Crime and Punishment

Sexual crime

• petty treason was a servant killing a master or a wife killing a husband (1351 act)
• Sexual offences including bigamy [1753 Hardwicke Marriage act clarified what constituted a marriage]
• 1782 comments by one judge on beating wives

Judge Buller and the rule of thumb

Prostitution – c.40-50,000 in early C19th London; Defoe, Moll Flanders (based on Moll King, executed 1720); Hogarth’s Harlot’s progress depicted decline of country girl into a poxed whore

Campaigns for moral reform

• Impact of religious toleration?
• Two major campaigns: 1689-1720 (75,000 prosecutions0; 1780s (crisis after war with America), 1787 proclamation vs vice and 1787 Proclamation Society, had strong Pittite support but never really a popular movement; 1802 Society for the Suppression of Vice did have greater lower social appeal, to bring about prosecutions.
• Drew on religious zeal and fear of immorality but also idea of moral failings of criminals and political loss of virtue/public spirit
• Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge founded 1699
• 1702 Society for Propagation of the Gospel Overseas
• 1783-4 Sunday school movement, 1785 Sunday School Society; evangelical movement;

What is the purpose of punishment?

• Deterrent?
• Retribution?
• Rehabilitation?