Why didn’t the Romans conquer crime? :: Classics

Why didn’t the Romans conquer crime? History Essay Why didn’t the Romans conquer crime? I am going to write an essay explaining all the factors of Roman life in the crime situation such as their laws and the punishments they gave for committing crimes. Also I will be examining their police force and their prison punishments. And I will finally be explaining the public side to all this and the criminal rates of being caught. To prove that Romans did try to stop crime I am going to look at this part of their life, as we know the first roman laws to be discovered were the twelve tables (written in Latin).All crime in Rome was dealt with by the emperor and the senate. The crimes would be written down in detail then often reorganized to cover all aspects of crime. When looking back on Rome's punishments you may think that they seem very strange but they were effective e.g. If you killed your father, you would get put in a sack with a real live snake, a dog and a cockerel and thrown into a river. If you left the army you would have people throwing rocks at you and be beaten really badly. You could be sent down to the mines where you wouldn't last long or you could get tied to a cross. You might be exiled and lose your Roman citizenship. When the accused was in court they might try to look sad or scruffy to make the jury sorry for them. Below is a small picture of what a roman court would have been set out like. I have found that in Rome there was no effective police force; however the emperor’s guard protected the emperor and stopped riots. The army acted as a police force in the provinces of the empire. The army was made up entirely of men as no women were allowed to join. The roman prisons were not used to punish criminals as they were there to hold people awaiting trial or prosecution. The wealthy were generally held in arrest at the home of a friend or family member who would guarantee their presence at the trial. Private prisons existed for slaves. As there was no police force in Rome people who had been robbed or taken the victim in the event of a crime then they would have to find their own evidence with the help of their friends and family and if