CJ history online

AJ 11
History of Criminal Justice
and Punishment
http://www.360degrees.org/perspectives.ht
Alicia G. Crumpler, Professor
College of Sequoias

“Learning is a process of
absorbing new material and
gaining new insights into the
world in which we live.
It is a process of reassessing
past assumptions, rejecting
false premises, and remaining
open to new ideas.”
Johnson & Wolfe

“Progress of human endeavor
comes only when men and women
rise above the performance of
routine day to day functions,
only when they have dared to
ask “why” and aspired toward
constructive change.”
H. Johnson & N. Wolfe
History of Criminal Justice

Why is the history of
anything important?

1. Progress can be achieved only if an
individual or a society has a firm
understanding of where it has been
and what has been achieved in the
past.
A knowledge of history provides a
special sort of orientation for the
leaders of tomorrow.

2. History provides a sound perspective
concerning the nature of human
growth and development.
Change takes place over time, and in
most cases the elapsed time between
the statement of a new idea or
invention on one hand, and its full
acceptance on the other, may well be
more than one lifetime.

3. Historical knowledge brings with it
some assurance against ‘reinventing
the wheel.’ Humans need a sense of
where they, and their civilization
have been, before they can decide
where they and their world should
go.
History gives those who study it a
good idea of the mistakes past
generations have made, so they are
not repeated.

TIMELINE
4,388 years
2375 Present time
BC AD
•--------------------0----------------------•
B.C.= Before Christ A.D. = Anno Domimi
(year of our lord)

2375-2345 BC
• Egyptian Mythology
– Maat or ma’at (may-et)
• Goddess of truth, order, law
morality and justice
• Maat was a guarantee of an order
in Egypt and she represented a
cosmic harmony which was in
power as long as laws and customs
were respected. The Egyptians
believed in an inner balance and
unity prevailing in the universe
which meant that any
disturbances could have brought
Chaos back and could have caused
a danger for people and
institutions.

2350 BC: Urukagina's Code
Only a few pieces of the code have been
discovered but it is mentioned in other
documents as a consolidation of existing
"ordinances," or laws laid down by
Mesopotamian kings.
An administrative reform document was
discovered which showed that citizens
were allowed to know why certain actions
were punished.
It was also harsh by modern standards.
Thieves and adulteresses were to be
stoned to death with stones inscribed
with the name of their crime.
The code confirmed that the "king was
appointed by the gods".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina

2050 B.C. Ur-Nammu’s Code
• the oldest known code
of laws surviving today.
• Advanced legal system
using judges, testimony
under oath, and
restitution.
• Called for the
punishment to be
proportionate to the
crime.
• www.ancient.eu.com/Ur-Nammu/

1750 BC Code of Hammurabi
• Babylonian king of
Mesopotamia (Iraq)
• Developed laws and
had them carved into
stone columns.
Hammurabi's Code of Laws is a stone
slab discovered in 1901 and preserved in
the Louvre, Paris.

“The first duty of government is to
protect the powerless against the
powerful.”
Hammurabi
(Is this what current world
governments do? Who does
government really protect?)

• Ended blood feuds and marriage by
capture
• Stressed family solidarity and
responsibility
• Based on “lex talionis” (The Law of
the Claw, An Eye For an Eye)

• Punishment was barbaric
• Theft = cutting off a hand
• Kissing a married woman= cutting off a lip
• Defamation= cutting off tongue
• Loss of an ear for disobedience

• branding for slander
• most common punishment was a fine
or the restoration of goods
• suspicion was not enough, the criminal
had to be caught in the act, there
had to be a witness.
• http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

1300 B.C. Ten
Commandments
• Crime was seen as a sin
against God
• Sin was seen as a
crime
– Adultery, Gossip,
Premarital Sex,
Gluttony
– Based on the ‘eye for
and eye, tooth for a
tooth,” legal philosophy
of Hammurabi’s Code

900-800 BC: Greek Mythology
• Greek Goddesses
– Themis
– Dike or Dice (Dee-kay)
– Praxidice

“Themis”
• 900-800 BC
• The Greek Goddess
of Divine Justice,
the embodiment of
divine order, law,
and custom, in her
aspect as the
personification of
the divine
rightness of law.

