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1. Forms and significance German legal terminology distinguishes between the  Vermögensdelikt, a general “offense against property” in the sense of diverting (a thing of) compensable value from its proprietor (Fraud), and within that the  Eigentumsdelikt, an “offense against (the right of) ownership.” The common denominator of all Eigentumsdelikte in modern criminology and penology is that an owner of a thing suffers its removal, damage, or destruction. Historically, however, Eigentumsdelikte comprised a diverse segment of criminality as a whole that was not e…

1. A special case of inquisition?A witchcraft trial was essentially a trial by inquisition (Inquisition, trial by), as was standard practice in all aspects of criminal law at the beginning of the early modern period. Except for the early 15th century and Southern Europe, witchcraft trials were usually conducted by secular rather than ecclesiastical courts of law. The trial is considered a central factor in the dynamic of the persecution of witches in the 16th and 17th centuries [7]. It is significant that the Göttingen historian August Ludwig Schlözer coined the term judicial m…

1. FormsIn large parts of early modern Europe, the pillory or stocks (French  pilori or carcan, German Pranger, Italian  gogna) was a widespread instrument used to punish violations of norms (Social discipline); the term also denoted a venue of the court of law. It represents a broad spectrum of penalties (Punishment) designed to publicly dishonor the offender (Honor, loss of; see Honor, fig. 1). Recent scholarship distinguishes two basic types: shaming punishment, imposed by the courts of inferior jurisdiction an…

1. Definition Disrepute (German Unehrlichkeit) denotes a condition of diminished legal status and social stigmatization as applied to particular social groups, notably in the Holy Roman Empire. During the early modern period, it was expressed in limitations on civic rights and eligibility for office and especially guild membership, and in exclusion from positions of social intercourse, such as marriage or godparenthood. Unlike the individual stigma of dishonor (cf. Honor, loss of), it did not arise …

1. Denotation, basic concept “Fornication” (German abzucht;  zucht = “breeding”) is a stigmatizing term which, in its most literal sense, denotes the absence of “breeding,” i.e. of decent and civilized conduct [3]; [2]. From this very general sense, in the late Middle Ages its usage narrowed to refer to minor offenses punishable by the lower court of law (“Sin and Fornication”). In some south German and Swiss states, it also gave a name to the relevant special police unit ( Unzüchter; cf. “the Vice Squad”).In the early modern era, the scope of the term narrowed further. Unzucht now m…

1. ConceptViolent crime is a modern research term used to bring together an array of heterogeneous criminal offenses for purposes of analysis and to compare them with other categories of misdemeanor (e.g. property crime). Their lowest common denominator is the use of physical violence, but their natures and motivations, as well as the view taken of them at particular periods of history, may vary considerably. Robbery, although defined by the use of physical force even to the extent of hom…

1. Definition Since the 13th century, theologians and jurists have defined blasphemy as defamation of God. They have distinguished analytically between several types of blasphemy: ascribing something to God that does not befit him (such as a body), lessening his omnipotence, or ascribing to creatures something proper only to God [12. 21 ff.]. In all cases, however, the central idea was public defamation of the Creator and his saints. Apart from the exceptional target of the attacks, the elements of the offense were identical in nature to other c…

1. Basis and definition Moral offenses are a modern construct of historical research on criminality to a greater extent than other groups of crimes (Property crime; Violent crime) for the purpose of conducting comparative analyses. Although already the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina contains a loose group of relevant offenses (articles 116–123) [1], they usually appear in the early modern period as “carnal crimes,” that is, sexual deviance, as still in the Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten of 1794 (ALR II 20 992–1072). The criminal codes of Württembe…

1. Definition and scopeCriminality (from Latin crimen, “accusation, crime”) describes the totality of behaviors that are prosecuted and penalized by the social and legal authorities of a society (Penalty). The modern definition of criminality as the “sum of behaviors that are subject to criminal punishment” can be used historically only to a limited extent, since public or state criminal law itself did not exist until the late Middle Ages and therefore serves as an important references point only for the history of the early modern period. Criminality thus is not a sui generis realit…

1. Forms As “the inflicting of bodily harm as punishment” [5. 1777], corporal punishment in the early modern period comprised a broad range of penal sanctions that is difficult to narrow down (Penalty; Criminal law) [4. 68–71]. In the late 17th century, Jakob Döpler attempted to systematize forms of corporal punishment by distinguishing them from “life punishments” ( Lebensstrafen), that is, from various forms of capital punishment (Death penalty; cf. Criminality) [3]. He first covered forms of imprisonment (Prison) and banishment, which impinged on a person's bo…

1. Definition Only in a highly technical sense can we think of robber bands as subcultural communities formed for the violent misappropriation of other people’s property. Instead, they stand as a synonym for early modern organized criminality in general; their members engaged in theft and robbery, fraud and extortion, manslaughter and murder for a living (Property crime; Violence). In the late Middle Ages, robber bands became projection surfaces for collective fears of crime, but also for its romantic glorification.Gerd Schwerhoff2. Historical studyFor a long time,…

1. ConceptDeviance, as conduct that deviates from the norm, is a relational category of social science, since it can sensibly be defined only in relation to that norm. Such norms may be formal and legal in nature (e.g. Criminal law), or they may be social codes of conduct (e.g. moral) that are not necessarily established in written form. Every classification of an act as deviant is simultaneously an action of social control, and sanctions are usually associated with the definition (Social discipl…

1. Transition to early modern period The legal killing of a delinquent for a committed crime is in principle found as the severest sanction in criminal law in all periods and cultures, but differing in form and frequency. For Europe, traditional legal history sought the medieval origins of the phenomenon in “Germanic” and Roman law. Motives cited here included magical or sacral considerations (penal sacrifice, defensive magic, blood vengeance), and the rational, calculated exercise of autho…

1. Middle Ages In the Middle Ages,  inquisition (from Latin  inquisitio, “investigation”) denoted a rather vague institutional context defined more precisely by the presence of two elements: the office of the inquisitor (medieval Latin inquisitor heretice pravitatis, “investigator of heretical depravity”), a specialist in the prosecution of heretics (Heresy) appointed by the papacy and invested with delegated judicial authority, and a specific inquisitorial procedure laid out in the Inquisition’s own regulations and handbooks [17].Where the challenges of heretical…

1. Concept; key characteristics of the early modern witchThe etymological origins of the English “witch” (OE  wicce) and the German  Hexe  (witch, related to English “hag”) are obscure. Both terms were used to denote people (usually women, but see Witch, male) said by their peers in society to be able to cause damage to people, animals, and human society by means of their hidden (“magical”) knowledge and/or their connections with supernatural forces. Witches as personifications of evil were familiar in Chris…

1. Concept and terminologyViolence (Latin violentia, “violence,” “impetuosity”;  vis, “hostile force”) is the use of force to inflict injury or damage or to intimidate. To use force is to exercise physical power to overcome resistance (although from the perspective of the victim, it represents an infringement of or interference with the physical integrity of the person). Modern discussions among scholars of social and cultural science thus treat specific acts of violence in the sense of Latin vis. There is increasing criticism of extensions of the concept of violence…