Nature and changing definitions of criminal activity Flashcards

All 9 cards in this deck

What was highway robbery?

Robbing travellers on the roads, often by armed robbers on horseback; it was a capital crime under the Bloody Code.

Give one reason highway robbery had almost died out by the 1830s.

Mounted patrols policed the main roads into London (also: banks meant travellers carried less cash, and open land was enclosed).

What were the Black Acts (1723)?

Laws that made poaching a capital crime, including hunting deer or going armed or disguised in a forest.

True or false? In the years c1700–c1900 many ordinary people saw poaching as a social crime.

True. They thought it harmed nobody and was done to get food, and saw landlords as selfish for banning trespass on their land.

Give one reason smuggling grew in eighteenth-century Britain.

High import duties on goods such as tea, brandy and cloth made smuggled goods very profitable.

What did the Witchcraft Act of 1735 do?

It ended prosecutions for witchcraft and made it a crime to claim that someone was a witch or to claim magical powers, punished by fines or imprisonment.

Who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834)?

Six Dorset farm labourers who formed a trade union; they were convicted of swearing a secret oath and sentenced to seven years' transportation as a warning to others.

What happened to the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1836?

After mass protests and a huge petition against their sentence, they were pardoned and allowed to return from Australia.

Give one reason prosecutions for witchcraft ended in the eighteenth century.

Scientific experiments, encouraged by the Royal Society, gave natural explanations for events once blamed on witches, so educated people grew less superstitious (also: greater prosperity and political stability).