History Gcse

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Crime and Punishment in the ancient world

Originally there was no police force, however in AD6 Emporer Augustus set up the following to police rome:

Vigiles: 7000 who were used to catch runaway slaves, prevent and put out fires. On patrol at night they tried to stop crime or chased runaway slaves.

Praetorian guard: The emporers household guards, used only in emergancies to protect the emporer from riots.

Urban Cohorts: They kept order by stopping riots, they did NOT patrol the streets.

Aediles: Inspected shops to check the bread was the correct weight, city officials checked householders kept the streets outside their homes clean and safe.

Murderers where sentanced to death in the arena, fighting as gladiators until everyone had been killed. Prisoners of war where used as slave labour to build new buildings such as the colosseum.

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Crime and Punishment in the ancient world

Originally there was no police force, however in AD6 Emporer Augustus set up the following to police rome:

Vigiles: 7000 who were used to catch runaway slaves, prevent and put out fires. On patrol at night they tried to stop crime or chased runaway slaves.

Praetorian guard: The emporers household guards, used only in emergancies to protect the emporer from riots.

Urban Cohorts: They kept order by stopping riots, they did NOT patrol the streets.

Aediles: Inspected shops to check the bread was the correct weight, city officials checked householders kept the streets outside their homes clean and safe.

Murderers where sentanced to death in the arena, fighting as gladiators until everyone had been killed. Prisoners of war where used as slave labour to build new buildings such as the colosseum.

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Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages

Trial By Ordeal- hot iron, blessed bread, combat, cold water. This was dealt with by the Kings Court. The Manorial court dealt with all but the most serious crimes.

People had to search for the suspect by themselves, however the policing still applied from the roman times. Forest laws were introduced

People where beheaded or had all of their limbs cut off, the right hand was cut of if they were caught stealing, suffocating people in water, catholic church used torture and imprisonment, trial by ordeal. If a person did not turn up to their trial they were considered an outlaw.

Outlaws: people who were not considered part of the community, like Robin Hood for example.

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Crime and Punishment changing into later middle ag

Changes Same

law: William introduced new laws, the hated forest laws. This meant that trees could not be cut down for fuel or for building. It was also forbidden for people in the forest to own dogs or bows and arrows.This was because he used wood for his castles.

punishments: Normans believed that any crime was insulted to the police and wergild was ended.

trials: new courts had been developed, royal courts and shire courts met twice a year and judge or manor courts were held weekly. ( see different card)

law: Giving women almost equal rights in law.

Punishments: Prisoners where only used to hold the accused awaiting trial

trials: juries of local people decided if the accused was quilty, the accused underwent trail by ordeal. 

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Crime and Punishment Affects on women

In the middle ages

  • the womens rights were seen as unfair.
  • the men dominated the rights of women
  • women had no power or authority

In islamic societies you recieved lighter punishments if you worked for the church.

They also followed the rule of sanctury, this meant that if you were on the run you could take refugee in the church.

Also neck verse was used, this meant that if you could read a passage you belonged to the church.

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Crime and Punishment in the Early Modern

Poaching: it has been traditionally defined as illegal hunting, killing, or capturing of wild animals usually associated with land use rights.

Witchcraft: the practice of magic, especially black magic which is the use of spells and the invocation of spirits.

Smuggling: moving goods illegally into or out of a country.

Vagrancy: the state of living as a vagrant which is a homeless person, to be in this state you are called a vagabond which is someone who was homeless and doesnt work but moves from time to time.

Highwaymen: a man, typically on horseback, who held up travellers at gunpoint in order to rob them, an example is **** Turpin.

Heretics: a person believing in or practicing religious beliefs that is different from the king and queen.

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Crime and Punishment in the Early Modern

Punishments in Early Modern period became much harsher because wealthy landowners wanted to protect their land and properites from theieves and other criminals.

Tax systems where introduced into the towns, and the richer people didnt like the concept that they were paying for both themselves and the poor people.

Leaflets had just been introduced so people began to feel intimidated by the punishments as they began to learn to read.

Witchcraft became punishable by death, execution was used. When people were desperate and looking for someone to blame for their problems, they were more likely to accuse someone of being a witch.

The bloody code was introduced, meaning that small petty crimes where made punishable by death. As the number of crimes carrying the death penalty increased, the number of executions increased. Eventually, the number of executions began to decrease as new punishments, such as transportation, developed

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Crime and Punishment in the Industrial period

The population rose from 10000 to 42000, this meant that many people found it difficult to live in such tough over populated conditions.

Working conditions where often unsafe and employment wasnt for certain. More factories were introduced and this meant more products were being created. A lot of people were poor so they resulted to stealing the goods.

The trade had to increase, meaning that the rate goods were sent out had to be increased dramatically. More transport options were introduced and the tains were used to transports large loads of goods.

Different crimes had different punishments however major crimes (stealing, murder and ****) always ended in death

In the Industrial Revolution it wasnt as big as a deal when people died because it happened more often because of illness, this meant that crimes punishable by death was very common.

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Silent vs Seperate system

Seperate

Solitary confinement- all day in your cell alone, religious focus

Outside exercise session completed with masks on with a long low peak and they all hold a rope with knots along it.

None of the prisoners can speak to eachother all day

Only food is porridge

Silent

Solitaty confinement for the first nine months

For the first nine months they were not allowed to communicate with other prisoners and would be severly punished if they broke this rule.

Hard labour, hard fare and a hard board

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Bow street runners

The system was designed when Britains Populaation was 4-5 million.

Parish Constables- local people appionted for a year at a time, a system dating back to the anglosaxons.

Watchmen- set up under a law passed in the 1600s in Charles the seconds time. They were supposed to patrol the streets at night and had a watchmen box to rest in.

Henry Fielding was in charge of 80 constables, of who only six did their job right.

John Fielding turned Bow street court into a sort of police station. He made sure his constables were efficent, trained and properly paid- they came to be called the Bow Street Runners.

Robert Peel set up the Metropolition police force to replace the runners. Every town soon had its own police force.

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