While it is true that the most common punishment for any sort of crime was the death penalty, humanity led many judges to find loopholes and alternates for petty crimes. As Shoemaker puts it, "Discretion and flexibility were the hallmarks of the early modern criminal justice system, and, as patterns of prosecutions of victimless offences suggest, misdemeanor prosecutions provide abundant opportunities for observing discretion and flexibility in action" (6-7). These alternates included fines, whippings, placement in pillories, and transportation. Transportation involved sending the criminal to either North America or, later in the century, Australia. They were held in prison until they were sent away. Transportation provided a favorable alternative for those who committed crimes that were not serious enough to deserve hanging.