Although there is no preface, the purpose of Judith Flander’s The Invention of Murder is to present the various types of homicide during the Victorian era and discuss how murder has been perceived by people in general. Besides The Invention of Murder, Flanders has written various books that address the customs and leisurely activities during the Victorian era, such as Consuming Passions and Inside the Victorian Home, and therefore possesses extensive knowledge on Victorian life (“Biography”). Flanders describes how the concept of murder has become a sensation, developing into various forms of entertainment by way of ballads, opera, melodrama and novels which distort people’s perception of the actual event. She also accentuates how a new police
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141). Officers at the time thought that their role was to wait until Good was discovered; they worked as if their duty was to prevent crime and not detect it (p. 144). However, Richard Mayne thought otherwise, and put together an unofficial detective department in search of Good, signing an order for “an active, intelligent man in each division” (p. 145). Pearce, an inspector under Mayne’s department, eventually found Daniel Good, and two months after Good’s arrest, Mayne went to the Home Office and presented a plan for a new police division centered on detection (p.147). Consequently, on June 14, 1842, the “Detective Department” was established and from then on, police work was focused on preventing potential crime and detecting past ones as well (p. 147). Through the brutal case of Daniel Good and the persistence of Richard Mayne, a more efficient police force took place in Europe. Flanders presents strong evidence for her thesis — which addressed murder morphing into entertainment and the call for a new police force as a result of unsolved murders — and she carries her main points throughout the book. Through figures such as Bulwer, Thomas Hood, who transformed the Aram case into the ballad, …show more content…
This narrative form also contributed to the work’s readability. Its form, along with a sentence structure that is neither too complex nor too simple, and its various clarifications, currency conversions, and footnotes make The Invention of Murder a work that is directed towards any one of the general
141). Officers at the time thought that their role was to wait until Good was discovered; they worked as if their duty was to prevent crime and not detect it (p. 144). However, Richard Mayne thought otherwise, and put together an unofficial detective department in search of Good, signing an order for “an active, intelligent man in each division” (p. 145). Pearce, an inspector under Mayne’s department, eventually found Daniel Good, and two months after Good’s arrest, Mayne went to the Home Office and presented a plan for a new police division centered on detection (p.147). Consequently, on June 14, 1842, the “Detective Department” was established and from then on, police work was focused on preventing potential crime and detecting past ones as well (p. 147). Through the brutal case of Daniel Good and the persistence of Richard Mayne, a more efficient police force took place in Europe. Flanders presents strong evidence for her thesis — which addressed murder morphing into entertainment and the call for a new police force as a result of unsolved murders — and she carries her main points throughout the book. Through figures such as Bulwer, Thomas Hood, who transformed the Aram case into the ballad, …show more content…
This narrative form also contributed to the work’s readability. Its form, along with a sentence structure that is neither too complex nor too simple, and its various clarifications, currency conversions, and footnotes make The Invention of Murder a work that is directed towards any one of the general