This coding system is an early attempt to classify the crimes for which men and women were sentenced and punished, both in the United Kingdom, and in the Australian penal colonies. It was built in 2017-2018 by Kelsey Priestman while working on the UNE’s Landscapes of Production and Punishment project (DP17) in collaboration with our partners, the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority and Digital History Tasmania.
This system is a work in progress. It is understood to be a draft and is circulated for the purpose of allowing convict history researchers to test a range of hypotheses, in the short term. Specifically there is a view that the coding might better reflect some of the contemporary legal and statutory definitions of crime, and perhaps also capture something of the changing definitions of some crimes subsequent to successive reforms of the ‘Bloody Code’ in the mid-nineteenth century.
Further research and refinement is pending, but is likely to result in adjustments rather than a substantial overhaul.
The current coding system is built around a division of all crimes into seven (7) major classes:
CRIME CLASSIFICATIONS: MAJOR CLASSES
- Class I: Offences against the Person
- Class II: Offences against Property
- Class III: Forgery and Offences against the Currency
- Class IV: Offences against Good Order
- Class V: Offences not Included in Preceding Classes
- Class VI: Military Offences
- Class VII: Not Classified Elsewhere
SUB-CLASSES
Each major class is further divided in sub-classes, which are numbered consecutively throughout at a 2-digit level.
Sub-class 52 (within Class V) is given as ‘Other offences, which included offences against convict discipline’ and consists of numerous subcategories such as ‘absconding’ (522), ‘refusing to work’ (528) and ‘falsely stating civil condition’ (5215) – status offences that are unique to the disciplining of convicts, rather than crimes under the criminal code. Possibly these offences might deserve their own major class?
It might also be useful to further distinguish some offences to recognise gradations in severity: absconding from private assignment, for example, which was a disciplinary offence, as opposed to absconding from a penal settlement which was sometimes a capital crime (akin to ‘returning from transportation’).
The coding spreadsheet also includes a range of examples and definitions of crimes within each sub-class. For example, Class V, Sub-Class 41: “Conspiracy”, covers crimes described at the time as “plotting, high treason, collaborating, mutiny, organised insurrection, piratical invasion, and conniving”, although the choice of the term Conspiracy as label to capture forms of treason is problematic, given its wider use in contemporary terminology – as in ‘conspiracy to commit a crime’, or ‘conspiracy to have someone falsely charged with a crime;.
The categories and definitions here certainly invite more consideration. Sub-Class 28: Arson, for example, includes “incendiarism, careless use of fire, fire raising, house burning, accessory or aiding arson”. But possibly a separate sub-class is required for “careless use of fire”, because arson was not felonious if it were the result of mere negligence or mischance. Arson only became a felony when deemed willful and malicious (as with incendiarism). By a 1723 Act ‘For the more effectual punishing of wicked and evil-disposed persons going armed in disguise‘ (9 Geo.1 c.22) maliciously setting fire – ‘to any house, barn, or outhouse, or to any hovel, cock, mow, or stack of corn, straw, hay, or wood’ – was punishable by death.
Other sub-categories, like ‘Forgery and uttering forged instruments’ may seemingly refer to a range of comparable crimes, but in fact ‘uttering, possessing and passing’ forged or counterfeited items were relatively minor offences, compared to possessing instruments for coining or ‘clipping, rounding or filing the coin’, which were forms of high treason. Further, ‘uttering’ was a relatively minor crime until one was caught a third time, when (under the 1741 Counterfeiting Coin Act, 15 Geo.2, c.28) it became a capital offence.
Similarly, ‘absconding’ and ‘returning from transportation’ are here grouped together as movement offences, but they were quite distinct given that offenders were liable to be flogged for one and executed for the other.
Assault on a public officer in the execution of his duty (such as on a constable, a gamekeeper, tax collector etc), was an offence distinct from other forms of assault (Class I, Sub-Class 13). Similarly, ‘assault with intent to rape’, a misdemeanor at common law, was distinct from rape and might more correctly be considered a sub-category of ‘assault’, or perhaps given a sub-class of its own.
Approaches to the coding of offences will likely reflect the different needs of different researchers. While a little more work is needed before this is established as a universal coding system, it is a solid foundation for a model that can be employed and adapted across a wide range of research questions.
