can ANYONE describe law and order in late 19th century London?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Darlenee
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Any decline in religious observance and belief during this period was assumed to be the reason for law and order problems. Yet, society at the end of Victoria's reign was much more stable and claims are made that this society was very religious. During the Century population growth led to law and order problems in cities, the local social control of a small population was difficult to apply with larger urban populations. There was a growth in radical political campaigns for wider democracy. To fight lawlessness the Police were founded in 1829 in London and through Acts of Parliament 1829-1856 developed Nationally. Initially made up of ex-soldiers and military they developed in professionalism throughout the Century. Any failures in individual officers were soon highlighted by the local newspapers. Prisons were reformed and transportation to Australia stopped in 1867. Humanitarian Campaigns and Utilitarian thinkers (like Jeremy Bentham) encouraged the building of new prisons (still unfortunately with treadmill and crank). General improvements in work and personal disciplines led to improvements in the observation of law and order. After 1880 compulsory education improved social discipline. Economic improvements helped make the Country more peaceable.
 
abysmal, one of the reasons the victorians were so keen to introduce records, births deaths, marriages,, census etc, was because they realised that they had no idea who was where and what they were up to. it was quite common for prisoners to newgate to have completely different names each time and also get discharged by the magistrate because they were 'first time villains' when in fact they were old lags.

a good book to pick up is the 'italian boy' by sarah wise, is about a murder by resurectionists but she goes over the conditions of london and the state of the police at the time. it was a shambles basically and no one supported the 'new police' introduced by peel, they were considered a laughing stock and its a wonder they survived.

however, crime in the 19c was very much reduced from the 18c, which was much worse

you also need to consider that there was a growing acknowledgement that the amount of and severity of poverty was contributing to lawlessness, although most still believed that if you were poor it was your own fault and therefore any criminal behaviour was an indicator of why you were poor inthe first place.
 
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