Crime and punishment in the industrial period c1700-c1900 Flashcards
What was criminal activity like in the industrial period?
- highway robbery
- poaching
- smuggling
- tolpuddle martyrs
What were the key features of tolpuddle martyrs?
- fear of revolution after one in France
- Grand National Consolidated Trades Union wanted to bring all labourers together
- Labourers in tolpuddle set up a unnion after being refused a raise
- government used a law made for naval discipline to sentence them to seven years transportation to Australia
- Grand national consilidated trade union disbanded and people wary of joining unions
Key aspects of continuity in the industrial period?
- Highway robbery continued but increased
- Poaching
Key aspects of change in industrial period from early modern?
- reformation over and society more settled so less focus on religious crime
- Heresy and witchcraft not really a thing anymore - laws repealed
- more education meant less people believed in witchcraft
- vagabondage not as great a focus due to increased wealth and societal change
What was the nature of law enforcement like in the industrial period?
- Parish constables dealt with disorderly behaviour
- watchmen organised by parish constables protected private property
- part-time soldiers used to deal with rebellions or riots
- bow street runners detective force
- met police first professional modern police force in London
- met police replaced watchmen and town constables 1829
What were the key feautures of the bow street runners?
- established by henry fielding 1748 as a team of volunteers attending crime scenes and detecting criminals
- published descriptions of wanted persons, understand importance of sharing information
- at first charged fees and collected rewards for successful convictions but by 1785 officially payed by government and first modern detective force
- objective to deter by increasing chances of getting caught
- regular patrols on major roads by paid constable
What were the key features of the Metropolitan Police Force?
- first professional modern police in london
- replaced watchmen and town constables 1829
- non-military uniform to help with greater civilian trust
- emphasis on deterrence
- increased fear of crime helped get set up
- rapid growth of towns made watchmen and constables obselete
- public concern about personal freedom, privacy and cost
What was the nature of punishment like in the industrial period?
- increased use of transportation until ended in 1868
- increased use of prisons
What were the key continuities in punishment in the industrial period
- transportation technically started earlier but not really used until now
What were the key aspects of change in punishment in the industrial revolution?
- growth and eventual decline of transportation
- greater reliance on prisons and reforms
- decrease in use of death penalty
- public executions not working - end of bloody code
- imprisonment as a punishment grew
Why did transportation end in 1886?
- pressure from settlers in Australia who believed ex-convicts caused high crime
- free settlers argued convict workers meant there were fewer jobs/lower wages
- conditions on transportation ships seen as inhumane
- argued to be too lenient
- Australia had become desirable place to live
- became too expensive to run colonies
- more prisons being built in the UK reduced need for transportation
Why was the bloody code abollished?
- public executions no longer effective deterrent, encourages large drunk and disorderly crowds, providing more opportunities for crime
- juries would not convict as they thought punishment was unfair, criminal felt confident of escaping punishment so more likely to commit crimes
- ideas about punishment were changing and thought to be more brutal, argued public execution was inhumane
What was prison reform like in the industrial period?
- humanitarianism - inhumane treatment of other humans should be challenged
- john howard - wrote a report detailing problems with old prison and attacked fees they had to pay
- proposals for improvement included healthier accomodation, decent diets, seperation of prisoners and better prison guards
- Elizabeth fry - believed prisons could be reformed, highlighted poor conditions and exploitation of women by male guards
- 1823 gaols act
What was the 1823 Gaols act
Act passed for better prison conditions, including;
- gender seperation
- all prisoners have proper food
- prison wardens should be paid
- all prisons attent chapel and visitors from chaplins
- healthy fresh water supply and adequate drainage
Key features of the seperate system in pentonville prison?
- response to rising crime an prison as an alternative for transport and execution
- emphasis on deterrence/retribution
- prisons kept apart up to 23 hours a day to ‘reflect on crimes’
- repetitive an boring work e.g hand cranks
- prisoners wore face masks in exercise to stop them seeing eachother
- solitary confinement led to mental health issues, re-offending and even suicide
