Crime And Punishment: Crimes, Who Solved Them, And Different Punishments Essay, Research Paper

Crime and Punishment: Crimes, Who Solved Them, and Different Punishments

Our topic for this paper is Crime and Punishment. There are several

different issues on this subject. We chose three main points to talk about:

The Crimes, the People who solved them, and the different types of punishments.

These are the topics we chose for our report.

Crime in the nineteeth century was rapid though out London. But because

of all of the poverty and sickness in the streets, crime was the only way to

survive. Most of the crimes that took place in London were crimes that

involved stealing. Pickpocket gangs and street gamblers were a regular sight

when walking down a major London street. Prostitution was also a big money

maker on the streets, done by both girls and boys. But crimes though out the

middle class and rich were mostly property crimes and disputes which made up

90% of all crimes committed by the upper-class. In Victorian England and like

today there a two categories which crimes fall under. “Indictable” which is the

same as our felony crimes that make up all of the major crimes. These crimes

consist of: Murder, armed robbery, burglary, larceny, rape, and assaults on

the police. The next called category is called ” Summery ” crimes which is

equal to our misdemeanor crimes. Summery crimes were all minor crimes such as:

Property crimes, Vagrancy, Drunkenness, Prostitution, Minor Larceny , and all

other minor offenses.

Probably the most famous criminal in the Victorian period was ” Jack

the Ripper “. Jack the Ripper was ” the first modern sexual serial killer” (

Sugden, pg.2) Jack’s trademark was the killing of female prostitutes. But not

only did he kill them, he would surgically remove organs and intrails and place

them near the dead body. “Jack the Ripper” wasn’t his only nickname, he was

also called ” the Whitechaple murder ” because the body’s were found near the

Whitechapel Road, and ” The Leather Apron” because of a man that would come by

and beat up the prostitutes for no reason. Jack the Ripper is credited for 9

killings, but police think that he might be responsible for more. All of the

killing accrued with in one square mile. Jack is described as carring a long

knife in which he would cut open his victims, and a black Gladstone bag, the

contents of which is unknown. ( Sugden, pg.1) Jack the Ripper’s identity is

unknown which is probably why this case is so famous. It is rumored that Jack

the Ripper was a member of the royal family, and that people knew of his

identity but wanted to keep it a secret.

The London Metropolitan Police system was created in 1829, after the

public need for security has been told to the government. The Police

Department consisted of 3000 policemen. The Policeman then were poorly paid.

A constable’s usual pay was 19 shillings, a week. An inspector got around 2

pounds, and some of that money was taken off for the cost of there uniform.

There uniform was a blue tail coat with there number and letter of their

division on the collar and hat. There only weapon was a short wooden baton.

The government had a hard time finding recruits. Most of there men were old

soldiers, and many of them were dismissed from the force for drunkenness. Later

on the force started to become a real Police force, and the people of London

appreciated it. The officers also were given many nicknames such as: Blue

devils, peeler, and bobby. In 10 years the London Metropolitan Police Force

cut the number of crimes in London by half.

The crimes in Victorian England did not go without it’s punishments. In

early Victorian England Public hanging’s were watched by many people, and the

stocks were placed in the center of town where people would look at you and

even beat you and humiliated you. But in 1838 the ending of all public

tortures and executions gave way and became out lawed.

These things lead to the building of prisons. In 1730 the prisons were

at there worst and were not made for long term offenders. These prisons were

so bad because they were privately owned and the owners used the inmates for

working purposes. They also shipped these men to other businesses for money

paid to the prisons by the companies who needed cheap workers. The prisons

lacked sewage and heat which made for horrible working conditions sometimes

deadly working conditions.

The prisoners life was a horrible one. They worked fourteen hours a day

taking only short breaks for lunch and dinner. You only got lunch and dinner

if you had money to pay for it or unless someone gave you some of their food or

a visitor gave you some food. It was awful because these prisons were there to

make money through any way they could by having inmates pay to get there

shackles off or paying for a private room or for a room with your friend it was

usually a pretty bad room but it was still better than the others. Due to the

new law of no more public hangings there was a great amount of over population.

This over population meant trouble for the prisoners because the prisoners who

really didn’t commit bad crimes were killed in jail by the guards. So now the

prisoners who went to jail were there to be executed or if they weren’t there

for that it would mean they were shipped to factories, Australia or new prisons

set up the Queen or King of England. It’s a shame these men women and children

were so mistreated over such little crimes but it made the crime rate go down.

( Mitchell pg’s 638-41 ) That’s the end of our paper on crime and punishment,

and prisons. I hope you liked it a lot.

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