There are three main types of crime:

1. Crime against the person

2. Crime against property

3. Crime against authority

In the Early-Modern period a wife who nagged her husband could be found guilty of being a scold. One of the common punishments for this crime was to be ducked in the local river or pond using a ducking stool.

You can see a ducking stool that still exists in Canterbury in Kent. Another punishment was to wear the Scold's Bridle

As you can see - what was a crime in the 1600s is not a crime now - what has changed?

There are five main causes of crime:

a. Need - caused by poverty

b. Belief - the person believes the law is wrong

c. Impulse - a crime committed on the spur of the moment

d. Influence - either drugs, alcohol or peer pressure

e. Gain - crime committed to get more wealth

 

How have these changed? Crime, Protest, Punishment and Policing.

What happened in?

Early-Modern

c.1500-1750

Kett's Rebellion, Pilgrimage of Grace, Gunpowder Plot, Vagabonds, Poaching, Smuggling, Highwaymen, Witchcraft, Corporal Punishment, Bloody Code........more

Industrial Britain

c.1750-1900

Theft and robbery, Poverty, Police, Transportation, Prisons, Luddites, Swing Riots, Chartism, Prison Reformers, Dock Strike........more

Twentieth Century

1900-2000

Suffrage Movement, Conscientious Objectors, General Strike, Hanging, Youth Detention, Fingerprinting, DNA, Surveillance, Drug Crime, Hooliganism, Community Service, Race Crime.........more

Who were?

Robert Aske, Matthew Hopkins, Jonathan Wild, Dick Turpin, John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Derek Bentley........more

The question of 'What is Crime?' can be best explored

by looking at the example of homelessness.

In the Early-Modern period the number of homeless

people increased because of the changes in the land.

The new enclosures forced many from their traditional

rural livelihoods, and they were forced to hit the road.

This made many comfortable people feel scared, and

laws were passed to criminalise the homeless and the

unemployed. They became known as 'vagabonds'. If

caught, they would be flogged and branded like cattle.

If caught a second time, they were placed into slavery,

or even executed.

Nowadays, homeless people are helped by charities like

'The Big Issue', 'Shelter', 'Centrepoint' and 'Crisis', and by

the government itself through welfare schemes and

housing programmes, although a lot is still needed to

be done.

So - why is a crime in 1604 no longer a crime now?

What has changed? Have we changed? Has society

changed?

Remember to think about the BIG ISSUES like these

when you plan your answers!