LibGuides: Victorian England: Policing in the Victorian Era

Victorian Prisons and Punishments

Books

Vile Victorians by Terry Deary
Call Number: LIBRARY 941.081 DEA
ISBN: 9781407135809
'Vile Victorians' gives the reader all the terrible truth about revolting events affecting everyone not so very long ago - from the vile Victorian queen herself, to some vicious Victorian villains.
They All Love Jack by Bruce Robinson
Call Number: LIBRARY 364.152 ROB
ISBN: 9780007548873
For over 100 years, the mystery of Jack the Ripper has been a source of unparalleled fascination and horror, spawning an army of obsessive theorists, and endless volumes purporting finally to reveal the identity of the brutal murderer who terrorised Victorian England. But what if there was never really any 'mystery' at all? What if the Ripper was always hiding in plain sight, deliberately leaving a trail of clues to his identity for anyone who cared to look, while cynically mocking those who were supposedly attempting to bring him to justice? Here, Bruce Robinson exposes the cover-up that enabled one of history's most notorious serial killers to remain at large.
A Treasury of Victorian Murder by Rick Geary (Illustrator)
Call Number: EBSCO eBook K-8
ISBN: 9781561633081
Publication Date: 2001-06-01
Geary explores the ghastliest and most famous murders of Victorian England. Geary has researched the subject extensively and presents, with his own inimitable tongue-in-cheek style, the Jack the Ripper mystery as told through a journal of a fascinated Englishman of the day. Both factual and darkly funny, Geary shines an ironic light on the repressive society that spawned such a monster and its hypocritical reaction to it.

London Police in Victorian Times

Sir Robert Peel

Robert Peel. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/115_2245598/1/115_2245598/cite. Accessed 22 May 2020.

Sir Robert Peel's Police

© Greater Manchester Police Museum

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Sir-Robert-Peel/

The first thousand of Peel’s police, dressed in blue tail-coats and top hats, began to patrol the streets of London on 29th September 1829. The uniform was carefully selected to make the ‘Peelers’ look more like ordinary citizens, rather than a red-coated soldier with a helmet.

The ‘Peelers’ were issued with a wooden truncheon carried in a long pocket in the tail of their coat, a pair of handcuffs and a wooden rattle to raise the alarm. By the 1880s this rattle had been replaced by a whistle.

Whitechapel

Whitechapel, 1888 (engraving). Illustration. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 Dec 2017.
quest.eb.com/search/108_2307564/1/108_2307564/cite. Accessed 22 May 2020.

Police News 1888

Jack the Ripper murders, 1888. Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 Mar 2017.
quest.eb.com/search/132_1445016/1/132_1445016/cite. Accessed 22 May 2020.

Police work in the East End

Police Work in the East End (engraving). Illustration. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 Dec 2017.
quest.eb.com/search/108_2409816/1/108_2409816/cite. Accessed 22 May 2020.

Victorian Crime Fiction

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Call Number: EBSCO K-8 eBooks
ISBN: 9781775410683
Publication Date: 2009-05-01
A enthralling story about the inequalities of the 19th-century English legal system Bleak House is one of Charles Dicken's most multifaceted novels. Bleak House deals with a multiplicity of characters, plots and subplots that all weave in and around the true story of the famous case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a case of litigation in England's Court of Chancery, which starts as a problem of legacy and wills, but soon raises the question of murder.
The Complete Illustrated Novels of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle; Sidney Paget (Illustrator); George Hutchinson (Illustrator)
Call Number: EBSCO K-8 eBooks
ISBN: 9781926606668
Publication Date: 2011-12-01
The Complete Novels of Sherlock Holmes includes A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Valley of Fear. Included are illustrations by Sidney Paget, George Hutchinson, James Greig & Charles Kerr. Holmes will need to use his various skills, including a knack at cracking ciphers, an aptitude for acting and disguise, tracking footprints, hand to hand combat, and knowledge of psychology to solve cases involving kidnapping, murder and revenge. Sherlock Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and is renowned for his skilful use of deductive reasoning, astute observation, and forensic skills to solve difficult cases. Deductive reasoning allows Holmes to impressively reveal a stranger's occupation. Similarly, by studying inanimate objects, he is able to make astonishingly detailed deductions about their owners. This mindset was a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, inspiring authors like Robert J. Sawyer, Neil Gaiman and Stephen King.
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle; Mort Künstler (Cover Design by); Seymour Moskowitz (Illustrator)
Call Number: LIBRARY GRA CLA
ISBN: 9781906814649
Publication Date: 2015-09-01
Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colorful comic strip form, providing an excellent introduction for younger readers. Also includes theme discussions and study questions.