Dike/Dice (Dee-kay)
• Greek
Goddess of
justice, fair
judgments and
the rights
established by
custom and
law.
(daughter of
Themis)

Praxidike or (Praxi’dice)
• goddess of judicial punishment and
vengeance
• watches that justice is done to men

750 BC: The Goddess Iustitia (Justitia)
• In Roman Mythology Iustitia was the
goddess of justice, equivalent to the
Greek goddess Dike.
• The personification of justice,
balancing the scales of truth and
fairness.
• More often referred to as the Lady
of Justice.

Lady Justice
• The sword: The power to punish
• The scales: balance, fairness
• The blindfold: represents objectivity, in that
justice is or should be meted out objectively,
without fear or favor, regardless of identity,
money, power, or weakness; blind justice
and impartiality.

Themis, Dike and Istitia are used
interchangeably in art.

621 B.C. Draco’s Law
• First written laws for Athens, Greece
• Drako transcribed oral laws onto wooden
blocks.
• The laws were so brutal that instead of
being written in ink,
they were written in blood.
• No record of the content of Drako's laws
remains, with the exception of those laws
governing homicide.
• Most of the crimes described by Drako
warranted the same punishment: death.

• Introduced the philosophy that it
was the state’s exclusive role to
punish the accused, instead of
allowing private justice
• Established enslavement of debtors
and many Athenians were sold in
slavery outside their own homeland
• The word ‘draconian’ comes from his
name, and has come to mean an
unreasonably harsh law.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_%28lawgive

450 B.C. The Twelve Tables
• Earliest Roman laws.
• Basic rule of the law was that the law
must be written and justice cannot be
left in the hands of judges alone to
interpret.

• Gave rights to the lower class
(plebeians)
• Laws were to be enforced impartially
• Trials were held by a judge
• 8 kinds of punishment: fine, fetters,
flogging, retaliation in kind, civil
disgrace, banishment, slavery, death

529 A.D. Justinian’s Code
Corpus Juris Civilis
• Emperor of Bysantine (Rome)
• His work served as an important basis for laws
in contemporary society.
• Inspired by logic based Greek legal principles.
• Where the word “justice” comes from.

601 A.D. Code of Aethelbert
• Aethelbert of Kent (England)
• Issued the earliest recorded Anglo
Saxon laws, called ‘dooms.’
• Specified heavy fines as punishment.
• The amount increased according to
the status of the victim.

900 A.D. Shire reeve
(Sheriff)
• 100 local nobles formed a shire,
(county)
• A constable (watch of the stable,)
was hired to oversee law enforcement
in that shire
• The King then appointed a Shire-
reeve to oversee the constables.

1166 A.D. First Jail in
England
• Instituted by King Henry II
• Each Shire reeve established a ‘gaol’
to house people who were picked up
on violations of the King’s law.
• One large room. Men, women, and
children all housed together, as were
beggars, murders and the insane.

1166 A.D. First Grand Jury
in England
• Twelve family heads from each 100
nobles (the area where 100 nobles
lived was considered a county,) were
sworn in to hear complaints.

1180 A.D. First Book
of English Common Law
• By the 14th century legal
decisions began providing
precedents for the courts
and lawyers to follow.
• Common law brings
together community rules
and customs that were
previously unwritten.
• Common law is considered
the major source of
modern criminal law in the
United States.
• William the Conqueror
invaded England in 1066, he
introduced the act of
beheading to England in
1076.
• He combined the best of
this Anglo-Saxon law with
Norman law, which resulted
in the English common law,
much of which was by
custom and precedent
rather than by written
code.

