a capital offence (burning at the stake); witchcraft (Witchcraft Act 1563 — up to 200 executions); vagrancy (wandering without work was criminalised).

The "Bloody Code": By the 1720s, over 200 offences were punishable by death, including theft of goods worth more than 12 pence. Transportation to colonies (Australia from 1788) became an alternative.

Law enforcement: Parish constables (unpaid, often reluctant); Justices of the Peace; Watchmen in towns.

Prisons: Used mainly for holding accused people awaiting trial, not as punishment. Conditions were appalling — John Howard's State of the Prisons (1777) exposed them.

Industrial Period (1750–1900)

Rapid urbanisation created new challenges: larger anonymous cities made crime harder to detect and communities harder to control.

Metropolitan Police (1829): Sir Robert Peel established the first professional police force in London. Officers were called "Bobbies" (after Robert Peel) or "Peelers." By 1856 all boroughs had to have a police force.

Decline of the Bloody Code: In the early 19th century, reformers (Sir Samuel Romilly, Robert Peel) reduced capital offences — from 220 to just murder and a few other serious crimes by 1861. Transportation replaced execution for many crimes.

Prison reform: Elizabeth Fry campaigned for humane prison conditions. The Penitentiary Act (1779) and later Victorian prison reform led to the idea of rehabilitation and reform. The Separate System (prisoners kept in isolation for reflection) was tried at Pentonville (1842).

20th Century to Present

New crimes: Motoring offences (speeding, drunk driving); drug offences; cyber crime; terrorism; hate crimes; white-collar crime.

Changing punishments: Capital punishment abolished 1969 (last hanging 1964). Community service introduced 1970s. Electronic tagging; rehabilitation programmes; anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs).

Policing: Greater technology — CCTV, DNA evidence, computers. Specialist units (Counter-Terrorism Command, Financial Investigation).

Key Themes for WJEC Exams

Continuity and change: Crime types change (e.g. heresy no longer a crime; cyber crime is new), but some — theft, violence — remain constant. The idea that punishment should deter OR rehabilitate is a recurring debate. Turning points: Metropolitan Police 1829; abolition of capital punishment 1969. Causation: Social, economic and political factors drive changes in what is defined as criminal and how it is punished.