Bloody Code

The Bloody Code was a system of laws and punishments in England from between the 1700s to mid 1800s. Although it wasn't called the Bloody Code in its own time, the name was given later because a great deal of crimes, including stealing anything worth 5 shillings (25p) or more was punishable by execution. The punishments were unusually harsh at this time because the laws were made by wealthy land owners that wanted to protect their property. It was thought that the best method for detering crime was to make people too afraid of the punishments to commit crimes. The Bloody Code died out around the 1850s because judges and juries thought that punishments were too harsh for many of the criminals, so they became less inclined to find them guilty in court. Since the law makers still wanted punishments to scare potential criminals, but needed them to become less harsh, transportation became the more common punishment. Since America had won independence by this time, the majority of convicts were transported to Australia. Some criminals could escape transportation if they agreed to join the army as a punishment.

External links

• Amnesty International: History of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the UK