How Did The Salem Witch Trials Cause Crime Today

In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts had the first accusations of witchcraft. Trials were held and concluded in 1693, where fourteen women and five men were executed. Many other trials were held in different towns, the most famous being in Salem. It all began when a group of girls made false accusations toward older women, that they were interacting with the devil. The Salem Witch Trials shaped the American society and affected the way America deals with crime today.

Historians have connected the witch trials to the unwanted changes that the Puritan society was experiencing. The Puritan laws were extremely rigid and the members had to follow a strict code. The Puritans considered themselves the new chosen people, they abandoned a land of sin and

The Puritans were becoming aggressive and threatened the existence of humanity due to their social beliefs about women and children. In 1692, a daughter of a leader of a religious organization, became strangely ill. Critics quickly pointed out that witches were the cause of the illness. Strange illness often attributed to witchcraft and the accusers, who were often members of the family, couldn’t comprehend that illness could be a side effect of stress or trauma. The strange diseases mainly attacked children, and they usually did not get medical attention. The accusers were motivated by the need to restrain evil from the Salem community by stopping the witches from killing and depressing people in the society. Puritans were the main group of people that were accused, they were often individuals who maintained a high social

This rarely worked out in the accused favor, they were not educated enough to defend themselves. The accused had a couple of options to choose from when in court, confess and plead guilty, plead not guilty, refuse to plead, or flee. When pleading guilty, the accused quickly learned that a confession could spare you from the gallows. By confessing, and lying, that meant that they were not a chosen one to go to heaven after death. Another problem with confessing is that it would leave the person susceptible to more accounts of witchcraft accusations for the rest of their life. The accused had families and deep roots in Salem, a confession would leave them excluded from their community. To plead not guilty, one could save its soul from sin. If pled not guilty and were convicted anyway, your soul would be clean in the eyes of God. If pleading not guilty, the case will go to trial and the estate would eventually be taken by the leaders. The importance of honesty in Puritan society could explain why those who confessed spared the gallows while those who confessed were executed. If one decided to refuse to plead either guilty or not guilty, they were “standing mute.” That meant that the accused refused to enter a plea in attempt for the case from going to trial. The “standing mute” tactic was so overused in England that the English law ordered that