Crime & Punishment- White Chapel Flashcards
What was the housing like in Whitechapel? (4)
What improvements were made to housing?(2)
1) lodging houses/ doss houses- places where people paid 4d for a bed for the night
- overcrowded as there were 188.6 people per acre
2) rookers( slum areas) with poor sanitation- FLOWER & DEAN STREET
3) Whitechapel workhouse and casual ward- v strict rules, controlled sleeping and waking times and had to do work to earn your stay eg pick fibre from old robes(oakum) This was for the people who could not afford a doss house or were too young or old to work.
1) Casual ward
2) Infirmary
- Peabody estates were opened in 1881 who build better flats, but though the rent was reasonable, it was still expensive for many,
- `Metropolitan Board of works bought areas South of Whitechapel for slum clearance
Give 4 features of the employment brought to Whitechapel? (4)
- high unemploment because of economic depression and few jobs were available to women so many turned to prostitution to survive. Those who had jobs:
- worked long hours for low pay in factories- conditions were cramped and dirty.
- docks or as sailors.
- immigrants and jews worked in workshops/ sweatshops/ bad conditions and poor pay.
What are the links between the employment and crime? (5)
- low-income levels led to stealing for survival b the desperate to avoid workhouse.
- unreliable work that meant many had led to ‘spare time’ which led to alcoholism, disruptive behaviour and violence.
- overcrowding led to tensions between residents( esp London born and Irish and Jewish immigrants) = violence
- high level of prostitution led to violence on women
- dark overcrowded streets meant that it was easy to get away with crime and narrow alleyways made it easier to escape.
Give 2 features of the tension in whitechapel regarding to people?
- Irish came to London and poverty meant that they would live in the least expensive parts of London but they had a reputation for being drunk and violent and were also associated with terrorism, such as the Fenians, who were seen as fanatical terrorists fighting for Ireland’s independence from Britain.
- The huge influx of Eastern European immigrants- mostly Russians and Jewish (approx 30,000) who fled due to pogroms and discrimination and they tended to stick together within these areas, causing segregation. BY 1888, some parts of Whitechapel had a 95% Jewish population
How did the fluctuating population affect Whitechapel? Who were Anarchists and Socialists?
-people came and went from the area regularly and people did not know their neighbours and mistrusted newcomers- led to suspicion and tension.
Anarchists- supported the revolution which opposed organised gov and Socialism- end of capitalism. -Both movements feared by authorities and middle and upper class but attracted some support from residents of Whitechapel.
Describe the tension with the immigrants?(3)
- immigrants dressed differently spoke Polish/ Russians and looked different as well.
- JEWISH COMM BECAME ISOLATED FROM the rest of whitechapel population -> this made them a target for scapegoating and xenophobia and some JEWISH IMMIGRANTS also SET UP SOCIALIST ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIALIST NEWSPAPERS which increased prejudice agaisnt the Jewish community -> regularly accused of involvement in Jack the Ripper Case.
- many people were temporary residents so didn’t have an inkling to foster any sense of community- led to mistrust.
What forms of tensions were there between communities??(5)
- many tensions between immigrants and local population over access to housing and jobs
- recently arrived Jewish immigrants were prepare to accept lower pay and poor conditions leading to an increase in the sweatshop
- Anti-Semitsm and violence against Jews rose rapidly.
- Foreign accent = being a violent revolutionary.
- ‘Foreigners were blamed for many crimes such as Ripper murders, which increased racial hate and violence.
Describe the organisation of policing in Whitechapel? (2) CID development (1)
- Whitechapel was in H-division and beat constables were given a set route within Whitechapel to patrol and they regularly had to report to the sergeant and everything was recorded in a diary.
- Police station was based on Lenman Street.
-CID developed in 1842 to conduct criminal investigations- followed suspects criminals in plain clothes but in 1877, trial found many detectives guilty for accepting bribes.
