Crime and Punishment / 1500-1700

Crime and Punishment: Early Modern Overview

Crime changed in some ways between 1500 and 1700, but some older features stayed the same.

What To Remember

Early modern England, c1500-c1700, saw population growth, religious turmoil, printed crime scares and bigger towns.
There was still no professional police force, so local communities and officials such as watchmen remained important.
Punishments became harsher by the late 1600s, with more capital offences and the beginnings of the Bloody Code.

What stayed the same

There was still no professional police force in the early modern period.

Local people still helped keep order, and punishments such as whipping, the stocks, the pillory and hanging continued.

Most crime was still ordinary crime against property or people, especially theft, but the context around crime changed sharply.

What changed

The population rose from about two and a half million in 1500 to between five and six million by 1700.

More people lived in towns, where theft and fraud were easier because crowds gave criminals anonymity and there was more to steal.

Religious changes under the Tudors also turned belief into a crime problem, especially through heresy and treason.

Fear and harsher punishment

Printed pamphlets spread stories about crime, vagabonds and witchcraft; even people who could not read could hear them read aloud.

The workbook notes that by the late 1600s there is evidence crime was falling, but many people still believed it was rising.

By the 1680s, even minor crimes could lead to execution, showing a shift towards harsher deterrent punishment.

What stayed the same and what changed in crime and punishment between 1500 and 1700?