With reference to the orthodox and revisionist perspectives, assess the statement that ‘the establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 was a rational solution to changes in society and the associated challenges of crime and disorder’. Use a contemporary example to demonstrate how these perspectives can be useful in interpreting modern policing activities.
This essay will introduce two competing perspectives of policing, they are the orthodox and revisionist perspectives. This essay will then relate the orthodox and revisionist perspectives to the themes of lack of structure, industrialisation and finally hostility. The essay will then discuss whether the creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 was an effective
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solution to the changes within society as well as the challenges brought about through crime and disorder. The orthodox view is that the metropolitan police were in fact a rational decision made to adapt to the needs of the society. The revisionist view would state that the new system was necessary in which to tackle issues that may present due to a new ‘dangerous class’ (Monkkonen, 1981, p147). In this essay there will be reference made to the Brixton Riots in 1981 with a clear explanation as to how the orthodox and revisionist perspectives relate to modern policing activities. During the 17 and 18th century the British legal system was incredibly harsh, distributing death penalties for often minor offences, the aim of this was to deter individuals from committing crime.
There was very little structure to the justice system and due to it being so punitive, juries were reluctant to find people guilty of offences (Bentley, 1998). This period of time became known as ‘The Bloody Code’. Throughout The Bloody Code policing was entirely a local initiative, there was not a centralised police force. Constables, Watchmen and Amateur Justices were tasked with crime prevention, crime detection, and general public safety (Reiner, 2000). However, the Watchmen were branded ineffective and there was little to no public confidence in their use, they were ‘scarcely removed from idiotism’ (Critchley, 1978: 18) this view would makeweight of the orthodox perspective suggesting that the New Police were to bring competency and professionalism, attributes which clearly lacked within the private system. Another major issue that affected the public opinion of the private system was the employment of thief-takers. For example, Jonathan Wild, a private detective who was extremely corrupt. Wild stole items from individuals, and then took it upon himself to return these items for a large reward. The revisionist view is that corruption was not an …show more content…
issue. Towards the end of the 18th-century society began to change, this was described as ‘The Enlightenment’.
The population grew and ‘breakdown in law and order marched in step with the industrial revolution’ (Critchley, 1978: 21). The industrial revolution meant technological progression, better education and an increase in capital stock. As a result, the population grew, with more new people moving into the area, meaning there was less informal social control. Due to these factors, 1829 saw the introduction of the ‘New Police’ to London, the Metropolitan Police were brought in to solve the issue of crime and disorder. The poor initially feared that the introduction of the Metropolitan police would mean that they would be controlled and oppressed by the powerful to a much larger extent. By the same token, the orthodox view is that the old system was failing and that this was an effective step that had to be taken in order to respond to the diversity of this more cultured society. The working class were content as the New Police looked out for their welfare Melville Lee (1901: xxx) claimed that the New Police were ‘guardians of the weak against the strong […] designed to stand between the powerful and the weak, to prevent oppression, danger and crime’. In contrast, the revisionist view is that the New Police were necessary to cope with the needs of the modern capital class. Although, at first the New Police were treated with great hostility by everyone within society, somewhat
due to their militaristic uniforms. The bourgeois feared that the Metropolitan Police would take control of their land and that they would no longer be able to bribe individuals to carry out their duties. The rich were able to ‘rely on large numbers of personal servants to guard their plate and their wives’ (Hay 1975: 59) unlike the poor.
...f door-to-door enquires, disguising detectives, laying on extra man power and using coroners and police surgeons for accurate reports. However these methods became a problem, the public’s mistrust and dislike of the force resulted in difficulty in solving crimes. With the lack of experience and scientific knowledge solving crime had a poor success rate, technological and scientific advancement aided with investigations. In addition the Metropolitan Police gradually became an expected presence on the streets.
“For many early Victorians, policing was a new and low-status occupation. Few men became policeman for positive reasons" (Taylor 49).
Law and Order in London in the Late 19th Century At the beginning of the nineteenth century 60% of Britain's population lived in the countryside, this meant there wasn't any need for police officers as people were living far apart and away from shops and financial areas. Crime was minimal, apart from small crimes like petty thieving and crimes over land etc. But as technology developed the Industrial Revolution began, steam powered factories were built all over the country, a new industrial development. The factories were mainly built in urbanized areas like London, Birmingham and Glasgow, but for the factories to be run effectively workers were needed.
