Crime, law enforcement and punishment
When studying crime and punishment, it is important to understand some key terms and have a clear idea of the themes and issues within this area.
Time periods
This is a thematic study, which means that the same theme - crime and punishment - is studied across a long period of history. This period can be further broken up into four time periods:
- Medieval Britain, c.1250-c.1500
- Early modern Britain, c.1500-c.1750
- Industrial Britain, c.1750-c.1900
- Britain since c.1900
The benefit of studying history in this way is that it allows change and continuity to stand out clearly. For each time period, the study of crime and punishment will cover the following four areas:
| Key features of the period | This is an overview of life in the period - for example, where people lived, what they believed and how society was organised. These kinds of things have important implications for the types of behaviour considered to be criminal, as well as how people were punished. |
| Crime and criminals | This covers the nature and extent of crime in each period. Some crimes, such as minor thefts, have been a feature of each period. However, other crimes and kinds of criminal were only seen at certain times. |
| Law enforcement | A key part of the story of crime and punishment is the history of who was responsible for tracking down criminals, and how punishments were enforced. |
| Punishment | This involves understanding the various ways that criminals were punished in each period. It will also examine why certain punishments were introduced or rejected at particular points. |
| Key features of the period |
| This is an overview of life in the period - for example, where people lived, what they believed and how society was organised. These kinds of things have important implications for the types of behaviour considered to be criminal, as well as how people were punished. |
| Crime and criminals |
| This covers the nature and extent of crime in each period. Some crimes, such as minor thefts, have been a feature of each period. However, other crimes and kinds of criminal were only seen at certain times. |
| Law enforcement |
| A key part of the story of crime and punishment is the history of who was responsible for tracking down criminals, and how punishments were enforced. |
| Punishment |
| This involves understanding the various ways that criminals were punished in each period. It will also examine why certain punishments were introduced or rejected at particular points. |
As part of a thematic study it is important to study these themes within each period. However, it is equally as important to study how they changed and stayed the same across different time periods.