Crime and Punishment: And a Footnote on Tort

Abstract

This chapter discusses the history of American criminal law, covering penal law and penal reform, prison, and tort. The criminal law is an important lever of power, for any government. The leaders of the American Revolution felt strongly that the British were trampling on American rights and were abusing criminal justice. The right to a fair criminal trial was a fundamental right, in their eyes. The Bill of Rights was a kind of minicode of criminal procedure. Moreover, in the late eighteenth century, scholars were rethinking the premises on which criminal law rested. Great reformers called for a more enlightened system of criminal law.