1215 A.D.
• The word ‘felony’ comes from the
12th century word ‘felonia,’ meaning;
a breach of faith with one’s feudal
lord.

1215 A.D. Magna Carta
• Considered to be the
most significant
document in English
legal history.

• Faced with civil war
King John was forced
by his Nobles to sign a
pledge to respect their
rights, be bound by
law, and forbid
arbitrary punishment.
• Guarantees such legal
rights as the right to
due process, hearing
before ones peers.

• It was the foundation for the U.S.
Constitution.
• “No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned
or in any other way destroyed, except
by the lawful judgment of his peers or
by the law of the land.”

1285 A.D. Trial by Jury
• Under King Edward I
• English nobles were called
together to evaluate
evidence by both the
accused and the accusers.

1291: Statute of Winchester
• King Edward I
started the first
police system to
protect public order
• Obliged communities
to look after their
own law and order and
introduced the Parish
Constable.

The Statute set up a system known as
‘Watch and Ward.’
The Watch was the name given to the men
who guarded the town gates and walls at
night. (Watchman)
The constables carried a bell in the earliest
days, a rattle later, with which to rouse the
inhabitants and they called out the time and
the weather at frequent intervals.
Any wrongdoers caught during the night were
then handed over to the Parish Constable in
the morning.
Their daytime duties were called the Ward.

Two other implications of the
Statute of Winchester were the
system called the ‘Hue and Cry,’
whereby a person wishing to make an
arrest could call on the men, and
presumably women, to join him in the
chase, and the requirement that all
men between the ages of 15 and 60
had to own a weapon with which to
help keep the peace.

1350 A.D.
Galley Slavery
• Used in England
and spread to
France, Spain and
Italy by 1500. It
had also been used
during ancient Greek
and Roman times.
• The poor, lower
class criminals and
slaves were chained
to oars and forced
to row.
• Life sentence

1400 A.D. Debtor’s Prison
begins in England
• Those that can not pay
their debts are
incarcerated or forced
into indentured
servitude.
• Insolvent debtors
were required to work
within the prison and,
in return, received, 3
ozs bread and 4ozs
oatmeal daily and 1oz
salt and 10lb potatoes
weekly.

1494: The Vagabonds and
Beggars Act (England)
• Threatened
"vagabonds, idle
and suspected
persons" with
three days in the
stocks on a diet of
bread and water.

1500 A.D.
Bridwells
• Workhouses were
created to house
transients and
vagabonds.
• Their labor was
exploited by the
government.
• Introduction to prison
labor

1547: The Statute
of Legal Settlement (England)
• Provided for the
branding or
enslavement of
beggars.

1598 A.D. Transportation
begins in England
• Over crowding
leads to the
‘transportation’ of
criminals to the
colonies.
• In 1615 Kings
James I introduces
to penalty of
“transportation.”

• Between 1618 and
1776, about
50,000 people are
sent to the
colonies.
• An estimated 14%
died during the
voyage.
• After the
American
Revolution,
criminals are
transported to
Australia.

1600 A.D.
• In England over 300 crimes are
punished by death
• In the colonies punishment is much
less severe, probably due to the labor
shortage.
• Crime in the colonies is seen as a sin,
and sins are crimes (remember the
colonies were settled by the puritans)
• Flirting, gossiping are criminal
offenses.

• Most first and second offenses were
punished by a fine.
• Only for the third offense was death the
result.
• Other punishment included banishment,
whipping, and ear lopping.
• Community leaders believed that public
shaming taught a moral lesson and would
prevent future offenses.
• All punishments were public events.

Pillory
Cruel and Unusual Punishment or
Rehabilitation?

• Compulsory labor is first used.
• Locked up at night and sent out
during the day to perform community
service.
• Cleaning the sewers and sweeping the
streets.

