Lesson 13 C1700 - C1900 18th and 19th century Britain

Question 1

What was the major factors which led to crime rate increasing after 1700 and what did it lead to??

Answer 1

urbanisation and industrialisation were the major factors.
This created a need for better law enforcements therefore this period saw development of more official forms of policing.

Question 2

Continuity in Policing

Answer 2

• Watchmen continued to patrol the streets of cities on foot a night
• Parish constables dealt with petty crimes
• Solders were used to put down riots and large protests across the country

Question 3

Changes in Policing (London)

Answer 3

• From 1749, the bow street runners tracked down criminals and stolen property.
• From 1754, the bow street horse patrols patrolled the streets

Question 4

Who were the bow street runners ?

Answer 4

• Established in London 1749 by Henry Feilding, Chief magistrate at the Bow street court, to try to tackle the huge crime wave of 17th century. Fielding’s half brother, john took over in 1754.
• At first , they charged fees + collected rewards but by 1785 they were paid by the GOV
• Introduces new methods of finding evidence to bring criminals to justice = the first modern ‘ detectives ‘
• Branched out of patrolling major roads on both foot and horse ( MP) , The patrols were less successful than the detective side as there was limited amount of people to deal with the dramatic increase of crime rate
• Shared info about suspects + crimes to others = Beginning of Crime intelligence network

Question 5

Timeline development of police forces

Answer 5

1829 = metropolitan police act - began Britain’s first professional police force in London
1835 = municipal corporations act - borough councils can set up police forces in their area
1839 = Rural constabulary act - counties could set up police forces (2/3 did)

1843 = Detective department set up at Metropolitan PF headquarters in London
1856 = police act - forced all town, counties to set up pro police force
1878 = CID set up for the Metropolitan PF

Question 6

Details of 1856 = police act

Answer 6

Act made pro PF based on the model of the metropolitan police compulsory across the whole country

All forces funded by Gov and regularly inspected by officials appointed by GOV

Police officers role = keep law + order, prevent crime by patrolling and arresting, detect crimes after crime committed

= all acts aim to deter