All suggestions welcome.
David Andrew Roberts <drobert9@une.edu.au>
UNE, April 2023
| Class I: Offences against the Person | ||||
| 1 | Infanticide | |||
| 2 | Concealment of birth | Concealing the birth of infants | concealing birth of bastard child | |
| 3 | Murder | Murder | pre-meditated killing, accessory to or soliciting to murder, homicide, culpable homicide | |
| 5 | Manslaughter | Manslaughter | unlawful killing without premeditation or malice i.e. deaths occurring in the course of fights | |
| 6 | Rape | Rape, and carnally abusing girls under the age of 10 years; Assaults with intent to ravish and carnally abuse; Carnally abusing girls between the age of 10 and 12 years | attempted rape, assault with intent to rape/ ravish, aiding/abetting/rape, carnally knowing a child under the age of… | |
| 7 | Other offences against females | bastardy, not paying for a bastardy child, chance/ love child | ||
| 8 | Abduction | Abduction; Child-stealing | kidnapping, taking a person away, child dropping | |
| 9 | Unnatural offences | Sodomy; Assautls with intent to commit sodomy, and other unnatural misdemeanours | sodomy, buggery, incest, bestiality, assault with intention to commit an unnatural act, intent to commit unnatural act, lying together (males) | |
| 10 | Abortion and attempts to procure | Attempts to procure the miscarriage of women | ||
| 11 | Bigamy | Bigamy | ||
| 12 | Suicide, attempted | Attempting suicide | attempt at or threat to take own life | |
| 13 | Assault, aggravated | Shooting at, stabbing, wounding, &c with intent to maim, disfigure etc | maiming, cutting, maliciously shooting at someone (without intention to kill), assault on habitation in order to take forcible possession of land etc. (includes threat of or use of violence (esp. with firearms etc.), grievous or malicious assault/ injury (absent of robbing or intention to rob/ murder element), stabbing (no mention of death or attempted murder), wounding (with intention to grievous bodily harm) | |
| 14 | Assault, common | Assaults; Assaults on peace officer in the execution of their duty | assault (no robbery or intent to rob element), assault to the effusion of blood, striking, hitting, indecent assault, battery, general assaults against females (excluding intention to or actual rape), ill treating, attempt/intent to assault, suspicion of assault | |
| 15 | Other offences against the person | miscellaneous abuse, resisting, selling/ hawking bad meat/ fish etc., knowingly spreading disease to others, administering Laudanum & other narcotics, stripping a child (even if act done in order to steal) | ||
| Class II: Offences against Property | ||||
| 16 | Burglary | Burglary; Burglary, attended with violence to person | breaking into dwelling at night, inciting/ aiding/ abetting burglary, picking a lock, housebreaking by night | |
| 17 | Housebreaking | Housebreaking; Breaking within the curtilage of dwelling house and stealing; Breaking into shops, warehouses, and counting houses and stealing; Misdemeanours, with intent to commit the above offences | breaking into dwelling during day (include unspecified time of day), theft by opening lockfast plant, forced entry i.e. breaking a window & stealing within, breaking a building, being caught in/ concealed in house, warehouse/ shop/ curtilage/ house/ office etc. breaking, possession or manufacture (excluding theft) of housebreaking implements (i.e. skeleton or picklock keys), entering a house/ shop/ ship etc., for stealing within a building where there is no reference to forced entry etc. refer Class II, ‘Larceny, other’) | |
| 18 | Robbery and stealing from the person | Robbery; Robbery, and attempts to rob by persons armed in company; Robbery, attended by cutting or wounding; Assaults with intent to rob, and demanding property with menaces; Stealing in dwelling houses, persons therein being put in fear; Larceny from the person | unspecified aggravated theft, demanding or seizing firearms, robbing/ robbery (or attempt/ accessory to) at house/ ship/ office/ lodgings/ garden/bank etc., assault on a habitation where theft occurred (also see Class 1, ‘Assault, aggravated’), robbery in company, picking pockets and attempt to, assault and robbery, assault with intention of robbing, piracy, highway robbery, bushranging, street robbery, robbery where person/s directly involved (not including employer/ master etc.), larceny from the person, aiding or abetting of robbery, taking forcible possession of a house, stealing the property of | |
