Community justice in the Middle Ages

In Anglo-Saxon and medieval England there was no police force. Justice depended on the local community keeping order:

• Hue and cry: when a crime happened, everyone was expected to chase and catch the criminal.
• Tithings: groups of ten men were responsible for each other's behaviour.
• Trial by ordeal: if guilt was unclear, God was thought to decide — e.g. trial by hot iron or water — until it was abolished by the Church in 1215.

Key idea: early justice was local, religious and harsh — punishments like fines (the wergild), mutilation and death aimed at deterrence and retribution.

The Normans tighten control

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, kings used the law to control the population:

• The Forest Laws made it a crime for ordinary people to hunt or take wood in royal forests — a new "social crime" many saw as unfair.
• The murdrum fine punished a whole area if a Norman was murdered.
• Over time royal courts and judges grew, slowly building a shared "common law".

Punishment stayed physical and public — the goal was to frighten people into obedience.

Catching a criminal

New crimes and the "Bloody Code"

In the early modern period new fears created new crimes:

• Vagabondage: rising poverty meant harsh laws against "sturdy beggars" and vagrants.
• Heresy and treason: religious change made your beliefs a possible capital crime.
• Witchcraft: fear peaked in the 1640s under "Witchfinder General" Matthew Hopkins.

By the 1700s over 200 crimes carried the death penalty — this harsh system is nicknamed the "Bloody Code". The idea was that terror would deter crime.

Transportation to the colonies

Instead of hanging, many convicts were transported overseas — sent far away to work:

• First to the American colonies in the 1600s and 1700s.
• After American independence, to Australia from 1787 (the "First Fleet" sailed in 1787).
• Transportation to Australia ended in the 1860s as it became costly and controversial.

Transportation was seen as a middle way — tougher than a fine, less final than execution — and it removed offenders from Britain.

Name the harsh code

The age of reform

From the late 1700s, attitudes softened. Reformers argued punishment should improve offenders, not just terrorise them:

• John Howard exposed filthy, cruel prisons and pushed for humane, healthy jails.
• Elizabeth Fry improved conditions for women prisoners at Newgate from 1817.
• The Bloody Code was cut back in the 1820s–30s: the number of capital crimes fell sharply.

The prison now became the main punishment — a place meant to reform criminals through work, silence and religion, not just to hold them.

Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police

As Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel set up Britain's first professional police force. The Metropolitan Police was founded in 1829 to patrol London.

• Officers were nicknamed "Peelers" or "Bobbies" after Peel.
• By 1856 every county and town in England and Wales had to have its own police force.
• Over time police added detectives, forensics and, in the 20th century, radios, cars and DNA evidence.

Who founded the police?

The year of the police

Prisons take over

In the 19th century, prison replaced hanging and transportation as the standard serious punishment. Two big ideas competed:

• The "separate system" — prisoners kept alone in silence to reflect and reform (e.g. Pentonville, opened 1842).
• Hard, pointless labour like the treadwheel and the crank to punish and deter.

Public executions were ended in 1868 — from then on hangings took place inside prison walls, a sign that attitudes to punishment were changing.

Change ↔ what it was

Tap a change on the left, then tap its correct description on the right.

Punishment in modern Britain

In the modern era punishment moved firmly towards reform and alternatives to prison:

• Prisons were reformed to focus more on rehabilitation, education and training.
• New non-custodial punishments appeared: probation, community service, fines and electronic tagging.
• Young offenders were treated differently from adults, with borstals and later youth justice.

New kinds of crime also appeared, such as cybercrime and terrorism, changing how police work and what the law must cover.

The end of the death penalty

The clearest sign of changing attitudes was the abolition of capital punishment. The death penalty for murder was suspended in 1965 and permanently abolished in 1969 in Great Britain.

• Controversial cases (such as those of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley) raised fears of executing the innocent.
• MPs increasingly saw execution as cruel and no longer an effective deterrent.

From the harsh "Bloody Code" of 200 capital crimes to no death penalty at all, punishment had shifted from retribution towards reform.

When did hanging end?

The prison reformer

Timeline: c.500 → today

Put the changes in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

Where were convicts sent?

Change, continuity and sources

This thematic study rewards you for tracking change and continuity over time and for judging sources and interpretations:

• Ask what drives change: attitudes, religion, government, science and key individuals (Peel, Howard, Fry).
• Note continuity too: e.g. the death penalty and public punishment lasted for centuries.
• Judge sources by who made them and why (provenance) before trusting them.

Interpretations differ: some stress steady "progress" towards humane justice; others point to how harsh and slow change really was.

Thinking like a historian

A "social crime"

The theme in one line

Across 1,500 years, crime and punishment shifted from local, religious, brutal justice towards organised policing and reform — even as some things (like fear of crime) stayed the same.

The essentials to remember

You've covered the whole Eduqas Crime and Punishment, c.500 to the present day thematic study. Press Finish to see your score.