whitechapel: difficulties of policing

Question 1

name 7 difficulties of policing in whitechapel

Answer 1

1. gangs
2. alcohol
3. poverty
4. police not trusted
5. alleyways/darkness
6. prostitution
7. immigration

Question 2

why did gangs make policing difficult in whitechapel?

Answer 2

they were difficult to catch and they wouldn’t ‘snitch’ on each other

Question 3

why did alcohol make policing more difficult in whitechapel?

Answer 3

it made people more likely to commit crime and more likely to be a victim of crime (e.g. in the case of Jack the Ripper). It also increased the rates of domestic violence, and made it harder for police to arrest people.

Question 4

why did poverty make policing difficult in Whitechapel?

Answer 4

the most common crime was theft - a lot of people had no choice but to steal in order to survive

Question 5

why did alleyways and darkness make policing difficult in whitechapel?

Answer 5

whitechapel was full of nooks and crannies which made it easy for criminals to hide and escape, which made it harder to catch criminals

Question 6

why did prostitution make policing difficult in whitechapel?

Answer 6

prostitution was a crime, which means that the police had to try and stop it, which made the desperate women vulnerable. many prostitutes were also victims of abuse.

Question 7

why did immigration make policing difficult in Whitechapel?

Answer 7

newspapers and media blamed immigrants unfairly for a lot of problems - they scapegoated them - and this fuelled racist tension and violence between groups of people, which created extra work for the police.

immigration also meant there was a language barrier between the police and some communities, for example the jewish immigrants mostly spoke hebrew.