The history of early law enforcement and crime and criminals is one aspect of museum work that seems to attract visitors. People get a vicarious thrill from seeing these instruments of correction, punishment and even torture. The emphasis was on punishment. Jail or worse awaited the petty theft of a loaf of bread. Woe onto those who could not pay their bills! - debtor's prison awaited them.
Every country in the world had or has its own unique methods of punishing criminals. Lets take a look at some of the ways law enforcement has tried to get the criminal to mend his ways.
Great Britain was not concerned with rehabilitation of criminals. Their solution was simple enough. Load them onto a ship and send them to a penal colony. The penal colony turned out to be Australia. The Justice and Police Museum http://www.hht.nsw.au80/EDUCATION/jp-edu... was originally the Water Police Court. This building was used as a court until 1899. The museum has hands on tours to teach youngsters about trials, using the original artifacts from actual notorious crimes in Australian history. They are also taught about bushrangers who were the only law during the gold rush period in Australia.
Canada has a police museum with one of the largest collections of crime artifacts in the world. The Vancouver Police Centennial Museum boasts "mystery, history and intrigue." http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/police/m... The original morgue houses actual autopsy and forensic tools. A delightfully creepy place! There are a number of unsolved crime displays including one that is still open and was featured on TV. The gift shop is called appropriately enough, The Cop Shoppe.
Not to be outdone, the Metropolitan Toronto Police Museum is one in which the curator can take pride. http://www.mtps.on.ca/cos/cpsmusem.html Free admission to the museum. A description of the many displays is online. The more notorious cases that the police had to handle are also online. A police memorial page remembers officers who have fallen in the line of duty.
Overseas again, in Rothenburg, Germany is the Medieval Criminal Museum - the only museum of its kind in Europe. They brag that there is "1000 years of history under one roof." Here you will see torture devices such as the spiked chair reserved especially for witches, as well as many other ancient legal artifacts.
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