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Crime And Punishment In The Elizabethan Era

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Today when we think of the justice system we think of prison, trials, hearings, sentences. In the Renaissance period that's not how they dealt with crimes, they had their own unique way of handling criminals. The way of handling crimes and the accused people would never be tolerated in modern times. Crime and punishment in the Elizabethan Era is different with its sentencing and punishments than modern day sentencing and punishment.
The process of arrest and prosecution during this time is different than today. Someone who committed a crime got sent to prison or jail until trial, not for a sentence unless deemed necessary, they did not have the capacity to hold inmates for long periods of time, but they still had jails and prisons. During this time, people hardly got sentenced to prison time. The convicts received fines for small offenses and physical punishments for big offenses. (“Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England.”) There was little judicial procedure, only exchange of documents between lawyers. There were no witnesses and oral arguments, also judges were not trained to be judges during this time. (Brackett) …show more content…

A crime that was a bad crime was begging for the lower class. Begging is of as a serious crime in this time period and resulted in beatings until they reached a certain distance, and if caught begging multiple times could eventually lead to their demise or imprisoned. Stealing as a bad crime for the lower class. Stealing anything over 5 pence resulted in death. This was a time where people were poor and people stole to eat, so they made begging and stealing a big offense. The government collected taxes from landowners they called it the Poor Rate. The poor rate set out to help the poor and unemployed with food and things like that.

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