I've never had a very closely connected family. My parents split up when I was young and I was living with my mom for a little while then I was kind of just on my own really young. It wasn't some kind of global tragedy it was just never really a very close-knit family. So there was support in the sense that they didn't stand in my way.
Everywhere among the English-speaking race criminal justice was rude and punishments were barbarous but the tendency was to do away with special privileges and legal exemptions.