In the year 1800, it was estimated that over 200 offenses were punishable by death in England.

The reason was that the police were not as well-organized as now, and the uncertainty of both the detection of crime and the conviction of offenders was compensated for through the provisions of extremely severe punishment. An 18th-century judge, while awarding a death sentence to a person guilty of stealing a sheep, observed: “You are to be hanged not because you have stolen a sheep, but in order that others may not steal sheep."

Street crimes, even minor monetary ones, were routinely punished quite severely. Theft of a television might receive a longer sentence than stealing millions through illegal business practices. The punishments administered were very severe and the death sentence was awarded even for a minor theft, regardless of the age and gender of the offender.

Through the process of evolution—which is very much natural in nature—and the barbarity of criminal law and its processes in Europe, concepts developed, such as:

• The theory of free will (the question of man's freedom of choice in acting or not acting, and his consequent responsibility for this conduct)
• Utilitarian approach (greatest happiness of the greatest number, and that punishment, an evil within itself, should not exceed what is absolutely necessary to produce the desired effect on the criminal and the society)
• Retributive approach

Opposition to severe punishments and, finally, the abolition of capital punishments (such as death sentences) were ostensible by the midst of the 18th century. Europe and the rest of the world enlightened itself with various schools of thought towards the explanation of crimes. Some professed the free-will approach, some a utilitarian approach, while others advocated a deterrent and retributive approach.