Crime And Punishment Whitechapel Case Study

Question 1

[housing/overcrowding] Rookeries (slums)

Answer 1

1877 - one rookery = 123 rooms with 757 people
Flower and Dean st- 1871 census - 902 lodgers in 31 ‘doss houses’ > cramped conditions - up to 30 people per apartment
1873 - 188.6 people per acre (London avg = 45)
Hugh levels of disease - easily spread
Narrow alleys/multiple exits from houses = difficult to police
Charles booth led social study into poverty in London using 80 researchers - made link between poverty and crime

Question 2

[Housing/overcrowding] Lodging houses

Answer 2

Offered a bed in bad conditions
8hr sleep shifts in bed
c.200 Lodging houses in W’chapel = 8000 people (1/4 of population)

Question 3

[Housing/overcrowding] Model Housing - Peabody estate

Answer 3

1875 Artisans’ dwelling act - slum clearance

11 new blocks of flats (designed by Henry Derbyshire/funded by George Peabody)

Question 4

[Working conditions, workhouses and orphanages] conditions

Answer 4

Sweatshops - small, cramped and dusty - little natural lights
Long hours - 20 hour days
Low wages - avg wage per week for labourer = 22s 6d (£1.12)
Docks - uncertain employment - turn up and hope for work
1870s - economic depression

Question 5

[Working conditions, workhouses and orphanages] Workhouses

Answer 5

1834 Poor law amendment act - offered system of ‘indoor relief’ - food and shelter for poor
Expected to do hard manual labour
Low cost - conditions terrible + families split up = last resort

Question 6

[Working conditions, workhouses and orphanages] Orphanages

Answer 6

1870 Dr Thomas Barnardo opened orphanages for boys + later one for girls
By death in 1905 = nearly 100 homes nationally with avg 85 in each

Question 7

[Immigrants] Irish

Answer 7

1840s - Irish famine = inc in immigrants
Mainly young men - worked canals, railways and roads as navvies
Disliked as often causes violence - coming out of pubs
1867 - ‘Fenian outrages’ = republicans attempted to release prisoners but blew up st- inc anti-Irish views
Special Branch set up to monitor Irish Republicanism

Question 8

[Immigrants] Eastern European Jews

Answer 8

1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II in Russia = Jewish pogroms
By 1888 some parts of London = 95% Jewish - segregation
Resentment as Jews were able to find employment + set up business
Accepted low wages, ran sweatshop model and worked on Sundays
Close communities = spoke Yiddish
Inc anti-semitism- 1888 - violence against Jews after murder of 5 women. Newspapers develop stereotypes of greedy/dishonest Jews.

Question 9

[Revolutionary Ideas] Anarchists

Answer 9

Anarchy = Pol movement against all forms of organised govt
1871 - Paris Commune - anarchists and other revolutionaries briefly took control of Paris - most revs failed
Many revs fled to E London

Question 10

[Revolutionary ideas] Socialists

Answer 10

Belief in reforming capitalism to give poor a better deal - govt to nationalise important industries and run them for good of all
Social democratic Federation - first socialist pty founded in 1881
1887 - Socialist protest led to ‘Bloody Sunday’
1888 - Campaigned for election to new London County Council

Question 11

H Division

Answer 11

Division it met police responsible for W’Chapel
Superintendent + chief inspector
27 inspectors
37 sergeants
500 ordinary officers + 15 CID detectives

Question 12

Role of Constables

Answer 12

Marched to beat where would drop out of line
9 hour best shift - new beat each month
Record everything - regular meeting with serg
Held accountable for crimes in an area - boring and dangerous work - low pay

Question 13

Charles Warren

Answer 13

1886 = Police commissioner - inc discipline
Used army to control Trafalgar sq protesters - Bloody Sunday, Nov 1887
Led to belief that police preferred middle and upper classes to poor - policing = more difficult

Question 14

Prostitution

Answer 14

Harder for women to find work than men - resorted to prostitution to survive - 1888 - 62 brothers in W’Chapel - 1200 prostitutes
Not a crime - after 1885 keeping a brothel = criminalised
Some could afford rooms, others walked streets = vulnerable
No contraception - abortions = common - poor conditions = many died

Question 15

Reputation of Police

Answer 15

Policemen generally seen as reliable ‘Bobby’ necessary for safety
Provided social role - ran soup kitchens, looked after stray children etc.
Deprived districts often seen more negatively
Used to control public protests in times of depression and poverty
Heavy handed method and violence
Questioned priorities - ignored violence but attempted to control prostitution, take people to workhouses or enforce 1867 law requiring muzzling dogs
Often attacked by gangs

Question 16

Protection Rackets/Gangs

Answer 16

Violence stirred up by gangs - often E European immigrants
Bessarabian Tigets and Odessians
Often result of fear of authorities
Ran protection rackets - demanded money from small businesses - refusal = would destroy shop or market stall
Involved in robberies and attacks on other gangs
Loutish behaviour - gambling, ‘running about the towing path in a nude state’
People too scared to report gangs to police
Lack of resources = H division made no attempt to shut down gangs
Let them fight it out

Question 17

Alcohol and drugs

Answer 17

Used as escape from terrible lives
Strong alcohol affordable for all poorest - pubs + gin palaces on every corner
1 mile of W’Chapel Rd = 45 pubs + gin palaces as well as Opium dens
Drunkenness = violence + crime
Would steal money to pay for alcohol
People = more vulnerable to crime - all of Ripper’s victims = alcoholics
Police to ensure landlords stuck to licensing laws - opening hours, gambling etc.
After 1870 couldn’t serve alcohol to anybody who was drunk

Question 18

Media response

Answer 18

Newspaper stories reported murders
300+ letters/postcards claiming to be the murderer (Origin of nickname)
Media received tips and published unreliable information
Police had to follow up false leads
Often portrayed killer as immigrant with stereotypical Jewish features
Published Penny dreadfuls - sensationalist serialised stories
Media portrayed police as incompetent and weak
‘Detective force is probably the stupidest in the world’ - New York Times
Undetermined work of police force

Question 19

Police force rivalry

Answer 19

Rivalry between Met police and City of London police
Discovered piece of Eddowes’ apron with message on wall - ‘The juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.’
Commissioner Warren ordered message to be washed off - either to prevent anti-Semitic backlash OR to get ahead of CofL police

Question 20

Victims

Answer 20

Mary Ann Nichols - 31st Aug 1888
Elizabeth Stride - 30th Sep 1888
Catherine Eddowes - 30th Sep 1888

Inspector Frederick Abberline + CID assigned to help H division