HIST 334 - Crime and Punishment Through the Ages

Credit Hours: 3

A survey of the way past societies in the Western tradition have defined and dealt with crime, starting with the Code of Hammurabi and the Mosaic Law in the Ancient Near East and ending with the invention of the modern prison system and police forces in Europe and America in the early 19th century. The focus will be on how each society’s values shaped its definition of what a crime was, the way investigations and trials were conducted and the way convicted criminals were punished in each time and place.