| 19 | Horse-stealing | Horse stealing | includes foal, gelding, mare etc. and accessory to crime but excludes body parts/ products, i.e. skin, mane, hair, head, flesh etc. | |
| 20 | Cattle-stealing | Cattle stealing | includes heifer, cow, calf, bullock and accessory to crime but excludes body parts/ products, i.e. skin/ hide, body parts and edible flesh i.e. beef | |
| 21 | Sheep-stealing | Sheep stealing | includes lamb, merino, ewe, kid, ram and accessory to crime, but excludes body parts/ products, i.e. skin, wool, body parts and edible flesh i.e. mutton, lamb | |
| 22 | Embezzlement and stealing by servants | Larceny by servants; Embezzlements | stealing or robbery from master/ mistress/ employer- includes stealing horses, sheep or cattle and burglary and housebreaking | |
| 23 | Larceny, other | Larceny in dwelling house to the value of £5; Larceny from letters; Larcey from vessels in port or a river, &c; Larceny from shops, stores, &c; Larceny from gardens; Larceny from out-houses; Larceny from enclosures; Larceny from wharves; Larceny, simple; Stealing goods in process of manufacture; Stealing fixtures, trees and shrubs growing, &c; Stealing letters from the post office | poaching (or game law offences), being armed in the night with intent to kill/destroying game, poaching (without violence to person/s), pledging, being a resurrectionist, stealing from office/ dwelling/ shop etc. (not including robbery/ robbing/ breaking/entering), aggravated theft by habit/ repute/ previous convictions, stealing a gun (as apposed to discharging or possessing unregistered weapon etc.), hunting, trapping, pawning, milking a cow, pawn ticket, jacking, carpeting, snowdropping, thieving, theft, pilfering, shoplifting (known as private stealing), suspicion of stealing, intention to steal, having item in possesion without cause/account, making away with, fishing, stealing keys (not possessing them), felony | |
| 24 | Unlawfully using horses or cattle | Killing and maiming cattle | ||
| 25 | Unlawfully branding | |||
| 26 | Receiving | Receiving letters stolen from the post office; Receiving stolen goods; Unlawful possession of goods | buying/ selling stolen property (including horses, cattle & sheep), reset or receipt of theft, aiding/abetting receiving | |
| 27 | Fraud and false pretences | Sending menacing letters to extort money; Obtaining property by threats to accuse of unnatural crimes; Fraud and attempts to defraud; Conspiracy to defraud; Obtaining goods under false pretences | swindling, breach of trust or agreement, falsehood fraud and wilful imposition, false allegations, bribery, false weights, overcharging, deception, dishonesty, destroying deed/ will, impersonating someone else, libel, having improper certificate, complaint against master | |
| 28 | Arson | Setting fire to a dwelling house or shop, persons being therein; Setting fire to a house, warehouse, corn-stack &c; Setting fire to crops, plantations &c; Attempts to commit arson, set fire to crops &c; Sending letters threatening to burn houses, &c | incendiarism, careless use of fire, firing of….., fire raising, house burning, accessory or aiding arson | |
| 29 | Malicious damage | Riot and feloniously demolishing buildings &c; Destroying goods in process of manufacture; Destroying hop-binds, trees, shrubs, &c growing; Other malicious offences | machine breaking, breaking windows, killing or maiming of farm animals, riotously demolishing a house, cutting down/ destroying/ removing trees, roots or plants, breaking a lock, damaging/defacing/without irons | |
| 30 | Other offences against property | Sacrilege; Piracy; Misdemeanours with intent to steal; Dog stealing; Pawning illegally | low level animal cruelty, trespass (including entering garden, jumping over garden wall etc.), losing another person’s property, altering clothing | |
| Class III: Forgery and Offences against the Currency | ||||
| 31 | Forgery and uttering forged instruments | Forging and uttering forged bank notes; Forging and uttering other forged instruments; Having in possession forged bank notes &c; Counterfeiting the current gold and silver coin; Having in possession &c implements for coining; Uttering and having in possession counterfeit gold and silver coin | passing/ putting off/ manufacturing/ uttering/forging/ selling/ pawning or possessing base/bad/ counterfeit coin/ order/ bills/cheque/ banknote/money/ sovereigns/ crowns etc., coining, bad or old coinage, diminishing coin (i.e. filing), possessing mould for counterfeiting coin, does not include larceny of money | |
