The belief external influences lead to a criminal’s crime lead to the belief, rather than executing criminals “one might design institutions to disinfect the criminal, to restore him to moral health” (Garnett, Nelson 2). Instead of execution as a means to remove the criminal from society, society sought to rehabilitate the criminal in institutions which would allow him or her to return to society. A century later, determinism advocated for a focus on an individual’s “biology, environment, and managerial expertise than reason or free will” (Garnett, Nelson 2). The focus once again changed to why an individual would commit a crime than how society should punish the individual for committing a crime. However, in the middle of the 19th century, a new societal shift began. The debate of whether public executions held “class or taste” arose; and as a result, the death penalty retreated into the confines of a prison’s execution chamber (Garnett, Nelson 2). As a result of the shift from public executions to private executions, society began to no longer view the executioner as a servant of the community.
