History of Punishment
Class Notes for CJ 352_Spring 2011 History
Instructor: Marcos L. Misis (ABD)
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HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS IN AMERICA
Early History of Corrections
• Codified punishment for offenders was developed in the early ages of human history.
• One of the earliest known written codes that specified different types of offenses and punishments was the Code of Hammurabi in 1750 B.C. The
Code of Hammurabi was divided into sections to cover different types of offenses and contained descriptions of the punishments to be imposed to offenders. • The Draconian Code was developed in classical Greece in the seventh century B.C.E. This code described legal procedures and punishments for offenders, such as stoning to death or public abuse while dying.
• During the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian in 534 C.E. compiled a code, which would constitute the basis for all modern European law. In Rome, offenders were usually tortured, served as slaves or in the imperial galleys.
• In most of Europe, forms of legal sanctions that are familiar today did not appear until the beginning of the Middle Ages, in the 1200s. Before that time, European viewed responses to crime as a private affair, with vengeance a duty to be carried out by the person wronged or by a family member. Wrongs were avenged in accordance with the Lex Talionis, or law of retaliation.
• In the middle ages, the European secular law was organized according to the feudal system. Death, torture and corporal punishment were extended practices at this time.
• During the middle ages, the Church, as the dominant social institution, maintained its own system of ecclesiastical punishments, which made a great impact on society as a whole. Especially during the Inquisition of the
1300s and 1400s, the church zealously punished those that violated its laws. At the same time, it gave refuge from secular prosecution to people who could claim benefit of clergy. In time, benefit of clergy
Instructor: Marcos L. Misis (ABD)
.
1
HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS IN AMERICA
Early History of Corrections
• Codified punishment for offenders was developed in the early ages of human history.
• One of the earliest known written codes that specified different types of offenses and punishments was the Code of Hammurabi in 1750 B.C. The
Code of Hammurabi was divided into sections to cover different types of offenses and contained descriptions of the punishments to be imposed to offenders. • The Draconian Code was developed in classical Greece in the seventh century B.C.E. This code described legal procedures and punishments for offenders, such as stoning to death or public abuse while dying.
• During the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian in 534 C.E. compiled a code, which would constitute the basis for all modern European law. In Rome, offenders were usually tortured, served as slaves or in the imperial galleys.
• In most of Europe, forms of legal sanctions that are familiar today did not appear until the beginning of the Middle Ages, in the 1200s. Before that time, European viewed responses to crime as a private affair, with vengeance a duty to be carried out by the person wronged or by a family member. Wrongs were avenged in accordance with the Lex Talionis, or law of retaliation.
• In the middle ages, the European secular law was organized according to the feudal system. Death, torture and corporal punishment were extended practices at this time.
• During the middle ages, the Church, as the dominant social institution, maintained its own system of ecclesiastical punishments, which made a great impact on society as a whole. Especially during the Inquisition of the
1300s and 1400s, the church zealously punished those that violated its laws. At the same time, it gave refuge from secular prosecution to people who could claim benefit of clergy. In time, benefit of clergy