8 hours. It is the recommended numbers of hours one should sleep. However, between those 8 hours, something disturbing is happening. Every 8 hours, a police officer kills an American citizen. Only 1% of these police are indicted in killing compared to 90% of American that are hauled off to jail immediately (Cop Crisis). Whether it 's a police officer or an American citizen that commits the crime, there will always be an organization that supports the offender. The International Union of Police Associations is an organization that lobbies for the police department and its affairs. On the other end of the spectrum is the Communities for Police Reform. This organization fights to protects the rights of the average American citizen. Both organizations share the common ground to protect the rights of their members and can work together to reach a point of a compromise.
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
Both of these articles were focused on the Strategy of Policing, but the author’s approaches to the ‘hot topics,’ couldn’t be more difficult. Williams and Murphy focused on the different eras of policing, and how the racial conflicts have overlapped policing efforts. Whereas, Kelling and Moore focused on how police have evolved with the eras. The articles were dramatically different, however, the policing eras: Political, Reform, and Community Orientated eras were influenced largely as the main focuses for each academic article.
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Since the Jack the Ripper case, solving crimes has changed a lot. Jack the Ripper was the biggest crime London had encountered(1).Due to the lack of proper police reinforcement Jacks murders were easy to get away with compared to how it is now(2). In this essay I will analyse how much impact the Jack the Ripper case had on investigative policing.
...T., Reiner, R. (2012) ‘Policing the Police’ in The Official Handbook of Criminology. Ed. By Maguire, M., Morgan, R., Reiner, R. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 806- 838
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote the article, “The Myth of Police Reform,” to help inform the public of our current dilemma associated with our police force. The main claim states that the problem relies on the fact that our current social problems are solved by force. These are backed by warrants that depict incidences involving people that didn’t deserve to die. Along with examples of police abusing their power to oppress people instead of using authority. Unfortunately, Ta-Nehisi uses an irrelevant warrant about the police’s mistreatment of African Americans throughout history that severely takes away from his main claim. However, he provides an explanation of how the use of body cameras could solve our problem of police abusing their power, but
The Criminal Justice System, a framework the British government set up to manage the treatment of culprits, has three principle objectives to accomplish social request, these are, (1) implementing criminal law, (2) keeping up peace in the general public, and (3) helping casualties. This may appear to be a well-considered framework, yet like some other association, there are blemishes, and one of the real imperfections is separation, and the predisposition that originates from segregation.
Organizational structure of Law Enforcement agencies of any state is being built in accordance with the functions, entrusted to the police. In turn, functions that are performed by the law enforcements in different states largely evolved historically and are usually formed due to the peculiarities of national, social and political development of a particular State, the traditions of its society. I paid my attention to the most interesting, in my opinion, histories of Law Enforcement systems – in America and Europe, in particular, France.
Since English colonizers were the first to establish an extravagant, European society in North America, it is unsurprising that many of the aspects of the American administration of justice stemmed from its mother country. In England, law enforcement was an unorganized mess until the year 1200 (Schmalleger 137). The police system remained static from 1285 to 1829, until when Sir Robert Peel instituted the modern police force (Schmalleger 139). However, early American law enforcement was bound to be different, due to the differences of American and English life and environment. In the beginning of the colonial law enforcement, towns and cities inaugurated versions of the English day ward and night watch, but these processes did not remain in place for long (Schmalleger 139).
American law enforcement agencies are based off the English models which began in the early 1800’s. In 1829, the English Parliament passed the Metropolitan Police Act (Walker, 1983). Sir Robert Peel who has been credited as the father of modern policing introduced this act to Parliament (Walker, 1983). This act established the London Metropolitan Police which was the model for American policing. This method of policing incorpor...
The New Zealand Police is the lead agency responsible for helping the community to decrease or reduce crime, corruption and improve the responsibility of safety and protection in New Zealand. There is a need to make changes to the police culture in order to improve the performance of their organisation. However there are three fundamental errors that need to be addressed which will be discussed in this essay. Firstly, there is a lack of an established sense of urgency which has the potential to jeopardize the future of the organization. Secondly is, not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition which means there is a lack of communication which resulted in an absence of leadership and teamwork from frontline staff to national headquarters. Finally, an undercommunicating the vision by a factor of ten that organisation leader needs to communicate visions and strategies. These three errors are relevant as they are pivotal in the implementation of a managing change programme. Recommendations are also provided to improve on how the New Zealand Police can be enhanced within a management perspective.