Body and the State: Early Modern Europe (From Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society, P 49-77, 1995, Norval Morris and David J Rothman, eds. -- See NCJ- 167509)

• NCJ Number: 167511
• Author(s): P Spierenburg
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The importance of courts and the church in dispensing justice and the development of the prison as a place of punishment in early modern Europe are reviewed.

Abstract

In early modern times, various agencies in Europe had the right to dispense justice. Besides regular courts, special ecclesiastical tribunals and law enforcement officials had jurisdiction in certain areas. The prevalence of ecclesiastical justice meant that the state gave over part of its judicial authority to the church. Although different legal bodies sometimes resorted to different types of penalties, they relied more often on common forms of punishment, such as execution and punishment involving bondage and labor. Theatrical punishment and the scaffold were closely linked. The later movement toward private punishment and the eventual triumph of imprisonment represented the most conspicuous changes in the long-term evolution of the penal system in Europe, and a new type of judicial sanction referred to as penal bondage became popular. The evolution of prison workhouses and the development of prisons as a place of punishment are traced. References and photographs