In these times all prisons were nominally the King's and the degree of central control, intervention and responsibility was minimal, more often non-existent even as late as the eighteenth century (Scull 1977, p17). Until the nineteenth century, the aims of imprisonment were retribution and deterrence, "most crimes were dealt with by some combination of fines, corporal punishment, mutilation or death" (Scull 1977, p.18). State involvement in deviancy control was weak, decentralised and arbitrary. The focus of control was undifferentiated, methods of categorisation and differentiation of deviance were hardly developed and visibility of control was public (Cohen 1985, p.16-17). The object of intervention during this time was the external behaviour of the deviant and therefore retribution aimed at punishing the body. Between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries however, incarceration gradually became the predominant mode of punishment and the emphasis shifted to reform and rehabilitation as the primary aims of imprisonment (Tomasic and Dobinson 1979, p.14). The transformations that took place during this time were to lay the foundations for subsequent deviancy control (Cohen, 1985, p.13).
The master changes in deviancy control that occurred from the end of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries were interconnected with the advance of the capitalism (Scull 1977, p31). These changes saw an increasing involvement and intervention of the state with regards to deviancy control, the increasing classification of deviant groups into separate categories and the increased segregation of these groups into closed institutions (Cohen 1985, p13). The decline of punishment as a public spectacle saw the victory of closed, segregated institutions and concentrated control. Professional dominance that had not been present pre-eighteenth century was established and strengthened, and although the boundaries of control became clearer, the visibility of this control became very discreet.
