"The only possible form of justice, of the administration of justice, could be, and will be, the form that in military war is called decimation. One man answers for humanity. And humanity answers for the one man".

Leonardo Sciascia, Il Contesto

Before philosophers and Enlightenment thinkers began to challenge the criminal justice system, punishments were harsh and gruesome. Punishment was viewed as a necessary form of social control, and methods were extreme. The harsher the punishment, political figures agreed, the more deterrence for committing crime. The retributive perspective held that criminals owed physical suffering to society.

Philosophically, crime was believed to stem from original sin.

William Godwin, an English political philosopher, author, and journalist, defined crime as "those offences which the wealthier part of the community has no temptation to commit." Therefore it was up to the elites to control the masses; their authority, hierarchy, and power depended on this system of punishment and death penalty.

Sir Erskine May, on 18th century justice stated that "The lives of men were sacrificed with a reckless barbarity, worthier of an eastern despot or African chief, than of a Christian state". (McLynn xiv)

It was common belief that using capital punishment, as a supreme penalty, was the most efficiently deterred crime, and the threat of extreme punishment was the only barrier between animalism, barbarism, primitive state of humanity and civilization. It was also common to participate in public punishment and execution as a spectacle. Political authorities designed punishments to shame the criminal, and through public ritual of punishment, to purify that criminal and purify society from the crime. Suffering had been caused, so suffering was given, and then everyone could return to moral code.

Judges’ discretion benefitted the Bloody Code. Death penalty or severe punishments dettered crime, while pardon and clemency made the convict grateful to England and the laws. In our next section you will be introduced to this "Bloody Code" and some of the most cold hard facts about this dreadful era!

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