Why were there difficulties in organisation of policing in Whitechapel? (7)
1) Alcohol led to risky behaviour as there were large numbers of pubs and gin houses in Whitechapel which sold v strong alcohol at affordable prices- warm up in winter- many alcoholics turned to crime.
2) Environ- dark, narrow alleys and rookeries packed with people and possession made chasing and finding criminals extremely difficult.
3) Gangs- large professional gangs of thieves and pickpockets operated.
4) Prostituion- with v few jobs available, many women turned to prostitution. BY 1888, approx 1200 prost were vulnerable to violence, worked in brothels or on streets.
5) Attack on Jews- attack on Jews became commom after 1880s, some police were anti-semitic themselves while the language barrier prevented others from helping catch their attention.
6) Violent demonstrations- protests and riots were fairly common- The Social Democratic Federation was involved in many protests eg Trafalgar Squae demonstration in Nov-
7) Protection rackets- gangs such as the Bessarabian, demanded ‘protection money’ to ‘protect’ peoples’ businesses and refusal led to property damage and violence- fear of gangs meant that people rarely reported so they either paid up or retaliated with violence.
What were some of the causes of crime?(4)
- Poverty made people desperate.
- tensions between diff communitie
- gangs caused violence.
- political demonstrations and strikes often got out of hand.
What was the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee?(4)
- 1888
- set up by businessmen in Whitechapel on 10 Sep by George Lusk who felt that the police had not done enough to capture Ripper.
- hired 2 private detectives and patrolled the streets every night.
- disrupted the police investigation but also hampered the police by sending false leads and encouraging criticism of the police in newspaper.
Give 2 features of the beat system? Adv(3) and disadv (2)?
- beat constables were given a set patrol to follow and they walked around in fixed routes to monitor crime for half an hour around 10 x times a day.
- Whitechapel was known to be a rough area so many walked in pairs when doing their beat and this beat was never fixed so after a month, the policeman would be given a new beat to follow to eliminate the chance of corruption or get the policeman too familiarised with the area.
Adv:
- they can plan out the route and cover more area.
- the officer would be familarised with the area and if anything was different- could investigate.
- police only did beat each month to prevent corruption.
Disadv:
- criminals would know the route that everyone would take and could monitor their time for convenience.
- police walk the beat on their own- safety issue.
What were the developments made in the detective policing? Give facts and figures as well and explain briefly about each method.(8)
1) Photographs: taken before and after post mortem and they were used for identification of the victim rather than to help solve the crime.
- Met Police didn’t have technology so had to get a professional photographer however angles could be different.
- Bertillon’s system and the mugshot system wasn’t developed.
2) Sketches:
- collect detailed drawings of the place, the body’s position and condition before it’s moved.
- not as helpful as wasn’t detailed.
3) Autopsy:
- the coroner does an autopsy and views the temp to know the time of death.
4) Posters:
- spreads awareness has pictures and is simple and people used to come forward with false claims to get a reward.
5) Careful observation:
- job of the inspector was to make a careful note of the scene and had to follow the Police Code as how they should take the notes and what they should do. Nobody could disturb the scene.
6) Interviews, identity parades.
7) Witness statements- the police wrote down witness statements and had to read back to make sue it’s corrected. Signed and dated the page but police may be corrupt and witness may make up false accounts.
8) Following up clues: Met Police questioned more than 2000 people, followed up over 300 lines of enquiry, arrested 80 people and transferred 5 officers to Whitechapel after the Ripper murders.
What were improvements made in detective policing after 1888? (2)
- after 1888- the Met introduced the Bertillon system of takig measurements and photographs of suspects and keeping the records centrally so it could ot be shared.
- by 1900, the introduction of the telephones improved the speed of police communication.
Who did the Met police have a rivalry with? (2)
- the great rivalry between the Met and the City of London police forces- they didn’t share information and did not cooperate on cases and each force wanted to solve the crimes before the other did.
- Whitechapel overlapped the two police districts so this was esp a problem during the Ripper investigation.