The Poor Law of 1601, England
• Assigned responsibility for the poor to
parishes (local civil government). These
parishes built workhouses to employ the
poor on a profitable basis.
• Workhouses degenerated into mixed
receptacles (places to store things), where
every type of person was dumped.
• Orphans would also be put into workhouses
if orphanages were full or simply non-
existent.

1625: Night Watchmen in the Colonies
• In 1625 New York City ( New Amsterdam at the
time) began an eight man night watch. In 1658
New Amsterdam would begin paying the night
watchmen.
• The watchmen carried a rattle, and a six-foot
pole, with a hook on one end and a bill on the
other. The hook was used to grab fleeing criminals,
and the rounded “bill” was used as a weapon. The
rattle was a noise-making device used for calling
for assistance.
• These individuals would patrol the streets at
night, sounding their rattles and calling out such
as:
– “By the grace of God two o’clock in peace.”
• In 1693 the mayor of “New York” expanded the
watch to 12 men and provided them with uniforms.

• In 1631 the city of Boston instituted
night watchmen (6 men citizens) to
guard the city.
• In 1652 the night watch was given
bells to also sound the fire alarm
throughout the city.
• In 1712 Boston began paying the
watchmen.
• This form of policing was used in
Boston for almost 200 years.

1700’s A.D. Floating Hulks
• Galley ships are replaced
with sailing ships
• The galley ships are used
as floating prisons to ease
overcrowding
• Often referred to as
“floating hells”
• Dead bodies are thrown
overboard
• May be were the ball and
chain was invented
• The practice continued
until 1875

1700 A.D. Gin is Invented
• First used for medical purposes but
becomes a popular beverage.
• Cheaper than brandy and stronger
then beer or wine.
• Leads to a tremendous increase in
property and violent crime in England.
Known as “the Gin Craze.”

• Drinking and rioting
become
commonplace.
• The problem
doesn’t end until
1743 when the King
imposes high taxes
on the sale of gin.

1764 A.D.
Cesare Beccaria
• Wrote “On Crimes
and Punishments.”
• His work
established the
Classical School of
Criminology.
• (The first school of
thought that tried
to explain criminal
behavior.)

• Believed that people are rational and
act out of free will.
• They weighed the costs and benefits
of an action in order to decide how to
proceed.
• Criminals calculate the benefits of
their acts against the costs/
consequences.

-People followed the pleasure principle-
sought the maximum amount of pleasure
and avoided pain.
- People committed crimes because the good,
(pleasure) exceeded the bad, (pain.)
- Punishment must be swift, and certain in
order to outweigh the possible benefits.

1765: Blackstone’s
Commentaries
• William Blackstone, (1723-
1780)
• Wrote “Commentaries on
the English Law of
England”
• Rewrote the entire English
law into a 4 volume set, in
easy to read English
• It was the first time that
the law was accessible to
the common man

1796: Phrenology
• Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall.
• Primarily focused on measurements of the human
skull, based on the concept that the brain is the
organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas
have localized, specific functions
• The distinguishing feature of phrenology is the
idea that the sizes of brain areas were meaningful
and could be inferred by examining the skull of an
individual.
• Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and
emotions are located in localized parts of the
brain is considered an important historical advance
toward neuropsychology.

1821: Mexican/California Law
• When Mexico took over California from
Spain, the law that was exercised was the
Code Napoleon which was a brief version
of the Roman law Corpus Juris Civilis
(often called the Justinian Code).
• As Americans arrived in California, they
came from states that had used English
common law since colonial times. At that
time American lawyers were trained only
in English common law, so they would
naturally favor it over Mexican law.

1821: The Auburn Prison
System
• Also known as the “New York” system and
the “Congregate” system.
• The "Auburn System" modified the
schedule of prayer, contemplation, and
humane conditions with hard labor and
work.
• The traditional American prison uniform,
consisting of horizontal black and white
stripes, originated at the Auburn prison.

