Law and Order in the First Part of the Nineteenth Century :: Papers

Law and Order in the First Part of the Nineteenth Century In the first part of the nineteenth century crime was one of the biggest social problems. Crime was made worse by widespread poverty, many people wanted proper law enforcement. May crimes were punishable by death, so the criminals adopted the phase â€Å"better to be hung for a sheep than a lamb†. When Sir Robert Peel became Home Secretary in 1825, he made a properly organised police system his propriety. Up to now towns had only their caped night watchmen, with warning bells and rattles. Peel’s major concern was preventing crime rather than punishing it. For this reason, in 1829 he established the first regular police force. Large towns such as London were often particularly lawless, and authorities often used troops to keep the peace, which was a much-hated practice. In 1829 Peel established a regular police force in London and the suburbs. At first there were 300 ‘Bobbies’ recruited and controlled by the Home Office. Their presence soon forced many criminals of the capital. Finally in 1856 every county and borough had to maintain a police force. The Metropolitan police force had many different duties. The man on the beat was there to stop disorderly behaviour. So this meant the Metropolitan Police Force were to deal with beggars, drunkenness, vagrants and prostitutes. In the second half of the nineteenth centuary London’s streets became more orderly, but as a consequence of this the number of burglaries went up. Another of the Metropolitan Police Forces duties was to deal with major disturbances. Police constables received very little training in the late nineteenth century and often learnt their trade â€Å" on the job†. Police constables worked seven days a week and up to fourteen hours a day. In London in the 1870’s and 1880’s, a beat during daytime was seven and a half miles long whilst at night it was two miles. Pick pocketing was rife in London in the late nineteenth century. Pickpockets were generally around the age of 6-10 years old and had