Crime and punishment resource pack

What is considered a crime, and how we handle those who have committed crimes has changed a lot over the years. On this page you can watch videos that tell stories about historic crimes and punishments, look at examples of documents, and find some related activities!

Learn with Lorna videos about crime and punishment in the Highland Archive Service collections:

LWL 11: Crime and punishment LWL 22: Tales from court records LWL 29: Inverness Castle LWL 84: Witchcraft LWL 85: Stories from police records LWL 86: Sabbath-breaking and breaches of discipline LWL 87: Further stories from court records LWL 147: Prisons and prisoners LWL 158: Caithness police records LWL 168: Lochaber police records LWL 172: Ross and Cromarty police records LWL 193: Historic police personnel records LWL 219: Tolbooth tales LWL 235: The Mulbuie murderer

Crime & Punishment

The Highland Archive Service looks after some historic court papers as well as the Highland archives of Police Scotland. The documents below tell stories of some of those who have committed crimes in the past, as well as those who solved crimes.

Hugh MacLeod, whose death warrant you can see below, was known as the Assynt Murderer. You can read a transcript of death warrant and discover more about Hugh’s story here.
The extracts from the Fort William charge book date from July 1912 and March 1914 and list some of the offences people were charged with during that time period. These include ‘Allowing Cattle to Stray on to Public Road’; ‘Allowing Dog to Stray at Night’; ‘Theft of a Cabbage’; Theft of Carrots’ and ‘Playing Shinty on Public Street’!
Finally there are is an extract from Wick police daily occurrence book (the diaries in which police officers recorded their daily activities). It tells of a mysterious theft in Wick Harbour. There is a typed copy here if the writing is tricky!
Another interesting story, this time about gold theft, can be found in the daily occurrence book of Kildonan Police Station in Sutherland. You can read about that one here.

A yellowing piece of paper with early 19th century writing. It bears a large red seal showing a camel

Dead warrant of the Assynt Murderer, 1831

A section of a larger page. Pink lines delineate separate columns. Black ink handwritten entries appear under the headings "Number of charge", "Date and hour of report", and "particulars of charge - crime or offence, when and where committed"

Fort William Charge Book, 1914

A section of a page with a handwritten entry in black ink. A column on the lefthand side of the page has the words 'Theft of various articles of clothing' in red ink

Wick police daily occurrence book, 1914

Law & Order

You can also use archives to find more information about police officers - the men and women working to stop crime. Below is a photograph of individuals serving in the Inverness-shire constabulary in 1901, as well as an example of the staff records we hold - the entry for PC William Sutherland.

A sepia composite photograph showing the heads of dozens of police officers serving in the Inverness-shire Constabulary in 1901. The image includes everyone from the Chief Constable to the most recently appointed 3rd Class Constable.

Inverness-shire Constabulary,1901

An extract from a page with handwritten entries under typed column headings delineated by pink lines. The headings include 'name', 'date when appointed', 'where stationed', 'rank', 'age', 'eyes', 'complexion', 'native of', 'offence and by whom reported', 'punishment',

Personnel record of PC William Macdonald, page1

An extract from a page with handwritten entries under typed column headings delineated by pink lines. The headings include 'date of transfer', 'place', 'date', 'nature of meritorious act', 'by whom reported', 'how rewarded', and 'remarks'

Personnel record of PC William Macdonald, page 2

Crime and punishment related activities

Pick one of the crimes mentioned in these documents and create a ‘wanted’ poster for the person who committed the crime. Think about including a picture, a description of what he/she has done, and a reward for their capture!
Read through the goldrush theft story. Why do you think Robert Ryder might have stolen the gold? Try and write a conversation between him and the police officer where he tries to explain his reasons.