Landowner’s attitudes
Invention of printing
Increased wealth and increased poverty
The upper/middle classes enforced laws that protected their interests & property e.g. from ‘poaching’.
The patterns of crime hadn’t changed since the Middle Ages – most crime was theft of low value items. But now that pamphlets and broadsheets publicised these crimes, the very wealthy or clergy who could read them became concerned and made new laws and punishments in Parliament.
Vagabonds
Religious beliefs
Population growth
Economic changes led to an increased number of beggars and a ‘moral panic’. This led to the treatment of healthy beggars as criminals.
In the early 1600s, the views of extreme Protestants began to influence more people. They believed in hard work and opposed many traditional entertainments. Also, it was believed that God gave power to kings and queens (the ‘Divine right’), so people breaking the law were challenging God and his representatives.
The population rapidly increased from 2 to 7 million. 90% of the population lived in villages and worked in agriculture. A rising population meant higher food prices and competition for jobs/high unemployment. This led to a rise in crime.
Taxation
Political change
Increased travel
Governments were in greater need of money which led to increased taxes on imports. This led to an increased concern about Smuggling.
In the 1600s, England went through a political revolution and a bloody civil war which made many people feel insecure for decades afterwards. Political changes (1485-1750) left rulers feeling under threat which led to an increase in accusations of treason. Earlier punishments were used in this period (e.g. torture).
The ‘new’ crimes emerged because travel became easier. Restrictions were lifted and more people were able to move around. Also, better roads helped the development of coaches and horses became cheaper to buy so more people were travelling around the country.
England was becoming wealthier, so some were getting richer. But many of the population were very poor. In hard times, when the harvest failed or the economy was doing badly, the poor had nothing to fall back on. Some stole what they needed.
Heresy Rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries expected their subjects to practice the same religion as they did. If you didn’t practice the same religion as your monarch, you could be burned alive as a heretic. The Protestant government regarded Roman Catholic priests as traitors, who were hanged, drawn and quartered.