Crime and Punishment
Enforcing Law and Order in Venice was a simple matter. If a crime was comitted then any citizen could investigate and bring the alledged culprit before the magistrate. The magistrate then passed sentence on them. If the suspect was a noble or powerful man the magistrate could hear the charges and request the Arsenelotti Militia to apprehend the miscreant. Unlike Paris with its miniscule Police Force, Venice had no law enforcement body other than the Council of Ten, which was soley concerned with threats to national security.

The punishment of the guilty party was sketched out in the laws of the Republic but for smaller non-capital crimes the magistrate had to rely on his own judgement. The lightest punishment would be a small fine but there was a sliding scale for fines according to social standing. However a crime that might put a commoner in prison or the galleys might just result in a fine for an aristocrat. Beyond the fine, the magistrate could sentence the prisoner to minor maiming such as whipping and having parts of the body removed. Like the scale of fines, imprisonment varied as well from ordinary prison, to the cages hung from the top of the Campanile in St Mark's Square. For those guilty of state or capital crimes the death sentence in some suitably grisly way was often sentenced and carried out between the two pillars on the Molo, the waterfront of St Mark's Square. Until that sentence was carried out or if death was not sentenced but a term of imprisonment was specified, the prisoner would stay either in the Piombi, lead lined cells in the roof of the Palazzo Duccale, or in the Pozzi, wells sunk into the earth beneath the Palazzo, a particularly unpleasant fate.

The Council of Ten
The Republic was protected from enemies whether foreign or local by the Council of Ten, a fearsome internal security agency. Acting through spies and on information received from the Bocca di Leone, lion-headed boxes where Venetians could denounce one another, the Grand Inquisitor of the council, Rodrigo Zeno, monitored, observed and when necessary acted to preserve the state.
When an accused was tried before the Council of Ten or Zeno brought a major issue to light the council would expand from ten to seventeen as the Doge and his cabinet joined in the deliberations. A fearsome instrument of control, the council's power was strictly limited by Venetian law.

Rodrigo Zeno, the Grand Inquisitor has been one of the most effective men to hold his position in the history of the office. Some French visitors have compared him with Richelieu but Zeno is probably less easy to fathom and potentially a more fearsome enemy. No one not even the Doge knows how much Zeno knows about anything and how loyal this urbane little man is to the Doge and the Republic.

Venetian Underworld
Aside from the ongoing espionage activities of spies from all over the world there was a healthy criminal underworld behind the facades of the Palazzos. Within the underworld there were two criminal families, the Scarpa's and an organisation lead by a blind man called Bartolo. If the criminals didn't belong to one of these organisations then it was highly likely they would spend the rest of their life mugging people from the shadows under the bridges of the city.

The Scarpa Family

Now firmly entrenched in the siestiere of Castello, the Scarpa family, Schiavonian pirates from the shores of Dalmatia, control most of the smuggling going into and out of this busy port. The organisation of the Scarpas was devolved to the sons of Emmanuel Scarpa after their father was stuck down with a mysterious malady that aged him rapidly. It was alledged that it was an act of revenge by Bartolo who had recently survived an assassination attempt by Scarpa. The family operates mainly on a contract basis, bringing in items to order for people wantin to avoid taxes and searches.This was done mainly by recruitin or intimidating customs officers and the captains of vessels that sailed the Adriatic.
All the male Scarpa's possess a deeply saturnine face and the more religious people around them quietly whisper of a demon somewhere in their heritage. It is true that all the men were possessed of a capacity for random terror and cruelty that was almost superhuman.
The main driving force of the Scarpa's is the need to attain respectability and they have currently gained influence over a number of nobles and their families as the first steps to ascending into the aristocracy. Both Zeno and the Doge took note and became concerned at this prospect.

Bartolo and His Family

The oldest organised criminal organisation in Venice is the one run by Bartolo the Blind Man. This man knew everything worth knowing a heartbeat after it happened, or so the rumours would have it. Another legendary trait of this plain looking man was that he seemed to know everyone in Venice and could call on favours from many of those in power. Concerned mainly with extortion and theft, Bartolo's organisation regarded itself as controlling the siestieri of San Marco, San Polo/Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The siestiere of Dorsoduro was hotly contested between Bartolo and Emmanuel Scarpa who desired control over the docks that lined the seaward edges of the siestiere.
Best characterised as an 'honourable man' Bartolo was well loved by many in the common population of the city and those under his protection could expect to be well taken care of. All those in Bartolo's employ were forced to adhere to a code of conduct that forbade unecessary violence and cruelty.
Bartolo has no real aim other than to make enough profit to keep the organisation going. Its business.

Cuckoo's Court

Whereas the Scarpa's and Bartolo were dedicated to running their organisation as a business that turned a tidy profit, the Cuckoo's Court were criminals through sheer spite and lack of moral fibre. South of the city, over the water from the Zattere that lined the southern flanks of Dorsoduro, was the Giudecca, the Isle of the Judged. The island, a patchwork of palazzos and gardens, was where the powerful nobles of the Republic banished their ne'er do well offspring. These young men and women were sent to live in the miniature palazzos that their families maintained on the island to live out their lives in isolated luxury, forbidden to return to the city.
There were some amongst these lazy nobles who were bored by their life and formed a club called the Cuckoo's Court where they aped the social life they'd left behind in the city. Whilst the members of this club sought out new ways to enjoy themselves and push back the bounds of good taste, there was a smaller knot of members who were willing to go much further than their compatriots in seeking amoral pleasures. This knot of conspirators, hidden by the larger organisation, have slipped back to the city to commit petty crimes at first but then more serious crimes which attracted not only the attention of the civil authorities but also those of Zeno and the Scuole di Mercere. The wizards were called upon to put down a minor demon that the group raised and released in the Convent of San Zaccharia.
The group were dangerous and willing to do whatever wass necessary to keep themselves amused.

eturn to Venetian Society...