Even in some cases where there were laws regarding the death penalty these laws did not function the way they do in our society today; for example, the Norse laws outlined the situations in which a person could not be killed in revenge for their wrongful actions, and otherwise it was up to the common people to decide if death was an appropriate punishment. (Arendsee, 2006) In smaller communities and tribes, the death penalty was rare for several reasons, including that serious crimes such as murder did not occur often, and that close community members would hesitate to inflict death on another even as a form of punishment, so other punishments were often chosen such as compensation for the victim or victim's family. On the other hand, crimes that were committed by people from outside of a community were often punished with execution, and in some historical societies, the person put to death for a crime was not always the person who originally committed the offense. (Wikipedia, 2006a) While in America today, there is a distinction made between first-degree and second-degree murder that changes whether or not the crime may possibly be punishable with death, other societies have had a wide range of crimes punishable by death. "For example, in 1700s Britain, there were 222 crimes which were punishable by death, including crimes such as cutting down a tree or stealing an animal." (Wikipedia, 2006a) As modern nations have developed, the use of the death penalty for minor crimes has become less common or perceived as necessary because of the existence of government-provided police forces and prisons, however nations with a dictatorship or police-state have continued to use the death penalty at large as a means of oppressing rebellious thought among the people. There is a wide variety in death penalty practices in the world today; Canada, Mexico, Australia, and the European Union are among the nations that have outright banned use of the death penalty for any and all offenses.