It’s Crime and Punishment time - no, no crimes will be committed, nor punishments
given, we’re just going to talk about crime and punishment in history. Well, not even
that. You see, I was working on some videos for crime and punishment the other day and
I saw all these key terms keep coming up and remembered how I kept forgetting them at GCSE
and how important they are for understanding the topic - the thing with crime and punishment
is it’s all about change and continuity, so you have to be able to understand what
that is, and also have the vocabulary to express the nature of different crimes and punishments,
so you can say how they changed or continued. Anyway, I was thinking about this, and I was
like, you know what might be a good idea? If I made a video talking through some of
these key terms, so that you can go into the topic understanding what you need to be able
to pick out, and you have the vocab ready for when you need to write some tasty essays.
So this is
Crime and Punishment: Key Terms
Seeing as we were just talking about crime and punishment being all about change and
continuity, let’s talk about change and continuity. Change is where something changes
- it becomes different. Say for instance, in a historical context, this could be where
it’s illegal to like the colour pink, until suddenly, in 1977, a law is passed that makes
liking pink legal. That would be a change. Also, just to note, for the gullible ones
out there, that’s completely ahistorical, it was never illegal to like the colour pink.
A turning point is the point at which something changes - so in this example, 1977 would be
a turning point.
Continuity is where things stay the same, or similar - it might be illegal to like the
colour pink in the 11th century, and by the 19th century, it’s still illegal to like
the colour pink - you could say there was continuity between these two periods in this
sense.
It’s important to note, however, that there can be continuity in one sense and change
in another sense. A turning point can also be a turning point for one thing, and not
for another. So, for instance, if it was also illegal to like the colour orange, then 1977
would be a turning point for the colour pink, but not the colour orange, and you could say
that there was a change because you could now like the colour pink, but overall, there
was continuity because there were still colours which it was illegal to like.
So let’s look at some different types of crime. It’s important to note that there
can be some crossover - a crime could be both a crime against authority and a crime against
property for instance.
Crimes against authority are crimes which threaten the social structure of a society.
If a peasant deliberately started a fire on his lord’s land, this would be a crime against
authority, as the lord’s crops and buildings could be burnt down, which would reduce the
lord’s power and thus threaten the social structure - this would therefore be an example
of a crime against authority.
One of the most key examples of crimes against authority is treason. Treason is the act of
betraying the king - this could be for instance, by helping his enemies. High treason, is a
type of treason which is specifically against the king. Treason treason can be simply betraying
the king by betraying one of his officials (maybe plotting to kill one of his officials),
high treason is betraying the king specifically (for instance, plotting to kill the king himself).
Crimes against property involve taking or damaging someone else’s stuff, such as theft,
robbery or arson.
Moral Crimes are actions that don’t cause anyone physical harm, but things a society
sees as indecent behaviour, such as having sex outside marriage.
Social crimes are crimes which are technically illegal but society doesn’t disapprove of
- say for instance, when poaching first became a crime, as hunting had always been legal,
most people didn’t see anything wrong with poaching, making it a social crime.
So those are the types of crimes you need to know, now let’s look at punishments.
Punishments falling into 3 categories (although, again, it’s important to note that a single
punishment can fall into more than one category). These categories are: Retribution, Rehabilitation
and Deterrents.
A punishment which is a form of retribution, would be one where the person being punished
suffers - it’s essentially the justice system getting revenge on the person for what they’ve
done. A really simple example would be if you punched someone in the face and you are
punished for this by being punched in the face. But the thing with retribution is it
doesn’t always have to be equal, you might punch someone in the face, and your punishment
could then be getting hit in the face with a chair - that’s still retribution.
A deterrent is a punishment designed to stop people from committing the same crime as the
person being punished. So now you’ve been hit in the face with a chair, because you
punched someone in the face, you have lots of massive permanent scars on your face. When
people see you in the street, they are reminded of what happened to you as a result of your
crime and, in theory, they go “I don’t want that to happen to me, I guess I should
make sure I don’t punch anyone in the face.”
A punishment classed as rehabilitation, is one which seeks to make the person who committed
the crime a better person. So you’ve punched a person in the face, but rather than being
hit in the face with a chair, you’re made to go and do community service and to talk
to people who have been punched in the face before, so that you understand why it’s
bad to punch people in the face. The hope is that once you’ve served your punishment,
you won’t go on to punch anyone in the face again - that’s rehabilitation.
Ok, so what are capital and corporal punishment? These are two examples of types of punishments.
Capital punishment is punishment by death - and a capital crime is a crime which is
punishable by death. Corporal punishment, however, is punishment which causes a person
physical harm or pain - such a maiming or branding.
A trial by ordeal is what it says on the tin - it’s a trial where someone has to go through
some kind of ordeal, and the result of this determines their guilt or not (supposedly,
it’s a way of /god casting his judgement). An example would be trial by hot iron, where
the accused has their hand burnt by a hot iron and the bandaged - that’s the ordeal
bit. A few days later they check up on the hand and if it’s healed well, the God has
judged them not guilty, but if it hasn’t then God says they’re guilty. Whilst there
are all sorts of different ordeals that can be used, the overall concept is the same:
ordeal happens, one outcome equals God says guilty, the other equals God says innocent.
The clergy are the Church people. Heresy is the crime of going against the church. And
secular means ‘independent of religion’, so not against it, just separate from it.
Like how our modern day government doesn’t command that we all go to church on Sunday,
but it also doesn’t tell everyone to denounce God on a regular basis - it’s just like
you do you, go worship or not worship whoever you want, we have other things to worry about.
To decriminalise is to make something no longer a criminal offence. To pardon is to allow
someone to get away with a crime unpunished - normally something that only very important
people can do, such as a king. Penal is anything relating to matters of punishment - not what
you’re thinking. A hate crime is a crime motivated by prejudice against the victim’s
race, gender, sexual orientation or a disability they have.
And finally, collective responsibility is where a group of people are all responsible
for the actions of one another, meaning if a member of the group commits a crime and
no one is brought forward, all the members of the group are punished.
Alright then, hopefully that clears some things up. If you understand all the concepts and
key terms here, then you should be able to look at the topic of crime and punishment
through the right angle and with enough understanding that you can get some top notch marks and
write some awesome answers on your paper.
Crime and Punishment: Key Terms
Thanks for watching, don’t forget to like, subscribe and tell all your friends. This
is something a little bit new - a type of video I’ve never tried before, so I’d
appreciate you telling me in the comments if you found it helpful. That being said,
I appreciate all people in the comments. Don’t forget that you can find me on twitter @alongtimeago_YT
and also, if you like my videos that much and you want to give me some money, then you
can head on over to patreon - there’s a link in the corner, and failing that pattern.com/alonglongtimeago.
Wesath ge hale!