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Thursday May 17, 1750, between eight and nine o'clock John Bradnam was intending to go to bed, but first was gathering some money to pay his way the following day. He put nineteen guineas and one shilling into a purse, and then placed the purse into his pocket. Shortly afterwards he was called down. Bradnam returned to his room about half an hour later, and upon his return he found his pocket had been moved. After taking out his money and counting it, he realized he was missing two guineas. He then asked his maid, Elizabeth Rice, who had been in his room, she said she did not know. Bradnam said some body had to have been in my room for I am missing two guineas. Bradnam search his maid and found the two guineas upon her. She then confused to taking out of his pocket, saying, she planned on paying him back. Bradnam then called Ann Wade, and John Archer up as soon as he had found it. Ann Wade and John Archer confirmed her testimony. Elizabeth Rice, on May 30, 1750, was charged with theft: simple grand larceny and was sentenced to the punishment of transportation.
Between the years of 1714 and 1799 the rate of theft in London increased for many reasons. The method of research use to prove this hypothesis was Old Bailey online. Old Bailey is a court in the city of London in the county of Middlesex. The court is held eight times a year for the trial of prisoners; the crimes tried in this court are high and petty treason, petty larceny, murder, felony, burglary, etc. The goal of this paper is to prove that not only did theft increase, but also why it increased. My preliminary findings suggest that overall theft did increase, and that the main causes for this were: political, economical, and social problems.
Theft, the act of stealing, larceny, was a common law offence, but there were a large number of statutes which legislated specific punishments for particular types of theft. Of the 16,424 cases of theft between 1714 and 1799 sixty six percent were simple grand larcenies, the most common type. Simple grand larceny was defined as "the theft of goods of the value of 1 shilling (12 pence = 1 Shilling.
A case of the Old Bailey Records contains documentation for Mary Brown’s accusation and guilty conviction on the account of shoplifting on the 20th of April in the year of 1737. Brown was indicted for stealing 9 yards of While and Silver lustering’s, and 9 yards of Green and silver ditto; a monetary value of 61 from Thomas Hinchliffe in the parish of St. Bride’s on April 7th. In addition, Mary Brown had a previous record for shoplifting that condemned her to be transported. However, Mary Brown was found in the system under the name of Mary White, during the month of February, in 1736, for robbing Mr. Davis shop. The evidence against Brown was accounted by Mr. Enstone who was managing Silver Lustering; he stated he witnessed Brown leave the
There was very little structure to the justice system and due to it being so punitive, juries were reluctant to find people guilty of offences (Bentley, 1998). This period of time became known as ‘The Bloody Code’. Throughout The Bloody Code policing was entirely a local initiative, there was not a centralised police force. Constables, Watchmen and Amateur Justices were tasked with crime prevention, crime detection, and general public safety (Reiner, 2000). However, the Watchmen were branded ineffective and there was little to no public confidence in their use, they were ‘scarcely removed from idiotism’ (Critchley, 1978: 18) this view would makeweight of the orthodox perspective suggesting that the New Police were to bring competency and professionalism, attributes which clearly lacked within the private system. Another major issue that affected the public opinion of the private system was the employment of thief-takers. For example, Jonathan Wild, a private detective who was extremely corrupt. Wild stole items from individuals, and then took it upon himself to return these items for a large reward. The revisionist view is that corruption was not an
Published on the heels of Billing’s article, Douglas Greenberg’s “Crime, Law Enforcement, and Social Control in Colonial America” (1982) examines the effectiveness and factors of colonial law enforcement. Unlike New England’s legal system, which he describes as the most effective in seventeenth century America, “the Chesapeake colonies weathered a terrifying degree of conflict that was reflected not only in personal assaults and frequent thefts, but in substantial political violence as well.” He argues that the Virginia colony was at an innate disadvantage in terms of social order since the unequal sex ratio and age distribution meant a high level of violent crime. As such, stable family units which could have helped in subduing such undesired
It was often the case, that suspects were locked into gaols, until court was held. If it happened in smaller towns, the citizens had to act as gaolers and furthermore had to feed their prisoners. Therefore they did not guard their captives very careful, which led to a lot of breakouts. That could have had financial consequences for the citizens, but they did not bother at all, because the costs in loss of working time and in feeding the prisoners were balanced by the feeling that these fines were an unavoidable form of taxation. Now the criminals tried to escape to the next churchyard, because there they could claim sanctuary. If they were successful, they could stay there in safety for the next forty days.
Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. Crime: Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). P. 3.
The Penal system is described in the novel as “…. An inadequate and crude instrument by which to regulate the countries affairs, even in the view of contemporaries” (Rees 38). Crimes which theoretically are considered capital offenses range from Burglary to Unlawful Shooting. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as a list of crimes that are considered felonies. Stealing objects that hold a total value of 39 shillings was a felony. Despite this, theft can be deemed a felony under certain circumstances even if less than 39 shillings of are stolen. One example given in the novel is that “Housebreaking (breaking and entering was a double felony, whatever the value of goods taken”. Felonies are punishable by death, fortunately, Judges usually did not follow this. When a woman is charged with a double felony then the judges will convict them of only one felony and sentence them to transportation rather than sending them to death for mere theft. Transportation was always given because of the serve limitations on sentencing. Overall, the penal system of England described in the early chapters of the novel is flawed system with convicts living in poor conditions in addition. The idea of how terrible the penal system and Gaol living conditions are is rereinforced by the negative reception and reactions of people and groups
Kelling, George L. Thinking About Crime: Is There a Right to Beg? 1993. Web. 10 December 2013.
The status of the criminal justice system in Europe during the 1700s was the product of long tradition of aristocracy. An aristocracy government is one in which land is owned by particular families and is passed down through the generations of a family line. The monarch of the region grants titles and powers to the privileged classes, who in return keep order within their land and swear loyalty to the monarch. Property and power in an aristocracy were the privileges of birth alone and being merit was simply irrelevant. Their lives circled around maintaining, while attempting to expand, their wealth and power. Historically, as a higher class among others, aristocrats were known to be negligent towards the poor. To where they were prone to appoint
Menninger begins to support his claim of policy by demonstrating the failures of the present penal system. He states, "Today it is no secret that our official, prison-threat theory of crime control is an utter failure" (537). He illustrates this assertion by pointing out that in England when pocket picking was punishable by hanging, pickpockets targeted the crowd that gathered to witness ...
Muncie, J., and Mclaughin, E. (1996) The Problem of Crime. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publication Ltd.
Lane, Roger. "Crime and Industrial Revolution: British and American Views." Journal of Social History 7.3 (1974): 287-303. JStor. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. .
This paper will provide an explanation into how differential association theory explains burglary. Burglary, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I), considers a property crime a Type 1 Index Crime because of its potentially violent nature. The F.B.I. breaks burglary down into three sub classifications. This paper discusses the elements of the crime of burglary and what constitutes a structure or dwelling. It will discuss a brief history of the deviance, trends and rates, and how it correlates to the specific theory that this paper will also discuss.
Crime causation is looking at why people commit crimes. There are many theories that have been developed to explain this. The theories can be grouped into eight general categories of which one is the Classical theory (Schmallegar, 2011, p. 79). A subset of this theory, rational choice theory, will be specifically looked at to explain the crime of burglary. Just as no one causation theory explains all crimes committed, the rational choice theory itself does not completely explain why all burglars commit their crimes. Therefore, the pros and cons of the rational choice theory will be discussed in relation to the crime topic of burglary.
Criminals and thieves are a piece of every society in existence. A common question that is always present regarding criminals is how to punish them and how to keep more of the population from becoming criminals as time goes on. In his book, Utopia, Saint Thomas More discusses a wide variety of topics that posed important questions in the late European Renaissance. Through More’s recounting of the tales told by Raphael Hythloday, we get a glimpse of how criminals were treated in England at the time and we also get an understanding of Thomas More’s personal stance on how criminals are treated and should be punished.
Pollock, F., & Maitland, F.W. (2012). The history of English law before the time of Edward 1: Crimes and torts. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.