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Page Safety

Safety
How safe was late Victorian London?

Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the metropolitan
police force of London and the territorial police force
responsible for policing most of London.
The staff of Scotland Yard was responsible for the
protection of important individuals, community patrols,
public affairs, recruitment and personnel management.
It becomes famous as a symbol of policing. Many
detectives, like Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan
Doyles story, in many works of detective fictions are
from Scotland Yard.
When The 1835 Municipal Corporations Act came out,
it helped older areas to sort out their administrative
structure and allowed new towns to become
incorporated. These towns could set up their own
police force, but few of them seemed happy to put the
law into effect.
1837: 93 of 171 boroughs had organised a police
force.
1840: 108 of 171 boroughs had organised a
police force.
1848: 22 boroughs still had no police force.

Municipal forces were about half of the population of
London. Most areas took the 1835 Act slow and
remained grossly inadequate until 1856.
Victorian England
Lifestyles of
the Middle
Class
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Middle Class?
Middle Class-
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Crime Rate
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Consequences
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knowledge
on crime and
criminal
The Police &
Scotland Yard
Police
The police force changed a lot in Victorian era:
In 1830, 1 policeman in London needed to
protect 450-500 residents.
In the year of 1839, The 1839 Rural
Constabulary Act came out and did not meet the
Report's demands for a national police force, with
the Metropolitan Police as the controlling power.
At the same time, this act allowed one policeman
per 1000 population.
In 1841, 1 policeman in London needed to
protect 900 residents.
The policemen had a heavy workload.
In late 19
th
century, theft was rampant. Mugging, with
its associated violence, was rife. Well-turned-out
children might be waylaid in street, dragged down an
alley, and stripped of their finery, or pet dogs
kidnapped for ransom or simply filched for their skins.
There were big-time criminals and gangs of street
hooligans. There was also a surge in gun crime in the
1880s, and hardened burglars "increasingly went
armed" (White 343).
Some tradesmen were threatened by the thefts and
muggings assailants or embarrassed by the
circumstances of the crime -- for example, their own
drunkenness at that time or involvement with
prostitutes. However, the police were all too aware of
their own deficiencies, keeping a separate tally for
suspected crimes, which did not need to be included in
the figures of known crimes (White 343). Even cases
of murder, including infanticide, could escape from the
records when coroners were forced to return open
verdicts depending on limited forensic evidence.
Humane judges who engineered judgments proved not
guilty for minor offences then were still punished by
transportation or death (Parker 439). Finally, record-
keeping system has not been set up yet until the
precursor of the Criminal Records Office was set up in
1869. Therefore, "peace-loving citizens" tried all they
can to keep their power about them during this
turbulent period.

Authority
Scientific
Investigation
Method
Safety
Gender Roles
Marriage and
Relationships
Males and
Females in
Education
Victorian
Dressing for
Men and
Women
Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
Early and
Late Life
Career
Works and
Reception
Life Outside
of Writing
Education
Access to
Education
School in
Victorian
England
Laws for
Education
Paying for
Education
What They
Learned
Males and
Females in
Education
Victorian
Works Cited
Banerjee, J. "How Safe Was Victorian London?"
Victorianweb.org. Web. 6 Feb 2008.
Landow, G. "The Lack of Social Security in Victorian
England." Victorianweb.org. Web. 11 Oct 2002.
Bloy, M. "The Metropolitan
Police." Victorianweb.org. 2001. Web. 4 Apr 2013.
Blumberg, J. "A Brief History of Scotland
Yard." smithsonianmag.com. Web. 27 Sep 2007.


(Created by Mandy Meng)

Literature
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