The Macdaniel affair or Macdaniel scandal was a
political scandal
In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, party officials and lobbyists can be accused of various illegal, corrupt, uneth ...
in the United Kingdom. In 1754, a group of
bounty hunters
A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outsid ...
, led by
Stephen MacDaniel, were revealed to have been prosecuting innocent men to their deaths in England in order to collect reward money from
bounties. The scandal was an unintended consequence of the
British government offering rewards for the capture of criminals, as before those rewards were instituted,
thief-taker
In English legal history, a thief-taker was a private individual hired to capture criminals. The widespread establishment of professional police in England did not occur until the 19th century. With the rising crime rate and newspapers to bring th ...
s depended primarily on privately funded rewards from victims seeking return of stolen property or other restitution. The Macdaniel affair formed part of the impetus for the formation of
salaried public police forces, who did not depend on rewards, to combat crime in the country.
References
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Further reading
* Hitchcock, Tim and Robert Shoemaker. ''London Lives''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
* Ward, Richard M. ''Print Culture, Crime and Justice in 18th-Century London History of Crime, Deviance and Punishment''. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
Crime in England
English criminal law
1754 in England
1754 crimes
1754 in British law