Bloody Code
The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the 18th and early 19th centuries which mandated the death penalty for a wide range of crimes.[1][2][3][4] It was not referred to by this name in its own time; the name was given later owing to the sharply increased number of people given the death penalty, even for crimes considered minor by 21st century standards.
In 1689, there were 50 capital offences in England and Wales; this increased to 220 by the end of the 18th century. This period saw the introduction of new laws focused on property defence, which some viewed as class suppression. As convictions for capital crimes increased, penal transportation with indentured servitude became a more common punishment. In 1785, Australia was deemed suitable for transporting convicts, and over one-third of all criminals convicted between 1788 and 1867 were sent there. The Bloody Code listed 21 categories of capital crimes in the 18th century. By 1823, the Judgment of Death Act made the death penalty discretionary for most crimes, and by 1861, the number of capital offences had been reduced to five. The last execution in the United Kingdom took place in 1964, and the death penalty was abolished for various crimes in the following years.
History
In 1689 there were 50 offences on the statute book punishable by death in
As the number of capital crimes increased, lawmakers sought a less harsh punishment that might still deter potential offenders, and penal transportation with a term of indentured servitude became a more common punishment. This trend was expanded by the
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.
Leon Radzinowicz listed 49 pages of "Capital Statutes of the Eighteenth Century" divided into 21 categories:[13]
- High treason, including offences against the Protestant succession and the Protestant establishment
- Other offences against the State
- Offences against flood defencesand bridges
- Offences against the administration of justice
- Offences against public health
- Offences against public revenue, including smuggling
- Petty treason and murder
- Stabbing, maiming and shooting at any person
- sexual offences
- Simple grand larcenyand allied offences
- Burglary and allied offences
- Larceny from the person
- Larceny and embezzlement by servants, Post Office employees, clerks and other agents
- Blackmail
- Offences by bankrupts
- Forgery of deeds, bonds, testaments, bills of exchange, stocks, stamps, banknotes, etc.
- Falsely personatinganother with intent to defraud
- Destroying ships to the prejudice of insurance companies
- Coinage offences
- Malicious injuries to property, including arson
- Piracy
Relaxation of the law
In 1823, the
- Murder, 1969 in England, Wales and Scotland, and 1973 in Northern Ireland
- Arson in royal dockyards, 1971
- Espionage, 1981
- Piracy with violence, 1998
- Treason, 1998
- Six military offences, 1998
See also
Citations
- ISBN 9781902448718– via Google Books.
- ^ Campbell, Noel (2 June 2017). "The long road from the Bloody Code". Mayo Advertiser. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- ^ King, Peter; Ward, Richard (10 August 2015). "Rethinking the Bloody Code in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Capital Punishment at the Centre and on the Periphery". Past & Present. 228 (1): 159–205.
- ISBN 978-3-319-74560-2– via link.springer.com.
- ^ Wilf 2010, p. 139
- ^ Wade 2009, p. 9
- ^ Sharpe 2001, p. 116
- ^ Wade 2009, p. 10
- ^ a b Glyn-Jones 2000, p. 322
- ISBN 9781789620276– via Google Books.
- ^ Britain, Great; Pickering, Danby (September 8, 1775). "The Statutes at Large from the Magna Charta, to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761 [continued to 1806]. By Danby Pickering". J. Bentham – via Google Books.
- ^ Drew D. Gray, Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1660–1914 p. 298 (2016)
- ^ Radzinowicz 1948, pp. xx–xxi and 611–659 ("Appendix I: Capital Statutes of the Eighteenth Century")
General sources
- Radzinowicz, Leon (1948). A History Of English Criminal Law and its Administration. Vol. I: The Movement for Reform. London: Stevens & Sons.
Further reading
- Brodeur, Jean-Paul; McCormick, Kevin R. E.; Visano, Livy A. (1992), "High Policing and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities", Understanding Policing, Canadian Scholars’ Press, ISBN 1-55130-005-2
- Glyn-Jones, Anne (2000), Holding up a Mirror: How Civilizations Decline (Revised 2nd ed.), Imprint Academic, ISBN 978-0-907845-60-7
- Sharpe, Jim (2001), "Crime, Order and Historical Change", in Muncie, John; McLaughlin, Eugene (eds.), The Problem of Crime (2nd ed.), Sage Publications, pp. 107–150, ISBN 978-0-7619-6971-6
- Wade, Stephen (2009), Britain's Most Notorious Hangmen, Wharncliffe Local History, ISBN 978-1-84563-082-9
- Wilf, Steven (2010), Law's Imagined Republic: Popular Politics and Criminal Justice in Revolutionary America, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-14528-2