Blood money and the bloody code: the impact of financial rewards on criminal justice in eighteenth-century England
-
Published:2022-05
Issue:1
Volume:37
Page:97-125
-
ISSN:0268-4160
-
Container-title:Continuity and Change
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:Cont. Change
Author:
Clayton Mary,Shoemaker Robert
Abstract
AbstractThe introduction of rewards for the conviction of serious criminals fundamentally transformed English criminal justice. The prospect of rewards totalling up to £140 encouraged additional prosecutions, more full (as opposed to partial) guilty verdicts, and more death sentences. In the process, in a series of largely unintended consequences, two fundamental pillars of early-modern justice were undermined: reliance on the public to prosecute, and the death penalty to deter crime. Policing agents began to play a much more important role in apprehending criminals, while the high level of executions contributed to growing doubts about the efficacy of capital punishment.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
General Social Sciences,History
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献