• There was a communal dining room so that
the prisoners could gather together for
meals,
• A code of silence was enforced harshly at
all times by the guards.
• The inmates worked and ate together, but
in complete silence.
• At night the prisoners were kept in
individual cells
• the site of the first execution by electric
chair in 1890,
• The prison is currently the oldest prison
still in use today.

1829: Eastern State Prison:
The Pennsylvania System
• Also known as the “Separate System”
• The goal was not simply punish, but move
the criminal toward spiritual reflection and
change.
• The method was a Quaker-inspired system
of isolation from other prisoners, with
labor.
• To prevent distraction, knowledge of the
building, and even mild interaction with
guards, inmates were hooded whenever
they were outside their cells.

• The proponents of the system
believed strongly that the criminals,
exposed, in silence, to thoughts of
their behavior and the ugliness of
their crimes, would become genuinely
penitent. Thus the new word,
penitentiary.
• The Pennsylvania System was
abandoned in 1913. The facility closed
in 1971,

• Charles Dickens visited Eastern State
Penitentiary. He wrote”, "The System
is rigid, strict and hopeless solitary
confinement, and I believe it, in its
effects, to be cruel and wrong...."

1838: The First Police
Forces in America
• In 1838, the city of Boston
established the first American
police force, followed by:
• New York City in 1845,
• Albany, NY and Chicago in 1851,
• New Orleans and Cincinnati in 1853,
• Philadelphia in 1855,
• Newark, NJ and Baltimore in 1857
• By the 1880s all major U.S. cities had
municipal police forces in place.

1841: John Augustus/Probation
• John Augustus, the "Father of Probation," is
recognized as the first true probation
officer
• By 1829, he was a permanent resident of
Boston and the owner of a successful boot-
making business and a member of the
Washington Total Abstinence Society.
• Washingtonians were convinced that
abusers of alcohol could be rehabilitated
through understanding, kindness, and
sustained moral suasion, rather than
through conviction and jail sentences

• In 1841, John Augustus attended police court
to bail out a "common drunkard," the first
probationer.
• The offender was ordered to appear in court
three weeks later for sentencing.
• He returned to court a sober man, accompanied
by Augustus.
• To the astonishment of all in attendance, his
appearance and demeanor had dramatically
changed.
• Augustus thus began an 18-year career as a volunteer
probation officer.

• Close attention was paid to evaluating whether or not a candidate
would likely prove to be a successful subject for probation.
• The offender's character, age, and the people, places, and things
apt to influence him or her were all considered.
• Augustus was subsequently credited with founding the
investigations process, one of three main concepts of
modern probation, the other two being intake and
supervision.
• Augustus, who kept detailed notes on his activities,
was also the first to apply the term "probation" to his
method of treating offenders.
• By 1858, John Augustus had provided bail for 1,946
men and women. Reportedly, only 10 of this number
forfeited their bond.
• The first probation statute, enacted in Massachusetts
shortly after this death in 1859, was widely
attributed to his efforts.

1847: San Francisco CA
• San Francisco's Barbary Coast ( a red-light district,
constituted nine blocks bounded by Montgomery Street,
Washington Street, Stockton Street, and Broadway,) arose
from the massive infusion of treasure hunters seeking their
fortunes in the gold fields.
• At the end of 1849, out of a population of between 20,000
and 25,000, only about 300 were women and almost two-
thirds of the women were estimated to be prostitutes.
• Miners and sailors, hungry for female companionship and
bawdy entertainment continued to stream into San Francisco
in the 1850s and 1860s.
• Sailors, in particular, had cause to dread the area because
the art of shanghaiing was perfected here. Many a sailor
woke up after a night's leave to find himself unexpectedly
on another ship bound for some faraway port.
• Crime in the streets and corruption in the government
offices plagued San Francisco in the 1850s.