| 32 | Offences in relation to the currency | Buying and putting off counterfeit gold and silver coin | ||
| Class IV: Offences against Good Order | ||||
| 33 | Drunkenness | Drunkenness | being tipsy, being drunk on the Sabbath | |
| 34 | Drunkenness and disorderly conduct | Disorderly characters | drunkenness with rowing/ affray/ fighting/ abuse etc. | |
| 35 | Drunkenness, habitual | repeated drunkenness | ||
| 36 | Obscene, threatening, or abusive language | threatening to injure/ kill without weapons/ force, sending threatening notice/ letters, blasphemy, extortion, demanding money with menaces, blackmail, attempting to compel to quit, threatening to commit arson (actual arson act is II, 30), swearing, insulting | ||
| 37 | Vagrancy | Vagrants | destitution, rogue and vagabond, sleeping in open air | |
| 38 | Begging | |||
| 39 | Indecent, riotous, or offensive conduct | Riot, sedition, breach of the peace; Indecently exposing the person | exposing his/her person, row, fighting (without drunkenness element), quarrelling, does not include machine breaking (see class II, 29- malicious damage), unlawful assembly, violent outrages, prize fighting (also 43), aiding& abetting riotous conduct | |
| 40 | Other offences against good order | Keeping disorderly house; Furious driving; Nuisances | bad character, being in bad company, being a reputed thief, affray, upsetting carts etc. in street, throwing stones (also a gambling offence), letting off fireworks/crackers (squibs), creating disturbance/ nuisance, idle & disorderly, improper/disorderly conduct (without drunkenness), being disrespectful, prostitution, breach of peace, quarrelling, Sabbath breaking, keeping a disorderly house, loitering, unspecified sacrilege (without theft etc. at church), furious/ careless driving, bathing in public place, refusing to bathe, conveying spirits/items, concealing items, endeavouring to commit offence (unless larceny, other), refusing to go, encouraging/ exciting others (could be 41) | |
| Class V: Offences not Included in Preceding Classes | ||||
| 52ii | Adultery | |||
| 41 | Conspiracy | plotting, high treason, collaborating, mutiny, organised insurrection, piratical invasion, conniving | ||
| 42 | Perjury and subornation | Wilful prevarication on oath; Perjury; Subornation of perjury | lying under oath, administering an unlawful oath, contempt of court, failure to prosecute at court hearing, refusing to take oath, tampering with witness | |
| 43 | Offences against gambling suppression laws | Gambling | gambling, gambling on a Sunday, selling a race, thimble rigging, throwing some ducks, throwing stones (also see Class IV, 40- offences against good order), skittles, prize fighting, bagatelle | |
| 44 | Offences against liquor laws | Illicit distillation; Offences under publicans’ licensing act | distilling, selling liquor without licence, selling liquor out of hours | |
| 45 | Offences against factory laws | |||
| 46 | Offences against masters and servants laws | Apprentices, runaway; Hired servants’ act | ||
| 47 | Offences against education laws | |||
| 48 | Offences against neglected children laws | neglect of wife and family, includes parents and extended family members | ||
| 49 | Desertion of wives and children | Deserting families | deserting/ leaving/ abandoning family, leaving other family members, including parents, aunts etc. | |
| 50 | Offences against navigation or shipping laws | Smuggling | ||
| 51 | Offences against Revenue laws | Hawking without a licence | hawking without licence, smuggling including aiding etc., tax offences, obstructing customs officer, selling unstamped newspaper | |
| 52 | Other offences, which included offences against convict discipline: | Cruelty to animals; Illegally removing goods; Offences under the Police Act; Offences under public entertainment act; Offences under hackney carriage act; Offences under dog act; Offences under kangaroo act; Offences under hunting act; Reputed thieves; Suspicious characters; Prostitutes; Rescue and refusing to aid peace officers; Felonies not included in the above denominations; Offences not included in the above denominations | rescuing/ harbouring fugitive, taking (up) arms, possessing/ raising/ discharging gun/ pistol/ firearm etc. (no indication of larceny or violent intent towards person/s), possessing knife (no indication of larceny), being in debt, illegal political affiliation (i.e. Chartism, Whiteboy, Ribbonism, enlisting in militia) or belonging to secret society, bankruptcy, default of fine/ bail, breach of contract, refusing to pay/ goods, obstructing thoroughfare, improperly carting night soil, aiding escape of others, neglect/failure of position, not reporting himself, having an improper pass/ not exhibiting pass, improper use of material, having tobacco/smoking, working privately | |
