Crime and Punishment During the 1650's During the 1650's if a person broke a law, it was considered a sin and the punishment was very severe in most cases, but now criminal law has developed largely due to increase of education. For example, in the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne was charged for adultery, and her punishment was to wear an A on her shirt for the rest of her life. She also had to stand …showed first 75 words of 1168 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1168 total…a person could never have gotten away with murder back then. A lot of things have changed in American society since the colonial period. In my opinion I don't think the United States would be the great society it is without the Puritans to learn from. Works Cited Papke, David. "Crime and Punishment." American Social History vol.3. New York, NY: Charles Scribner, 1993: 2073-2087 Slavicek, Louise. Life Among The Puritans. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books Inc., 2001