Causes of Crime Flashcards
What is Blasphemy?
Speaking about God in a sacrilegious or disrespectful way.
When was Blasphemy first criminalised?
In the medieval era
What is a cause of crime applicable to all eras?
Poverty
When was the Great Famine?
1315-1317
What happened during the Great Famine?
Harvests failed and food became scarce, people had to steal food to stay alive.
When was the Black Death?
1340’s
What happened during the Black Death?
Land was left unfarmed therefore people had to steal food in order to stay alive.
Additionally, when people died and buildings became abandoned, this gave criminals places to hide.
When was the Peasants Revolt?
1381
What caused the Peasant’s Revolt?
After the 1370’s poll tax was introduced, people couldn’t afford these taxes.
This led to the revolt
What 4 problems led to an increase in crime during the medieval era?
Famine
Disease
Warfare
Increased taxation
How did warfare increase rates of crime in the medieval era?
Battles often increased poverty in an area by destroying buildings in towns and farmland in the countryside. Also, sometimes battling armies stole the food they needed from the local area they were based in.
This happened in military campaigns from the Norman Conquest in the 11th century through to the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century.
What is highway robbery/
Using force or threat of force to steal money or valuables from travellers on the roads
When was there an increase in highway robbery?
Medieval era
Why was there an increase of highway robbery in the medieval era?
As the economy grew during the medieval era, merchants began to transport more and more of their goods along roads and tracks between villages and towns.
What type of crime became very common in the medieval era, and why?
Violent crimes
This was due to people having increased access to potential weapons, especially farming tools (e.g hammers, spades & sickles)
What crime consisted of 20% of crimes during the first half of the 14th century?
Murder or manslaughter
What percent of crimes was murder or manslaughter in the first half of the 14th century?
20%
Why was there an increase of poverty in the early modern era?
Population growth
Collapse of the cloth industry
Changes in farming practises
Inflation
Warfare
Increases tax
What are vagrants?
Homeless, unemployed people who wandered the streets
How many vagrants were there in the Elizabethan era?
10,000
What did people believe caused vagrancy?
Idleness
What did the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601 do?
Made each parish responsible for looking after its poor and punished vagabonds.
What is heresy?
To disagree with, or refuse to follow the religious views of the monarch or the state.
In which era was heresy common?
Early modern // 16th Century
What is the Protestant Reformation?
The changes to Christianity, led by Martin Luther, that challenged the authority of the Catholic Church in the 16th century.
How were people who didn’t accept Henry VIII authority punished?
Often via execution
(TREASON)
What is Treason?
Not accepting the monarch’s authority
How were people convicted of Heresy in the 16th century punished?
Burned
What does it mean to ‘recant’?
To say that you no longer hold a certain belief, opinion or view. This is often done in a formal or public manner.
What did Mary Tudor do to people to refused to recant to her new Catholic practises?
Burned them at the stake
Who is Thomas Wyatt and what did he do?
In 1554, Thomas Wyatt and 90 other Protestant rebels were executed for treason after their failed plot to overthrow Mary and replace her with her sister Elizabeth, a Protestant.
How did the population change between 1750 and 1900, in England and Wales?
7 million to over 40 million.
(Industrial Era)
By 1900, what percent of the population lived in urban areas?
80%
Causes of industrial era crime in urban areas
-Bad infrastructure meant it was easy for criminals to evade capture
-Policing was ineffective
-Poverty, overcrowding, disease
-Workers had no rights
What are rookeries and when were they common?
A slum area in a town or a city where rates of poverty and crime were high.
Industrial era
Industrial Revolution
The process that transformed manufacturing from handmade to machine-made, mass-produced goods using water, steam and coal power transported by canal, rail and steamship. Britain was the first country to have an Industrial Revolution.
Causes of rural crime in the Industrial Era
-High poverty rates as new machines put people out of work
-Farm labourers had low wages and long hours.
-Food prices were high
When was the Luddites revolt?
1811
What happened during the Luddites revolt?
Gangs of weavers smashed up 1,000 new machines in Nottingham and Derbyshire.
The Luddites’ protest failed. The Government sent in soldiers, who fought a gun battle with the Luddites in 1812.
Why did rates of highway robbery increase in the 18th Century?
-More roads
-Roads were often in isolated areas
-Ex-soldiers struggled to find work after the Napoleonic wars, they turned to highway robbery for income
-Taverns on the roads meant that criminals had places to hide or sell their loot
-Horses were cheap and guns were easy to get a hold of
What is smuggling?
Smuggling is the illegal trade in goods to avoid paying customs duties and taxes.
What 2 taxes did merchants and traders have to pay when importing goods in the industrial era?
excise duty
customs duty
Why were Excise and customs duties high in the 18th century? What affect did this have on crime?
This was because the government was trying to raise money to pay for a war with France.
This meant that more people smuggled goods to avoid paying taxes
When was the ‘golden age’ of smuggling?
18th Century
Why did rates of smuggling increase in the 18th century?
-Taxes and duties were increasing
-People who smuggled goods into the country could make a large profit on the black market
-There are thousands of miles of coastline in Britain, and most of it was unguarded and poorly policed.
-Smuggled goods were popular as they were usually cheaper than legally imported goods.
6 most common transport crimes in the Modern era
- Using a mobile phone whilst driving
- No licence
- Speeding
- No insurance
- Reckless driving
- No valid MOT
How many cars were there on British roads by the end of the 20th century?
25 million cars
Why are cars often used to commit crimes in the modern era?
They allow criminals to get to the scene of a crime more quickly
Cars have also been used as weapons in crimes, such as ram-raiding, where vehicles are driven into premises in order to steal items from inside.
People often leave personal property inside them, which can be easily targeted by thieves.
5 new types of crime brought about by the invention of computers.
Hacking
Illegally downloading music or films
Phishing scams
Identity theft
Computer viruses
3 new methods of crime brought about by the invention of the computer
Sexual Crimes
Fraud
Cyber-bullying
Why did the invention of the Internet increase crime rates?
This allows criminals to commit crimes anywhere due to quick access to the internet from any location.
