In the post-Reformation period there was a criminalisation of women.[13] Women were disciplined in kirk sessions and civil courts for stereotypical offenses including scolding and prostitution, which were seen as deviant, rather than criminal.[33] Through the 1640s there were independent commissions set up to try women for child murder and, after pressure from the kirk, a law of 1690 placed the presumption of guilt on a woman who concealed a pregnancy and birth and whose child later died.[13] In the aftermath of the initial Reformation settlement, Parliament passed the Witchcraft Act 1563, similar to that passed in England one year earlier, which made the practice of witchcraft itself and consulting with witches capital crimes.[34] Between the passing of the act and its repeal in 1736, an estimated 6,000 persons were tried for witchcraft in Scotland.[34] Most of the accused, some 75 per cent, were women, with over 1,500 executed, and the witch hunt in Scotland has been seen as a means of controlling women.[35] Various reasons for the Scottish witch-hunt, and its more intense nature than that in England, have been advanced by historians. Many of the major periods of prosecution coincided with periods of intense economic distress[36] and some accusations may have followed the withdrawal of charity from marginal figures, particularly the single women that made up many of the accused.[37] Changing attitudes to women, particularly in the reformed kirk, which may have perceived women as more of a moral threat, have also been noted.[38] The proliferation of partial explanations for the witch hunt has led some historians to proffer the concept of "associated circumstances", rather than one single significant cause.[38]