Attitudes To Crime And Punishment Flashcards
retribution and deterrence in the 16th C
Retribution: means to give an equivalent or returned punishment for a crime. It suggests a victim taking vengeance for a crime by making a criminal suffer. There were different forms of retribution but all made the criminal suffer pain, humiliation or death
Deterrence aims to discourage someone from commiting a crime by making them afraid of the consequences. This is usually done by making punishment harsh and unpleasant. E.g capital punishment (usually hanging) or corporal punishment such as stocks and pillory, flogging, mutilation and branding.
Women who were said to scold or argue with their husbands were often punished with a ducking stool or may be led around town wearing a scold’s bridle.
Retribution and deterrence in the 18th C
Corporal punishment continued, flooding most common
Executions continued to occur publicly. After 1783 a swifter method of hanging was used. A platform below the prisoner was removed leading to a swifter and less painful death
The bloody code: more and moe crimes were made capital offences . MPs were cared by the increase in crime threatening their property. Made 200 crimes capital offences and included stealing sheep, poaching fish, cutting down a tree. However the severity of the bloody code meant judges and juries avoided following it, some would acquit a criminal, declaring them not guilty. For lesser crimes of gambling, drunkenness and social impropriety monetary fines were still used.
Retribution and deterrence from the 19th to 21st Cs
In 19thC the desire for criminals so suffer was replaced with wanting to help criminals move away from a life of crime.
During the 19th C, attitudes towards punishment began to change. There was increasing use of prisons and a greater belief in reforming prisoners; this was reflected in changes to the bloody code e.g in 1823 the Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel abolished the death penalty for over 180 crimes to just 5: murder,treason, piracy with violence, espionage, burning down a weapons store or navy dockyard. This shows a move away from harsh punishment and toward fitting punishments to the seriousness of the crime and a realisation of the need for practicality so courts would follow the law. In 21st C punishments still aim to deter criminals but not through pain, humiliation or death: loss of liberty through prisons, fines and community service. Punishments focus on reform and rehabilitation with aim of preventing reoffending.
The purpose of public punishment over time
In Saxon and medieval times, violence dominated Saxon punishment. The blood feud allowed a victim’s family to take vengeance on an offender. As this lead to escalated violence this was replaced with a fine. Treason and arson were punished by public execution as a warning to others. After the Norman con quest, the new king, William I kept system of fines but the money now went to the king. Many physical punishments were used to deter people from committing crimes e.g Whipping or flogging, the stocks, mutilation. People who committed serious offences such as heresy were burned alive; treason were hung drawn and quartered.
In 16th and 17th C nearly all punishment was public.g vagrants were whipped before being sent to birthplace, petty criminals were placed in stocks and pillories and sturdy beggars were branded with a hole through the ear if they were repeatedly caught begging.
In 1862 a royal commission on capital punishment concluded that executions should no longer be done publicly because: huge crowds at hangings attracted pickpockets, crowds viewed executions as entertainment and sometimes made criminals appear heroic rather than a deterrent. Other forms of public punishment also stopped in the 19th C flogging was carried out inside prisons but stocks and pillory no longer used.
In 20 and 21Cs community service is the only public punishment. In 2008 Home Secretary introduced wearing of high visibility vests as a response to public pressure to make this punishment more visible. The media also provide public humiliation as local papers can report on recent sentences and national papers publish images of celebrities and high-profile criminal cases who have been sentenced to community service.
Banishment in 18th and 19th centuries
Transportation was an alternative to the death penalty. At the time of the bloody code, judges wanted to have a more lenient punishment than death. Banishment was considered a good punishment as criminal was removed from country so could no longer commit crimes that would affect the population. + it was cheaper than prison and helped Britain control and colonise expanding territory in West Indies and North America however moved to Australia following outbreak of American war of independence. Between 1787 and 1868 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia.
Transportation still acted as a deterrent: convicts were expected to work hard, sentences were for 7,14 years or life, the conditions on the journey and in Australia were harsh.
Transportation ended in 1868 as attitudes to punishment was changing, wanting to reform and rehabilitate criminals rather than banish them, also seemed unfair to send prisoners to Australia when British people were paying to emigrate there and start a new life; free colonists were resentful to having thousands of criminals imposed on them+ prisons were becoming cheaper.
use of prisons to punish and reform in the 19th C
Attitudes before the 19th C: prisons were rarely used in 16th and 17th C as they were not seen to provide retribution or deterrence. They were only used to hold people before trial and before their capital or corporal punishments was carried out. In Tudor times houses of correction were used. Their aim was to reform persistent beggars and provide correction for unmarried mothers. There were also debtors jails where those in debt remained until their debts were repaid. In the 18th C prisons conditions were poor and people began to suggest that they were corrected ( FRY and Howard)
In 19th C pressure from ELizabeth FRy convinced people that prison conditions were inhumane and changed attitudes toward role of prison for reforming and rehabilitating criminals.
The 1823 goals act stated prisons should be made secure, sexes should be separated, doctors and chaplains should visit prisoners, attempts should be made at reform through hard work, reflection and Christian teaching.
Separate and silent systems to punish criminals in the 19th C
Separate: prisoners were isolated from each other and worked un pointless punishment machines such as the crank in their cells. Prison chaplains would try to encourage them to live a crime-free life. The belief was that with a lot of time alone, prisoners would reflect on their crimes and can be reformed. When prisoners left their cells they were made to wear a mask and keep silence. During excercise, each prisoner held on to a knot on a length of rope, 4.5m away from the next prisoner so they were too far apart too talk. Prisoners were kept in their cells for 23 hours a day.
Silent: inmates forced to do boring, repetitive tasks in complete silence. E.g passing a heavy cannon ball. They slept on hard beads and had basic food.
Neither system worked as suicide rate was high and increasing evidence suggested that isolation caused more mental health problems and decreased the chances of criminals being able to return to life outside prison.
Changes in attitudes to punishment in the 20th and 21st C
More focused on rehabilitation and restitution e.g prison, community service, fines and court orders. Victims are also more often compensated for crimes + community service aims to compensate local community/
Prison: loss of liberty is viewed as punishment rather than conditions inside. Flooding, isolation and silence were abandoned, prisoners can wear own clothes, food improved and education courses made available to prisoners to give them useful skills for employment following their release. However since 1945 the rising crime rate has caused overcrowding in prisons so less access to education courses.
Capital punishment: abolished in 1965 murder act as it didn’t deter criminals, it was increasingly viewed as barbaric and sometimes there was wrongful convictions e.g Walter rowland and Timothy Evan’s.
Attitudes to young offenders in 20th and 21st C
In previous C young offenders were treated the same way as adult offenders.
Now, young offenders were given different trials through specifics youth courts and young people do not go to adult prisons.
Borstals and young offender institutions were established in 1902 to deal with young people.
Since 1909 people below age of 18 have been treated differently from adults and the youth justice system is developed separately to adult criminal justice system. This change occurred alongside a greater understanding of the development of the brain through neuroscientists and psychological research, and clinical practise in psychiatry and psychology.
Attitudes toward age of criminal responsibility has also changed. In 1908 an age of criminal responsibility was introduced for first time at age 7, then with 1998 Crime and disorder act it was raised to 10 years.
