Crime and punishment medieval to modern

Crime and punishment medieval to modern

From Arts & Ideas by BBC Radio 4

February 20, 2026 · 57 min

About this episode

The episode explores the evolution of attitudes towards punishment and the current ideas surrounding the criminal justice system.

How have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme, Matthew Sweet and guests explore the criminal justice system through history. With: Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull and BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which puts research on radio Scout Tzofiya Bolton, poet and broadcaster who presents on National Prison Radio, and for Radio 4 the Illuminated episode called The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag. Her poetry collection is called The Mad Art of Doing Time Joanna Hardy-Susskind, criminal barrister and presenter for Radio 4 of a series called You Do Not Have To Say Anything Stephen Shapiro, Professor of American Literature at the University of Warwick Jonathan Sumption, former Supreme Court judge and now Moral Maze panellist for BBC Radio 4 and author of a five-volume account of The Hundred Years War Producer: Eliane Glaser

People in this episode

Host: Matthew Sweet

Guests: Stephanie Brown, Scout Tzofiya Bolton, Joanna Hardy-Susskind, Stephen Shapiro, Jonathan Sumption

Topics covered

  • criminal justice system
  • punishment
  • historical attitudes
  • modern perspectives
  • roundtable discussion
  • criminology
  • poetry

Keywords

  • crime
  • punishment
  • medieval
  • modern
  • criminology
  • justice
  • discussion
  • poetry
  • law
  • history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Hull, BBC, AHRC, National Prison Radio, Radio 4

Books & works: The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag, The Mad Art of Doing Time, You Do Not Have To Say Anything, The Hundred Years War

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