Crime and Punishment 3

Crime and Punishment Name of student Name of instructor Name of institution Course Due date Crime and Punishment Michael brown was born in 1799 Glasgow town. He had two older brothers, Erick and David. His family was a close knit with grandparents living with parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brown. His grandfather, William and grandmother, Miriam had moved from Edinburg to come live with them two years before Michael was born. His grandparents were loving people and also good story tellers. It would be an interesting and sometimes hard life. As a young man, William was one of the first men to serve as town guard in Edinburg in 1682. This is where the history of a generation of police in their family began. Michael learned of this history as young as four years. William and Miriam would narrate stories to him and his brothers often. William told of how there were no police in the early days and people used to police themselves through community groups. When Michael was one year old, his father became a police. This is when the Glasgow Police Act was passed and allowed for the formation of City of Glasgow police. The main objective was to prevent crime and secondly to detect and punish offenders where a crime was committed. Unlike today when police are well remunerated, back then the police were lowly paid as their salaries and money to support their activities came from taxation of citizens. This was at a time when economic growth had not developed much and so the citizens were cautioned from over taxation. Later though, the economy began to grow rapidly and a large population moved into towns. This saw a change in economic and social dynamics. Mr. Brown would come home in the evenings and narrate the day’s events to the family and they would all be keen. There was an increase in crime brought about by the difference between the poor and the rich. The police were having a hard time preventing the crimes. This is when his elder brother started to become interested in policing and would later become one too. Erick joined the Irish constabulary at the age of nineteen. The Peace Preservation Act was created in1814 in Ireland (Wikipedia). In 1822, the Irish constabulary was created. He was in the force that put down the Fenian Rising of 1867. The family would gather on Sunday for lunch. This was a tradition that would be observed for many years. Here they would share their experiences of life. They were all interested in Erick’s and Mr. Brown’s careers. Father and son would tell of the difficulties they experienced in preventing crime and apprehending the criminals. Michael began to share his dream of becoming a police during these lunches. Unfortunately, Mr. William and Mrs. Miriam were involved in a robbery with violence where they were shot and died in 1820. This was the year Michael had finally joined the police force in Glasgow. During the period from 1800 to 1855, there were high incidences of crime recorded in Britain (Dodsworth, 2008). Criminals were punished with severe penalties, mostly death by executions. In 1830, Michael and the family had a new member in their family. He was now an elder brother to baby Mark William, who would grow up to be like his grandfather. During this time, crime rate was growing by day in Britain. His father and brother were having a harder time by the day at the forces. Officers would be killed or injured by criminals and this became a concern for the Browns’ family. It was in 1829 that the metropolitan police was founded following the introduction of The Metropolitan Police Act by the home secretary Robert Peel (Smith, 1999). This was a model for other forces in the UK and USA. Mr. Brown became a senior inspector in this force. That meant more responsibility and more money. Crime rates were still high in these years. Michael’s dreams also soar higher when he was appointed to the detective department formed within the Metropolitan police in 1842. Crime continued to rise up to 1855 when a decline was observed (Smith, 1999). Mr. Brown felt it was now time to hang his boots and in 1856, he retired from the Metropolitan police force. He was a happy man and proud two leave a younger generation of his lineage in the force. At twenty, Mark William had joined Erick at the Irish constabulary in 1850. Other forms of punishment apart from death by execution were transportation of criminals to other countries such as Britain's colonies, like Australia. This was a better punishment than death for less serious crimes. Transportation had come to an end in the year 1867. Now, only murder and treason were the only crimes punishable by death penalty. Crime rate was on a downscale since 1855. It was good news for Michael and his brothers. Peace also leads to development and growth of economies. Michael’s family was benefiting from the peace and they would continue to share this over their Sunday lunch ritual. It seemed that David was the only one of the brothers who had time for marriage and in 1827, he had married Anna. They were blessed with four children; three girls: Mary, Cynthia, and Shelmith and one boy, William. Michael and the rest of the family always joked that William would be the one to fill the gap that he had left by not joining the police force. Mark William was in so many ways his grandfather’s so. He was full of energy and was a free spirit. In 1870, he married and had three sons; Edward, Robert and Matthew, and one daughter, Alice. At this time Mrs. Brown fell ill and died and five months later, Mr. Brown died. They were both very old and they had lived their lives to the fullest. They had witnessed a transition in the social-economics of Britain and had seen a phase where crime rate were high and when they went down significantly. Michael and his brothers continued the Sunday lunch ritual. During this time Michael would narrate stories to his nephews and nieces just like his grandfather would. The children were made aware that they came from a lineage of police and that they should be ready to serve their country whenever called to do so. In 1914, during world war one, Michael and his brothers went to war. They were all senior and their duty was to offer guidance and leadership. After world war one, crime continued on a downscale. ...