page_title: Criminal justice
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Criminal justice / History
caption_attribution_description: Two prisoners in pillory with another tied to whipping post below and man with whip in prison in Delaware.
context_page_description: Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have committed crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other crimes, and moral support for victims. The primary institutions of the criminal justice system are the police, prosecution and defense lawyers, the courts and prisons.
context_section_description: The modern criminal justice system has evolved since ancient times, with new forms of punishment, added rights for offenders and victims, and policing reforms. These developments have reflected changing customs, political ideals, and economic conditions.  In ancient times through the Middle Ages, exile was a common form of punishment.  During the Middle Ages, payment to the victim (or the victim's family), known as wergild, was another common punishment, including for violent crimes.  For those who could not afford to buy their way out of punishment, harsh penalties included various forms of corporal punishment.  These included mutilation, branding, and flogging, as well as execution.
  Though a prison, Le Stinche, existed as early as the 14th century in Florence, Italy, incarceration was not widely used until the 19th century.  Correctional reform in the United States was first initiated by William Penn, towards the end of the 17th century.  For a time, Pennsylvania's criminal code was revised to forbid torture and other forms of cruel punishment, with jails and prisons replacing corporal punishment.  These reforms were reverted, upon Penn's death in 1718.  Under pressure from a group of Quakers, these reforms were revived in Pennsylvania toward the end of the 18th century, and led to a marked drop in Pennsylvania's crime rate. Patrick Colquhoun, Henry Fielding and others led significant reforms during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
  The first official criminal justice system was created by the British during the American Revolution, as they created the system to primarily justify hangings to the citizens of their government. In each selected area or/and district there was a magistrate, who in today's time would be known as a judge. These individuals were in charge of determining if the Crown or also known as the British government had enough evidence to hang an individual for a crime. The British would not always hang an individual for committing a crime, there would also be trials for punishments that would be carried out by cleaning ships, prison ships, or be locked up on British mainland. During the American revolution the primary type of punishment was to be hanged or sent to prison ships such as the notorious HMS Jersey. After the American revolution the British-based criminal justice system was then adopted by other developing nations (Such as the United States).
caption: Prisoners at a whipping post in a Delaware prison, c. 1907
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