SOC301H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Pillory, Gallows, Arson
Document Summary
English penal ideas and the invention of imprisonment. From an idea, from the powerful and deeply attractive idea that the punishment of criminal offenders could function not merely to deter crime and to punish those who committed it, as well as reform and rehabilitate them. Had only one punishment available to them for all serious offences known as felonies: including murder, arson, rape, robbery and burglary and all forms of theft. The punishment was hanging and carried out in public. The serious offences against the person and property, will only subject to capital punishment. The court regarded punishment as a tool to be used not as a way of ensuring that offenders were treated equally, but more broadly as a way of controlling the level of crime. The effectiveness of such a pattern of local control was breaking down because the society was changing: particularly important were the demographic and economic changes.