- The “father of
criminology.”
- Founded the Positivistic
School of criminology
and theory of atavism.
- Wrote “The Criminal
Man.” in 1876
- Criminals were born
‘criminogenic, and had
certain physical stigmata.
- Believed crime was
biological, and
psychological, influenced
by social factors
Cesare Lambroso (1835-1909)

Non-criminal man
Criminal man

1877: Jim Crow Laws
• Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated
primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states,
between 1877 and the mid-1960s.
• Jim Crow etiquette operated in conjunction with Jim Crow laws
(black codes). When most people think of Jim Crow they think of
laws (not the Jim Crow etiquette) which excluded blacks from
public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods.
• After 1877, with the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes,
southern and border states began restricting the liberties of
blacks. Unfortunately for blacks, the Supreme Court helped
undermine the Constitutional protections of blacks with the
infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim
Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.
• Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, risked their homes, their jobs,
even their lives. Whites could physically beat blacks with impunity.
• Blacks had little legal recourse against these assaults because the
Jim Crow criminal justice system was all-white: police, prosecutors,
judges, juries, and prison officials.
• Violence was instrumental for Jim Crow. It was a method of social
control. The most extreme forms of Jim Crow violence were
lynchings.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzL2Brhg9aQ part 1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Hn-n9v5SU part 2
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4nrOA89w9A part 4

• "Come listen all you galls and boys,
I'm going to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."
• These words are from the song, "Jim Crow," as it appeared
in sheet music written by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice.
• Rice, a struggling "actor" happened upon a black person
singing the above song -- some accounts say it was an old
black slave who walked with difficulty, others say it was a
ragged black stable boy. In 1828 Rice appeared on stage as
"Jim Crow" -- an exaggerated, highly stereotypical black
character.
• By 1838, the term "Jim Crow" was being used as a collective
racial epithet for blacks, the popularity of minstrel shows
clearly aided the spread of Jim Crow as a racial slur.
• These stereotypical depictions of blacks, helped to
popularize the belief that blacks were lazy, stupid,
inherently less human, and unworthy of integration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ciHJvs9wPk
http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/origins.htm

1890: The Electric Chair
• This execution method was created by employees of Thomas
Edison
• The first person to be executed by the electric chair was William
Kemmler
in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890;
• The first 17-second passage of current through Kemmler caused
unconsciousness, but failed to stop his heart and breathing. In the
second attempt, Kemmler was shocked with 2,000 volts. Blood
vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and the areas around the
electrodes singed. The entire execution took about eight minutes.
George Westinghouse later commented that "they would have
done better using an axe," and a witnessing reporter claimed that
it was "an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging.“
• The first woman to be executed in the electric chair was Martha
M. Place, executed at Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899

Artist's rendering of Kemmler's execution

1899: Juvenile Court
• Illinois passed the Juvenile Court Act of 1899, which
established the Nation's first juvenile court.
• The British doctrine of parens patriae (the State as parent)
was the rationale for the right of the State to intervene in
the lives of children in a manner different from the way it
intervenes in the lives of adults. The doctrine was
interpreted to mean that, because children were not of full
legal capacity, the State had the inherent power and
responsibility to provide protection for children whose
natural parents were not providing appropriate care or
supervision.
• A key element was the focus on the welfare of the child.
Thus, the delinquent child was also seen as in need of the
court's benevolent intervention.

The first Police Woman
• Mary Owens given the rank of “policeman” in
1893, after the death of her husband who was an
officer with the Chicago Police Department.
• She worked for thirty years for the department;
she assisted on cases involving women and children.
She was the first woman to receive arrest powers.
• In 1905 Lola Baldwin was given police powers and
put in charge of a group of social workers in order
to aid the Portland, Oregon Police Dept. during the
Lewis and Clark Exposition. She was the first
woman to work as a sworn police officer in the
United States.
• Alice Stebbin Wells was the first woman to be
called a “policewoman”; she joined the Los Angeles
Police Department in 1910.

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