Crime and Punishment: c1000–c1500

Enforcement
 Learning Objective
• To understand why punishment was carried out in Medieval England and the
types of punishments used.

Success Criteria
• To know how crime was punished in Medieval and pre-Medieval England.
• To analyse the changes between pre- and Medieval punishments.
• To evaluate the value of deterrence and retribution as aims of punishment.
 Lady Justice
Create a sketch of this
character: Lady Justice.

Make sure your sketch contains the

main three features: the scales,
sword and blindfold.

Annotate your image with what

you think the three main features
mean.
 Lady Justice
The scales represent
that Justice weighs the
balance of evidence to
learn the truth about a
crime.

The sword represents

The blindfold shows the fact that Justice
that Justice is blind; will punish those that
no matter who you are in the wrong.
are, you will be
judged on your
actions, not your
colour, gender or
class.
 Why Punish?
In the most basic sense, justice is the idea that good actions are rewarded and bad
actions are punished.
Punishment means the inflicting of an
unpleasant outcome on a person in response
to a crime, but why do we punish people?

Take a piece of A3 paper and select a different

coloured pen each.

You will have a few minutes to

discuss the answer to this
question without speaking! Can
you come up with some reasons
for punishing people?
 Aims of Punishment
From c1000 to c1500, there were two main aims of punishment: deterrence and
retribution.
Read the definitions of these two aims carefully and come up
with some examples of punishments that would meet this aim.
You can give modern examples or examples from history. You
may find that some punishments can fulfil both of these aims.

Deterrence
The idea of deterrence is to
prevent or deter the criminal and
others in society from
committing a crime. The idea is
that if a person is afraid of the
punishment for a crime, they are
less likely to commit that crime
in the future.
Retribution
The idea that criminals should
pay for what they have done.
Through retribution, the
criminal faces a balancing of
their bad act and is therefore
harmed for the wrongs they
have done to others.
 Types of Punishment
Crimes were often punished in the middle ages by fining the criminal, publicly
humiliating them or subjecting them to corporal or capital punishments.

Fines Public Humiliation

Money that has to be Criminals are put in a public place
paid as punishment in a humiliating way. They may
for a crime. be in stocks - wooden structures
that hold a person in place
Corporal Punishment on their knees. The public
Physically harming a criminal. This could freely throw things at
could take the form of beatings, them or otherwise harass them.
floggings,
(being whipped), or Capital Punishment
mutilation: having The death penalty. The criminal
a body part removed. is executed, (killed).
 Time Travelling
Themis is once again on the case of
investigating crime and punishment in
the three periods that we are studying.

She is boldly stepping through the time

tunnel to witness the way punishment
was meted out in the past. Find out
extracts from her notes. Use these to
complete the tasks on your activity
sheet for each period to build-up a
picture of the gruesome punishments
that were used.