Crime and Punishment in Victorian Times

So many things have changed in this reign of Queen Victoria you know. Punishment for example for crimes committed; if you look back just a little to say around eighteen hundred there were around two hundred crimes that carried the death penalty and what’s even more shocking is that the hangings used to take place in public. Families treated a hanging as a day out, they even took their children to watch; it was more like a fair than an execution. I am glad to say that now such executions are carried out in prison behind closed doors. Another punishment no longer used is transportation, that finished once and for all in eighteen sixty-eight. Imprisonment is still the most common punishment and thankfully since the Government took over the running of prisons in eighteen seventy eight prisons have improved somewhat. Women and men are kept separate now and prisoners can expect to be fed, clothed and even have a bed, well that’s a luxury for some folk. Prisons even have their own doctors now and if you’re lucky, you might even be taught to read and write.