Punishments - 1500-1700

Changes in Punishment

Crime

Punishment

Purpose

fraud, assault, not going to Church

fines

Monarch’s authority, deterrent

Begging, drunkenness

pillory (hands & head) & stocks(feet)

public humiliation, deterrent

Vagrancy, Begging, Theft

corporal (whipping, maiming, branding)

retribution, deterrent

repeated theft, highway robbery, poaching, smuggling

hanging

retribution, deterrent

Treason

Hung, Drawn, Quartered

retribution, deterrent

Heresy

Burning

Monarch’s authority, deterrent

Most crime

Transportation to America

Retribution, Deterrent

Prisons

  • Held petty criminals (vagrants, drunk and disorderly offenders)

  • Wasn’t punishment in itself - mainly held people while awaiting trial/punishment

  • Inmates had to pay for basic needs - food, bedding

  • Men, women, children and violent, petty crimes were all together

  • Younger prisoners were abused and taught to be more violent criminals

  • 1556 - Houses of Correction - for poor people to stay and work for bed

The Bloody Code

  • 50 capital crimes by 1688

  • include minor crimes - poaching fish/rabbit to eat

  • crime were committed out of desperation

  • Many judges thought the punishment was too harsh, so didn’t convict