| 52a | Bushranging | Being at large under sentence of transportation; Bushranging | ||
| 52b | Absconding (non military) | Absconding from bail; Absconding | running away from work, returning from transportation, escaping or attempting to escape prison, leaving apprenticeship, running away from master/ home/ workhouse/ the union, being at large | |
| 52c | Absence without leave (non military) | Absence without leave | ||
| 52d | Insolence (non military) | Insolence | obstinacy | |
| 52e | Insubordination (non military) | Insubordination | ||
| 52f | Idleness | Idleness | Not completing his task, laziness | |
| 52g | Neglect of work | Neglect of duty | carless labour, mismanagement, spoiling his work | |
| 52h | Refusing to work | Refusing to work | Not performing his task, quitting early, refusing to assist in work, skylarking | |
| 52i | Refusing to remain in or return to service | Refusing to hire | refusing to hire | |
| 52j | Misrepresenting qualifications | Misrepresenting qualifications | ||
| 52k | Absence from authorised abode/ residence | Absence from authorised abode | at the rocks | |
| 52l | Out after hours | Out after hours | ||
| 52m | Loitering about during divine service | Loitering about during divine service | ||
| 52n | Prostitution and related | |||
| 52o | Falsely stating civil condition | Falsely stating civil condition | ||
| 52p | Being in a public-house | Being in a public-house | ||
| 52q | Attempting to leave the colony | Attempting to leave the colony | ||
| 52r | Disobedience (non-military) | Disobedience of orders | contrary to orders (if not in other) | |
| 52s | Absence from muster | Absence from muster | ||
| 52t | Misconduct (non military) | Misconduct | ||
| 52x | Breach of miscellaneous Regulations/ Acts | ex. Police Act, riding a car without a person on foot guiding | ||
| 52u | Admitting unauthorised person/s into employers’ premises | |||
| 52v | Being unfit/ useless for service | uselessness | ||
| 52w | Delivering of an illegitimate child | |||
| 52y | Being found without a pass | |||
| 52z | Not proceeding according to pass | overstaying his pass | ||
| 52aa | Making false statement/ representation | |||
| 52bb | Trafficking and related | selling own belongings, trafficking | ||
| 52cc | Marrying without permission | |||
| 52dd | Abuse of child under their care | |||
| 52ee | Sexual impropriety | found with prostitute/female, living as man and wife/cohabitating | ||
| 52ff | Delivering child (legitimacy not known) | |||
| 52gg | Possession of un-authorised item/s | |||
| 52hh | Harbouring individuals | Prison-breaking, harboruing and aiding the escape of felons; Harbouring transported offenders | ||
| 52jj | Feigning sickness | feigning illness, malingering | ||
| 52kk | Not being under proper control | |||
| 52ll | Failure to report herself | |||
| 52mm | Being on a premises without authority (unspecified) | Being in a disorderly house | being in a disorderly house | |
| 52nn | Felony (unspecified) | |||
| 52oo | Disorderly conduct (unspecified) | |||
| 52pp | Being in town contrary to orders | |||
| 52qq | Overstaying her pass | |||
| 52rr | Damaging property (non specific) | |||
| 52ss | Escaping from custody | |||
| Class VI: Military Offences | ||||
| 53 | Military offences against the person | refer ‘Offences against the person’ Class I, including key words | ||
| 54 | Military offences against property | refer ‘Offences against property’ Class II, including key words, also selling necessities, making away with/ or losing kit, breaking firelock | ||
| 55 | Military offences against the currency | refer Class III: ‘Forgery and Offences against the Currency’, including key words | ||
| 56 | Military offences against military discipline | Deserters | drunk/ sleeping on duty, neglect of duty, insubordination, breaking out of barracks etc., enlisting, insubordination, disobedience, mutinous/ disgraceful conduct, absence/desertion | |
| Class X | ||||
| Insufficient information to code | ||||