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The system of the u. s. traces its roots back to the common law of England. The enforcement of these ancient laws was the responsibility of a criminal justice system that grew and evolved over a protracted period. The protections against the abuse of police power that Americans enjoy today have their roots in English constitutional documents like the royal charter. Legally limited police authority and a decentralized organizational structure are two of the foremost important features of contemporary American policing due to its English colonial past.
Ancient Policing
Historians and anthropologists regard the earliest system of enforcement as kin policing. during this primitive system, members of a clan or tribe banded together to enforce the principles of the group on rogue members. The essence of kin policing was the thought that an attack on one member of the group was tantamount to an attack on the whole group. Note that this method was extremely informal: there have been no courts or written system of laws. Behavioral expectations were derived from group norms and customs.
When formal, written laws emerged, the necessity to enforce those laws emerged concurrently. King Hammurabi of Babylon is credited with the primary written criminal code. The Code of Hammurabi was carved in large stones within the tenth century B.C. The codes of ancient Greece and Rome have had an influence on Western law, as has the Mosaic Code.
Among the earliest documented Western systems of law and enforcement was the mutual pledge system. The mutual pledge system consisted of groups of ten families guaranteed to uphold the law, bring violators to court, and keep the peace. These groups of ten families were referred to as tithings. Each tithing was governed by a tithingman. All men over the age of twelve were required to lift the hue and cry when a criminal offense was detected, and pursue the criminal with all of the boys of the tithing. a bunch of ten tithings was called the hundred, and therefore the office of constable developed out of this organizational unit. If a criminal couldn't be produced in court, then the Crown could fine the whole hundred. In other words, every man was answerable for the conduct of each other man.
Hundreds were combined into administrative units referred to as Shires (or Counties), under the jurisdiction of the shire-reeve . The shire-reeve, whose job it absolutely was to keep up the King’s peace within the Shire, was later shortened to the fashionable term sheriff. The sheriff has the facility to lift all able-bodied men within the county to pursue a criminal. This power was known by the Latin phrase police.
In 1066, the Normans invaded England and seized the throne. The Norman King, William the Conqueror, quickly modified the mutual pledge system to help within the consolidation of his power. The modified system-known because the frankpledge system-was a tightening of the system then Normans found in situ.
By the tip of the thirteenth century, the constable system had developed into the system of rural enforcement common to any or all of England. The office of constable was filled by yearly elections within each parish (a religious division just like a County). The constable had the identical responsibility because the tithingman, with the extra duties of being a royal officer. In urban areas, the watch and ward system developed along similar lines. Officers of the watch would guard the town gates at the hours of darkness, conduct patrols to forestall burglary, arrest strangers appearing at the hours of darkness, and put out fires. By the 1361 A.D., the old system had given thanks to constables working under justices of the peace. this technique would remain in situ until the economic revolution.
Colonial America
When the first colonists founded a system of laws and enforcement in America, they brought the common law system of England with them. during this early system, the county sheriff was the foremost important enforcement official. The duties of the sheriff in those times were much more expansive than they're today. Then the sheriff collected taxes, supervised elections, then forth. As far as enforcement goes, the role of the sheriff in colonial America was completely reactive. If a citizen complained, the sheriff would investigate the matter. If evidence can be collected, an arrest would be made. there have been no preventive efforts, and preventive patrol wasn't conducted.
