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100
Punishment in Ancient Egypt (around 2000 BC)
In Ancient Egypt, the pharaohs made and enforced the law. Breaking the law regarded really bad and yourself and your family were disgraced. The worst crime was tomb raiding, which you would be killed for (by beheading, drowning, etc). Another punishment was 100 strokes of a cane or mutilation.
You can see, that society listened to the pharaoh and saw him as a demigod. -
100
Punishment in Ancient China (around 1000 BC
In Ancient China, the law said, that punishment must be harsh and universal. The public, in the end, did not even want to see the punishments anymore. They also had the rule, that the accused person was guilty until they prove innocence, which is the complete opposite to today's law. One of those brutal punishments was called 'Death by stick'. The criminal got a stick pushed down their throat. This was used to kill the criminal. -
100
Punishment in Ancient Rome (around 753BC-700AC)
Ancient Romans had an obsessoin with with laws and formalities They took crime and punishment seriously and got very creative. They had different punishments for different social classes, like slaves etc.
A very creative example was called 'Death by theatre'. The criminal got casted into the role of a of the person, that gets killed and the drama. The other actors actually killed the casted criminal. This punishment was used for slaves.
You can see that there were creative punishments in Rome. -
Jul 12, 1200
Punishments in the Middle Ages (6th century-15th century)
Punishments in the Middle Ages were corporal punishments, public humiliations and death penalties. The punishments were meant to represent the crime, eg someone who got caught counterfeiting money (which was somehow done by boiling certain things), got punished by boiling. Public humiliations were mainly done by making the criminal wear masks and death penalties were behaedings. You can see that there was a change in the Middle Ages: Punishments were connected to the crime. -
Aug 11, 1500
Punishment in Aztec culture (14th century-16th century)
In Aztec law, practicality was the most important when deciding punishments. The laws differed from city to city. The death penalty was the most common 'hard punishment', because prisons were not existing. Lighter punishments were getting your house demolished or your head shaved. Public drunkenness was a crime regarded serious, except at a festival or if you are over 70 years old. You can see that society honoured old people, but had a different attitude towards alcohol! -
Punishment in early modern period (15th century-18th century)
In the early modern period, an early form of jail terms as punishments were introduced. Before this period, the people were sent to a different place (exil), where now people were sent to prisons. They also differentiated between the actual punishment, betterment punishments and recompense punishments. They also introduced the policy that the criminal should feel sorry for the crime they committed.
You can see the similarities to our system today. -
Punishments in today's life
Today's punishments are mainly based on letting the criminal feel sorry for what they did and on letting them feel the consequences of their behaviour. An important rule is that a court has to prove guilt and not that the accused person has to prove their innocence. In the western world, there are almost no death penalties anymore and corporal punishments are forbidden almost everywhere, so are torture methods.
