Law and Order in the First Part of the Nineteenth Century

Law and Order in the First Part of the Nineteenth Century

In the first part of the nineteenth century crime was one of the

biggest social problems. Crime was made worse by widespread poverty,

many people wanted proper law enforcement. May crimes were punishable

by death, so the criminals adopted the phase “better to be hung for a

sheep than a lamb”. When Sir Robert Peel became Home Secretary in

1825, he made a properly organised police system his propriety. Up to

now towns had only their caped night watchmen, with warning bells and

rattles.

Peel’s major concern was preventing crime rather than punishing it.

For this reason, in 1829 he established the first regular police

force. Large towns such as London were often particularly lawless, and

authorities often used troops to keep the peace, which was a

much-hated practice. In 1829 Peel established a regular police force

in London and the suburbs. At first there were 300 ‘Bobbies’ recruited

and controlled by the Home Office. Their presence soon forced many

criminals of the capital. Finally in 1856 every county and borough had

to maintain a police force.

The Metropolitan police force had many different duties. The man on

the beat was there to stop disorderly behaviour. So this meant the

Metropolitan Police Force were to deal with beggars, drunkenness,

vagrants and prostitutes. In the second half of the nineteenth

centuary London’s streets became more orderly, but as a consequence of

this the number of burglaries went up. Another of the Metropolitan

Police Forces duties was to deal with major disturbances.

Police constables received very little training in the late nineteenth

century and often learnt their trade “ on the job”. Police constables

worked seven days a week and up to fourteen hours a day. In London in

the 1870’s and 1880’s, a beat during daytime was seven and a half

miles long whilst at night it was two miles.

Pick pocketing was rife in London in the late nineteenth century.

Pickpockets were generally around the age of 6-10 years old and had