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Crime and Punishment in Victorian London: A Street-Level View of London’s Underworld: A Street-Level View of the City’s Underworld
£10.10£12.30 (-18%)
‘Crime loomed large in the minds of Victorian Londoners. All over the city, watches, purses and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets, goods migrate from warehouses, off docks and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles. ‘Pornographers proliferate and an estimated 80,000 prostitutes operate on London’s streets. The vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions…’ Discover Victorian London’s grimy rookeries, home to thousands of the city’s poorest and most desperate residents. Explore the crime-ridden slums, flash houses and gin palaces from a unique street-level view and meet the people who inhabited them. Ross Gilfillan uncovers London’s lost criminal past in this fascinating account of nineteenth century low-life. Come face to face with pickpockets snatching pocket watches; pornographers peddling guides to lewd London; swindlers deluding the unwary and murderers whose deeds made the headlines and shocked their readers; right through to the consequences of their crimes – prison, transportation, or the gallows!
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Additional information
| Publisher | Pen & Sword Books Ltd (1 Jun. 2014) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 169 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1781593426 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1781593424 |
| Dimensions | 15.24 x 1.27 x 22.23 cm |
by Alan Moss.
This book gives some interesting accounts of how individuals became involved in crime in London, including use of Henry Mayhew’s research of the period. It does give a refreshing perspective about the life of crime from the criminal’s perspective, and is valuable for that. It includes references to baby farming and other interesting facets of Victorian life.
The second part of the book is about punishment, with descriptions of Victorian prisons reminding us about the perpetual debates about prison regimes and how they should be organised.
We can tend to draw our perceptions of Victorian life from Charles Dickens’ novels; this book gives a readable perspective that supplements our knowledge, in a happy style that is neither too academic nor too fiction-based.
by Tanya jones
Great book for criminology foundation level