1.1.2

Victorian Crime & Police

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Victorian Crime and Police

The readers of Victorian England loved the detective genre. This is in part explained by the historical and social context of the time.

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Historical context

  • The first official police force in England was not established until 1829.
  • This meant that Victorian readers saw the growth of the police force and police detection itself.
    • This was something interesting and new to society.
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New police force

  • The new police forces had blue uniforms.
    • The colour was supposed to represent that they were civilian officers, rather than military.
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Prevention vs detection

  • At first, the police were only focused on crime prevention.
  • It wasn’t until 1842, when they took 10 days to find a murderer, that it became clear that they needed to learn the art of detection as well.
    • This would enable them to actually solve crimes, as well as preventing further offences from happening.
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Working classes

  • Working-class readers disliked the police force.
    • They felt that the police only really protected the middle-classes, and did not feel protected themselves.
  • This meant that, at first, the working-classes did not really care about fictional detectives either.
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Growing interest of the working class

  • Slowly, as more and more middle-class, fictional detectives appeared in literature, the working-classes began to become more interested in fictional detective stories.

Jack the Ripper

Sherlock Holmes was introduced to Victorian London in 1887, only a year before the first Jack the Ripper murder. He was presented as the perfect detective because of his use of science.

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Sherlock Holmes

  • In 1887, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to Victorian London as the perfect detective:
    • He used his intelligence and understanding of science to solve any and all crimes.
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Jack the Ripper

  • In 1888, Jack the Ripper surfaced as Britain’s first serial killer.
  • The Whitechapel Murders (committed by Jack the Ripper) shook Victorian Britain.
  • The murders were unnecessarily vicious and brutal.
    • Even worse, the London police force could not catch the killer!
  • In fact, the identity of Jack the Ripper remains unknown to this day.
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Number of victims

  • It is believed that Jack the Ripper murdered at least five women (all prostitutes) between August and November 1888.
    • But the exact number cannot be confirmed and many people think that he killed more than this.
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Mutilated victims

  • Although his real identity was unknown, Jack the Ripper was given this pseudonym because of the horrific ways in which he mutilated his victims:
    • All but one of his victims were horribly disembowelled. This is when a victim is cut open and their organs are removed.
    • One of his victims had her throat slit and had her jaw sliced open.
    • Another had her abdomen cut open.
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Butcher or doctor?

  • Because of the ways in which he mutilated people, some people have suggested that Jack the Ripper might have actually been a butcher or doctor.

Corruption in the Victorian Police

Corruption and incompetency characterised the Victorian police force. This was especially apparent during the rampage of Jack the Ripper.

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Classism

  • Corruption was rife in the police force.
  • They refused to interrogate members of the upper classes, meaning they refused to investigate whole social classes about their possible involvement in crimes.
  • Lower-class people felt that this was unfair, which increased a lack of trust (and belief) in the police.
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Jack the Ripper

  • The Victorian police force was seen as especially incompetent in the case of Jack the Ripper.
    • The whole police force fought together to find one man and failed.
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Inspector Jones

  • In The Sign of the Four, the incompetency of the police force is shown through Inspector Jones when he jumps to conclusions with no evidence in Chapter 6:
    • ‘You see that I am weaving my web round Thaddeus.’
  • He decides that Thaddeus is the criminal and tries to fit the evidence around him instead of investigating the facts in an unbiased way.
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Response of Holmes

  • Holmes, being the better investigator, responds sarcastically:
    • ‘On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside’.
  • Conan Doyle uses Holmes to mock the idiocy of the police force.
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Incompetent police

  • For the first time, the media had widespread, in-depth coverage of a crime like this (Jack the Ripper's murders).
    • This meant the crime caused widespread fear and panic and it was clear that the police were making slow progress in the case.
    • This led to the widespread belief in Victorian England that the police were completely useless.

Jump to other topics

1Context

1.1Victorian England & British Empire

1.1.1Author Background

1.1.2Victorian Crime & Police

1.1.3Historical Context

1.1.4Victorian London

1.1.5Women

1.1.6The British Empire

1.1.7End of Topic Test - Author & Victorian Police

1.1.8End of Topic Test - Victorian London & Empire

2Plot Summary

2.1Chapter Summaries

2.1.1Chapter 1

2.1.2Chapter 2

2.1.3Chapter 3

2.1.4Chapter 4

2.1.5Chapter 5

2.1.6Chapter 6

2.1.7Chapter 7

2.1.8Chapter 8

2.1.9Chapter 9

2.1.10Chapter 10

2.1.11Chapter 11

2.1.12Chapter 12

2.1.13Chapter 12: Jonathan Small's Stories

2.1.14End of Topic Test - Chapters 1-6

2.1.15End of Topic Test - Chapters 7-12

3Characters

3.1Key Characters

3.1.1Sherlock Holmes

3.1.2Sherlock Holmes: Quotations

3.1.3Dr John Watson

3.1.4Mary Morstan

3.1.5End of Topic Test - Key Characters

3.1.6Exam-Style Questions - Mary & Dr Watson

3.2Other Characters

3.2.1Thaddeus Sholto

3.2.2Jonathan Small

3.2.3End of Topic Test - Thaddeus and Jonathan Small

3.3Grade 9 - Key Characters

3.3.1Grade 9 - Key Characters

3.3.2Extract Analysis - Tonga

4Key Themes

4.1Key Themes

4.1.1Corruption

4.1.2Criminals & Victims

4.1.3Victorian Fear

4.1.4British Empire & Imperialism

4.1.5Duality

4.1.6End of Topic Test - Key Themes

5Writing Techniques

5.1Writing Techniques

5.1.1Narrative Voice

5.1.2Dialogue

5.1.3Structure

5.1.4Structure & Characters

5.1.5Pathetic Fallacy

5.1.6End of Topic Test - Writing Techniques

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Author Background

Historical Context