Explain how responses to crime changed and were used to control the underclass in the later Middle Ages.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Because of increasing social turmoil, a brutal criminal law directed against the lower classes emerged. The more privileged wanted to make the system of criminal laws more effective in slowing the rise in crime. Fines and corporal punishment remained in force, but class distinctions in the administration of laws became more obvious. Upper-class offenders were generally treated more leniently and lower-class “villains” came to be viewed by the legal system as morally inferior. The urban bourgeoisie lobbied for tougher crime control measures. This period witnessed the rise of laws against vagrancy. Punishments became harsher and more brutal, especially physical punishments such as execution, whipping, and mutilation. These alterations emerged gradually over time. During this period, capital punishment became commonplace. Judges used the death penalty for offenders whom they declared to be “threats to society.” Courts paid little attention to the actual guilt or innocence of the accused. Torture was the norm to coerce confessions and to identify possible accomplices.