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The effects of shoplifting on society
The effects of shoplifting on society
The effects of shoplifting on society
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Theft a common practice among people within each decade, shoplifting being one of the main contributors. The temptation of not paying for something, just hiding it away and not having to pay out of pocket is a large factor for some people. A thief just thinks he/she is getting a product for free and doesn’t realize all the effects of their actions. This paper will analyze the legal and social attitudes of theft/shopping lifting and how punishment changed over a century from 1700’s to the 1800’s.
In the 1700s, there was no law surrounding theft, mostly because at that time there was no government nor constancy with laws. It has also been noticed that there seems to be no judicial precedent, where cases bind future cases. All cases seem to
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Today shoplifting is one of the most common forms of theft and looking back at history in the seventeen and eighteen hundred in England, theft was a popular punishable crime. thousands of shoplifting trials have been examined from the Old Bailey online, a substantial majority of those heard at the Old Bailey between 1700’s and 1800. After reviewing the two cases which are very similar in nature its evident both crimes were prosecuted differently and the punishments for the same offense differ each era.
Benjamin Bolton’s shoplifting case from January 14th, 1801 who was indicted for privately stealing nine pairs of Women’s Worsted Stockings, valued at 21 s. on the 12th of January. The description of the case brought forward to the Old Bailey stated, it appeared that Benjamin Bolton came into the shop, pretending to buy stockings, and while the maid, was turning her Back to reach some, he took the goods and clapt them between his legs, and was going on his way, and was seen by a young man who pursued him, and took the goods from him. Benjamin Bolton was found guilty of theft by shoplifting and sentenced to
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Theft rates in particular remained alarmingly high and by the second half of the century many people were beginning to question the effectiveness of the methods and wanted to see criminal brought to justice. By 1699, shoplifting was made a capital offence in a response to fears of growth in the previous decades. The theft of goods 5s and above taken without any witness seeing the theft was punishable by hanging. During the end of the sixteenth century, the number of crimes that were punished by hanging rose to about 200. Some, such as treason or murder, were serious crimes, but others were what we would call minor offences. For example, the death sentence could be passed for theft and
Crimes was mostly committed by the lower class, the ones who were poor and unable to work. The working class however were not thieves because they are able to afford the necessities of life. Highwaymen, murder, and theft of property were all common crimes committed by males unlike females whose crimes were infanticide, prostitution, and theft. The Ordinary of Newgate’s Account describes how “William Spiggot was indicted for four several Robberies on the High-Way, and found Guilty, with Thomas Cross otherwise Phillips, and William Burrows” (Ordinary’s Account, 4). As described in the lectures those offences were considered crimes without qualification because they were crimes with victims.
Vagrancy had always been a concern in sixteenth century England, resulting in the passing of four anti-vagrancy bills in 1547 alone. This resulted in legislation so harsh that a person charged with vagrancy could be sentenced to two years enslavement, which could be extended to life enslavement if they tried to escape. When these bills did not seem to prevent the occurrence of beggars on the street, the Vagrancy and Poor Relief Act of 1572 was instated. This act called for a “three strikes and you are out” policy, where on a person’s third vagrancy offense they could be rightfully put to death (Woodbridge 272). This legislation was the policy for over twenty years until it was repealed in 1593 for being too strict. In 1597, the new Vagrancy Act authorized the government to banish anyone caught offending the vagrancy laws. After a 1598 statute reestablished slavery as the proper punishment for vagrancy, there were a number of years where periods of leniency and harshness of punishments alternated. It is important to note the history of these laws since many of them were never entirely repealed. However, it was in the early seventeenth century that a particular legislation finally became the common law that would rule for centuries.
It was often the case, that suspects were locked into gaols, until court was held. If it happened in smaller towns, the citizens had to act as gaolers and furthermore had to feed their prisoners. Therefore they did not guard their captives very careful, which led to a lot of breakouts. That could have had financial consequences for the citizens, but they did not bother at all, because the costs in loss of working time and in feeding the prisoners were balanced by the feeling that these fines were an unavoidable form of taxation. Now the criminals tried to escape to the next churchyard, because there they could claim sanctuary. If they were successful, they could stay there in safety for the next forty days.
The central element of calculation involves a cost benefit analysis: Pleasure versus Pain, (5) Choice, with all other conditions equal, will be directed towards the maximization of individual pleasure, (6) Choice can be controlled through the perception and understanding of the potential pain or punishment that will follow an act judged to be in violation of the social good, the social contract, (7) The state is responsible for maintaining order and preserving the common good through a system of laws (this system is the embodiment of the social contract), (8) The Swiftness, Severity, and Certainty of punishment are the key elements in understanding a law's ability to control human behavior. Classical theory, however, dominated thinking about deviance for only a short time. Positivist research on the external (social, psychological, and biological) "causes" of crime focused attention on the factors that... ... middle of paper ... ...
