Victorian Era Crime Essay

Crime was alive and well in the Victorian era and is still flourishing in modern Britain. These two time periods offer the same ideas in combating crime, but have evolved into two very different ways at addressing it. Also, since the time periods were very unique, they had very different living conditions, which makes the reasons for crimes and the ways to combat them different. As crime evolves so do the police that are in charge of stopping it. Although crime and prevention often change, they do offer some similarities in comparison to the Victorian era and modern Britain. The Victorian era was unsafe with dens of criminals around every corner. Theft was the common mans job and many people were often too scared to move about outside when …show more content…
Poverty in that era made living life without crime tough. Whether the crime was committed for money or the crime was committed so a family could be fed. It was the living conditions that make a society violent (White 106). This is seen in poverty stricken neighborhoods in Britain.Violence in the Victorian era was more then prevalent, it was the way of life. Many residents would not venture out at night because they were always in constant fear of being the victim of a theft, murder, or rape. Groups of criminals would gather together, establishing gangs. Housebreakers, as they are called, would work in teams to break into houses and mug the resident and take their belongings. Children were not overlooked as were the elderly, and the weak, they were more susceptible to being victims of these groups or someone acting alone. Life was very tough for law abiding citizens when police were a distant thought. This era was making anyone into criminals, and even young kids were marked as thieves and murderers. Although later in the era, the percentage of criminals decreased, it was still an out of control problem. This is still decreasing in the modern era. The modern era of Britain brought a new type of crime where criminals were not committing crimes because of poverty, but because of opportunity. Many families believed they were safe and in turn left their guard down. There were police, but the population was greater …show more content…
"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there" (Pool 56). The Victorian era saw poverty, cruel punishments, and the rise of a police force late in the era. The poverty during this time was brought on to the fact that a steady ruler could not be found. This got even worse because no one would try to fix the problem. Many would then turn to other ways to get through the tough times, that other way was crime. The cruel punishments imposed in the Victorian era were immoral and ridiculous. Just for a simple petty crime the offender would be sentenced to death in some sort of fashion. The police force came about in the latter part of the era and that dramatically dropped the crime rate (Bloy). The early police force was small and had no order to its ways. This caused loopholes and criminals were constantly exposing them. In turn, the modern era brought the rise of punishments that fit the crime committed. Debt was no longer handled with death and the amount of hangings drastically decreased (Ford). The poverty in the modern era is lower and people are starting to feel safe. The rise of the police force in the Victorian era helped to create a better and stronger police force in the modern era. The Metropolitan police forces grew significantly larger and had better ways to combat crime and track criminals (Bloy). The man most recognized with this was Sir Robert Peel. Sir