Bloody Code
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The Bloody Code[1] is a term later used to refer to the system of laws and punishments in England from ~1400–~1850. Although not referred to as the Bloody Code in its own time, the name was given later due to a large number of crimes being punishable by execution.
There was no police force at that time, so many crimes carried the punishment of execution, as it was thought that only death would prevent reoffending.
In the years after 1660, the number of offences carrying the death penalty increased from around 50, to 160 in 1750 and to 222 in 1815.[citation needed] Crimes that were punishable by execution at this time included stealing anything worth more than 5 shillings, stealing horses or sheep, or writing a threatening letter, right through to arson, treason and murder. Despite there being so many crimes punishable by death, it has been estimated that fewer people were hanged in the 18th century than the century before.[citation needed]
The death penalty was removed from pickpocketing in 1808 and later from many other offences during the 1820s and 1830s. Judges and juries thought that punishments were too harsh for many of the criminals, so they became less inclined to find them guilty in court.[citation needed] Judges would frequently under-value stolen goods so that the accused would no longer face the death penalty.[citation needed] Since the law makers still wanted punishments to scare potential criminals, but needed them to become less harsh, transportation became the more common punishment. Since the United States of America had won independence by this time, the majority of convicts were transported to Australia. It has been estimated that over one-third of all criminals convicted between 1788 and 1867 were transported to Australia and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Some criminals could escape transportation if they agreed to join the army as a punishment.
| “ | It is a melancholy truth, that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less than a hundred and sixty have been declared by Act of Parliament to be felonious without benefit of clergy; or, in other words, to be worthy of instant death — William Blackstone | ” |
In 1823 the Judgement of Death Act 1823 made the mandatory death penalty discretionary for all crimes except treason and murder. Gradually during the middle of the nineteenth century the number of capital offences was reduced, and by 1861 was down to five. These were murder (suspended 1965, abolished 1969), piracy (1998), arson in a naval dockyard (1971), espionage (1981) and high treason (1998).
The London Metropolitan Police, established in 1829, promoted the preventive role of police as a deterrent to urban crime and disorder.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8181192.stm
- ^ Brodeur, Jean-Paul; Eds., Kevin R. E. McCormick and Livy A. Visano (1992). ”High Policing and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities,” Understanding Policing. Canadian Scholars’ Press. pp. 284–285, 295. ISBN 1-55130-005-2.
