[NeedMoreTea]

The penalties were fairly stiff too -- if anyone is unsure if harsher sentencing cuts crime, Medieval times are a pretty strong argument against:

Hanging was the penalty for dozens of crimes, not just murder. Hanging was public and a slow hang unless you bribed the hangman.

Serious crimes would see you hanged, drawn and quartered -- dragged through the town, hanged almost to unconsciousness, emasculated and gutted (while conscious if the hangman did his job right), then beheaded and chopped into 4 bits. The head and parts usually went on prominent display like at the gates of the city.

Then there's the religious offences, which get ugly. Theft from the church would see you flayed alive (skinned). The skin was sometimes nailed to the church door. Apostasy (rejecting your required religion) might see you slow burned alive -- publicly of course. and so it goes on. Medieval Christians seem like a vengeful lot.

Forgot one: Boiling alive -- the penalty for coin counterfeiting.

[tasogare]

> if anyone is unsure if harsher sentencing cuts crime, Medieval times are a pretty strong argument against

But it sure was 100% effective against repeat offenses. Not like for instance the French system where someone can plot a terror attack, get sentenced to 8 years of prison (a shamefully low duration to begin with) and then do it again (possibly one the attacker role this time). In a way death penalty exists, but is reserved to the victims of previous convicts.

[rsynnott]

Per the article above, Oxford’s homicide rate is believed to have been _one hundred times_ higher than today (though this was exceptional; normal rate was moe like 10x higher). Not really great evidence for the ol’ state-sanctioned murder.

[harimau777]

I'm not necessarily saying that I advocate harsher sentencing. However, I think it's possible that both the high incidence of crime and the severity of the sentences could be a result of the difficulty of catching a criminal, bringing them to trial, and carrying out sentences in a time before an organized law enforcement system.