Law And Order In The Late 19th Century

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Law And Order In The Late 19th Century

At the beginning of the 1800s, crime went up a significant amount

because of the Industrial Revolution. Theft was the main crime.

Because so many people were living in such a small area it lead to

crime. With the invention of steam power, which lead to factories,

which lead to cities. With cities now growing all over England, law

and order needed to be improved.

London s population had grown to 1.5 million people, yet there were

only 450 constables for the whole of London. In 1829 the Metropolitan

Police Act was set up. A police force of 3,200 men covered London. The

police wore a uniform of dark blue long coats. They wanted the police

to be as unlike to the army as possible.

The purpose of the police force was to keep the peace and deal with

any crime that they found. Many police were unsuitable for the job

because they were often drunk and suffered violent attacks. Many

people did not like the police; they did not like the idea of being

told what to do by someone in uniform. By the end of the 19th century,

they were still not liked but they were more respected. However though

the poor sections of London had little faith in the police. They

rarely reported crimes at all.

The police used very basic methods to of catching criminals. There

main method was to catch the criminal in the act. This was often

unsuccessful, as the criminals would often have left the crime scene

before the police had arrived.

The police also began to use dogs to catch criminals. The police

believed that working the beat would deter criminals.

In 1850, the police began to carry guns and got the reputation ...

... middle of paper ...

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Another type of punishment called the silent system was used. The

prisoner was detained in a cell and was not allowed to speak at all.

If they did they were often punished even more.

Hard and pointless labour was also used. Criminals were forced to

repeatedly dig ditches and fill them in or to build walls. This labour

was often back breaking and many prisoners suffered from injuries.

However by 1895, it was thought too cruel and barbaric to make the

prisoners do this so they were forced to get rid of it and prisoners

were just kept in cells.

Crime and punishment changed a lot over the 19th century. By the end

of the 19th century, crime rates were down significantly because of

the Metropolitan Police Force and the CID. People also did not want to

commit crimes because of the new punishments that were used.

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