GCSE History: Crime and Punishment c1900–Present

This material covers the final period of the thematic study of crime and punishment in Britain, as taught in the GCSE History option 'Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present' (for example Pearson Edexcel, Paper 1). It looks at the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a time of rapid social and technological change in what counts as a crime, how crimes are detected and how offenders are punished.

You revise new crimes and new forms of old crimes – car crime and driving offences, computer fraud and other cybercrime, people trafficking and terrorism – and how changing attitudes altered the law in both directions: homosexuality between consenting adults was partly decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967 and abortion was legalised under set conditions the same year, while race crime and drug offences became the subject of new laws such as the Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968 and the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971.

Two case studies often examined in this period are included. Conscientious objectors in the First World War faced tribunals after conscription began in 1916, and the treatment of alternativists and absolutists is compared with the Second World War. The Derek Bentley case of 1952–53 shows how a controversial execution fed the campaign that suspended the death penalty for murder in 1965 and abolished it permanently in 1969; Bentley was pardoned in 1993 and his conviction quashed in 1998.

On law enforcement you revise how science and technology changed policing – fingerprinting from 1901, cars and radios, DNA profiling from the late 1980s, CCTV – alongside community approaches such as Neighbourhood Watch from 1982. On punishment you trace the move towards rehabilitation: probation from 1907, Borstals for young offenders from 1902, the first open prison in 1936, Young Offender Institutions from 1982, and community sentences.

The quiz checks key dates, laws and reasons; the flashcards drill the landmark Acts and terms; the written work asks for explanations and judgements about the role of factors such as science and technology, attitudes and government; and in the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time and gives short feedback at the end.

The material is revision practice written by Zestly and is not produced or reviewed by any exam board; check the details of your own specification with your teacher.

• Explain how new technology and globalisation created new crimes and new forms of old crimes
• Explain how changing attitudes led to laws that decriminalised some actions and criminalised others
• Describe the treatment of conscientious objectors in the two World Wars
• Explain the significance of the Derek Bentley case in the abolition of the death penalty
• Explain how science, technology and community schemes changed policing after 1900
• Describe the move towards rehabilitation, including probation, Borstals, open prisons and community sentences

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE history subject content (thematic study) and the period c1900–present of the thematic option 'Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present' (for example Pearson Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0).