Back in the late 18th century – early 19th century, crime punishments were extraordinarily brutal. For example, if a thief stole from another person, they would be branded with the letter “T” on their hand. In this time era, these people believed in public humiliation in order to get the point across. By branding the criminals, it would assure the people, of the city, if anyone would ever steal this is the punishment they would face. If the crime continued, with the same person, they would be branded with the letter “R” burned into their forehead. Another form of punishment that was acceptable in this era was “flogging”.
Flogging is described as using a whip to inflict physical punishment to a person. This form of punishment was mainly used in the vast majority of crimes committed. This typical punishment was used with a whip called, “cat-o-nine-tails”. This specific whip had nine knotted cords that was tied tightly onto a wooden handle Flogging was abolished in 1888. Since this year, America has never returned using this form of method in punishment. However, America may not be using this method but there are still countries out there that constantly use this method.
For example, Singapore uses flogging to punish their criminal to this day. Flogging in the early centuries was used toward more of a “probation” method. If the criminal continued to follow in the path of crime, their sentences would become harsher. Just like in the United States, we too, have our form of probation. Instead of going down the physical route, we believe in incarceration methods to help with the rehabilitation process. If the criminal breaks their probation (flogging) they will be sentenced automatically to prison or jail time (capital punishment).
The Essay on Is Capital Punishment Effective in Discouraging Crime
Capital punishment is punishment by death for committing a crime. Since the early 1800's, most executions have resulted from convictions for murder. The death penalty has also been imposed for such serious crimes as armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, and treason. People disagree about whether capital punishment is moral or is effective in discouraging crime.Capital punishment in the United StatesIn ...
As for capital punishment, the 19th century did it in torture.
There were a few ways on how to kill someone but for the people who committed the heinous crimes, they were sentenced for a lingering death. There methods of a “lingering death” was a punishment called “broken on the wheel” (felony).
This tortuous method is described s breaking every major bone in the human body. If the criminal was still alive, on the wheel, the executioner was deliver a striking blow to the heart. In the 19th century this is how they handled their capital punishment of serious offenders. Just like our ancestors, America too, has a capital punishment offense.
One way to receive capital punishment in California, is to be charged with first degree murder with special circumstances. If a criminal is found guilty of this charged, the criminal will be placed on death row awaiting the death chamber. To this day, America shares the same arrestees as we did back in the early 19th century. For instance, in the 19th century they prosecuted robbers, thieves, burglars, murderers, arsonists, people who commit adultery, etc. Even though both centuries arrest the same kind of criminals, we have very different prosecution sentences.
For example, instead of branding a thief, depending on the severity of the crime, we would sentence them to 180 days in jail. Instead of flogging a criminal for a petty crime, we would sentence them to probation for 3 years. Instead of beheading a criminal, we would sentence them to death row. However, there are some sentences both centuries possess. When Bridewall was opened up, they housed all the prostitutes, the misfits, the homeless, the unemployed, and the deviants. Bridewall was the 19th century prison system. Anyone who committed a crime, which was not sentenced to physical punishment, was sent here for labor.
The Essay on Let The Punishment Fit The Crime 2
Justice should mean helping victims as well as punishing offenders. This story and our criminal justice system ignore the problem of restoring fairness for victim as a principle of justice. We set two primary foals for our criminal penalties. We want them to deter crime and we want them to rehabilitate criminals. In theory, these two goals should go together, since they amount to saying that we ...
Bridewall was the stepping stone towards our prison systems today. America today, houses prostitutes, some homeless, and we even house the misfits in their own protective houses. In some reality, the 19th century and the 21st century still possess the same sentencing punishments, but for the most part the 19th century punishments have been abolished. After thoroughly reviewing the material, I believe we should possess both the 19th century and the 21st century approaches. In my opinion, if we can adapt maybe the 19th century method of punishment, maybe we won’t have all this crime rate.
Maybe if we enforce some kind of physical punishment people will understand and see if they decide to rape someone there will be serious consequences beyond just sitting in a prison cell. For instance, if there is a burglary that took place and the burglar is arrested, we should brand the thief with the letter “T”, sentence the criminal to prison time in order to make an example. Out of the six power house countries, the United States of America is last is crime rate. If we can manage to adopt some of the 19th century punishment methods, I believe our crime will drastically improve.