They got the whole day off of work. On these days, the whole town would gather and watch as the criminal got his head chopped off. Everything at this time had more painful punishments, but not because of their lack of technology but because the leaders wanted you to learn your lesson. If someone lost a hand for stealing, they would most likely not do it again. Where as a commoner would lose their hand for stealing, a noble would only be placed in a pillory.
Criminals were not dealt with in private. They were displayed in towns and the middle of the marketplace for all the people to see. Many were witnessed by hundreds of people. Commoners treated punishment days as “exciting” days out("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). The crowds of people who gathered for the public punishments and executions could be considered twisted individuals. They relished these days. For example, theft resulted in public hanging for all of the people to watch. Often times crimes were falsely accused and the crowds knew it, but nothing could be done. Small crimes, such as stealing bird eggs would result in a death sentence. It was the terrible price starving people had to pay because the government made begging illegal("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). Many crimes resulted in brutal beatings. Beatings and executions were definitely not an issue, the only question was the type of beating a person would get or how they a would be executed("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). A lot of times the Upper class was exempt from punishment unless it was a serious crime. Unfortunately, the Commoners did not get that valuable treatment because they were almost always in trouble. With any evidence of relationships with evil spirits condemned a person to death by hanging, burning, or drowning. More punishments included: beheading, pressing, and the drunkard's cloak. The drunkard’s cloak was basically a big barrel
Between the years of 1714 and 1799 the rate of theft in London increased for many reasons. The method of research use to prove this hypothesis was Old Bailey online. Old Bailey is a court in the city of London in the county of Middlesex. The court is held eight times a year for the trial of prisoners; the crimes tried in this court are high and petty treason, petty larceny, murder, felony, burglary, etc. The goal of this paper is to prove that not only did theft increase, but also why it increased. My preliminary findings suggest that overall theft did increase, and that the main causes for this were: political, economical, and social problems.
People were even punished harshly for trivial crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread. . This was considered a serious offence in this time period. These crimes were mainly executed people who had no job. So they resorted to these crimes to get a pay.
At the end of the day, do the needs justify the means? When it came to bootleggers in the early 1900’s, the answer to that question was yes. Rum-running, or bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting of alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. This was Marion Sylder’s job in The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy. The Orchard Keeper takes place in the early 1900’s and it tells a story about life in the prohibition era. Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Marion picks up a hitchhiker named Kenneth Ratner and he tries to rob Marion. Marion accidentally kills him while defending
The second is related to status and respect. This type of status can change even between subcultures and may result in crime in order to achieve this s...
"Today's system, where imprisonment is a common penalty for most crimes, is a historical newcomer." Many crimes during 1718 and 1776 were punishable by death. This was usually done by hanging, sometimes by stoning, breaking on the rack and burning at the stake. Towards the end of the 1700's people realized that cruel punishment did little to reduce crime and their society was changing the population grew and people started to move around more frequently. There had to be a search for new punishments. "New punishments were to rely heavily on new ideas imported from Europe in the writing of such social thinkers of the Enlightenment as the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Pain and Cesare Beccaria". These thinkers came to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated."
In order to maintain social cohesion, the criminal justice system must be able to adapt, expand and create laws to catch conduct that may have not been an offence in previous generations. This is shown in the repeal of ‘larceny’ and its subsequent ad hoc statutory offences to the replacement of a collection of dishonesty offences, known as ‘theft and its satellites’. This meant the laws were now capable to extend to conduct that neither threatened nor violated property rights, included the dishonest acquisition or imposition of intangible benefits and detriments and encompassed the mere usurpation of rights beyond ‘taking and carrying away .’ This commonality further extended to the replacement of obtaining property by false pretences to deception and its subsequent offences, dishonest dealing with documents , dishonest manipulation of machines and exploitation . Such expansion, however, brings forth concerns of indeterminacy, broadness and vagueness rather than uniformity and commonality. Hence, this essay will explore whether deception and two of its subsequent offences are principled and justified in an increasingly over-criminalised society.
•In 1800 there were over 200 offences punishable by death including sheep stealing and doing damage to the Westminster Bridge
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfarism and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years.
The second main point that was presented was about reactions to shoplifters. There are some people that will be willing to give up a shoplifter at the drop of a hat, but then there are other people that do not want to get in that kind of mess and they never rat out a shoplifter. More people would rat out a shoplifter if they looked dirty than if they looked like a nicer dressed