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Rising Crime In Elizabethan England Essay

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Asses the reasons for rising crime rate in Elizabethan England

Within the Elizabethan era crime and punishment was structured by social class,
Elizabethan England was split into two classes - the Upper Class, the nobility, and everyone else. Punishment would usually be seen to vary in severity according to class. The Upper class were well educated, wealthy and associated with Royalty or high members of the clergy. They would often become involved in Political arguments and religious matters. The nobility could therefore become involved in crime to do with these things. The most common crimes of the Nobility included things such as High Treason (the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government), Blasphemy (the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk), Sedition (conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch), Spying, Rebellion, Murder, Witchcraft and Alchemy (a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Egypt and Asia. It aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects). …show more content…

According to historian D. B. Quinn, there were three major reasons for England to expand to the New World: the supplementary economy, the complementary economy, and the emigration thesis. The supplementary economy meant that the New World could produce what England did but in greater quantities, this led to loss of work as people weren’t needed as much to produce things in England, therefore people were to result to crime to gain money; the complementary economy meant that the New World would provide merchandise that England could not produce; and the emigration thesis meant that some of the population in England which was heavily crowded, could move to the New World. How would this effect

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