Crime and deviance in Victorian Britain

A collaborative digital archive created by students on the 'Crime, deviance and disorder in Victorian Britain' module at Westminster College, Fulton, MO

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Josephine Butler, 1828-1906  

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Gender Differences in the Criminal Justice System in Victorian Britain

Josephine Butler on Moral Double Standards

“Here we are at once brought into contact with the false and misleading idea that the essence of right and wrong is in some way dependent on sex. We never hear it carelessly or complacently asserted of a young wom[a]n that "she is only sowing her wild oats.” This is not a pleasant aspect of the question; but let us deal faithfully with it. It is a fact, that numbers even of moral and religious people have permitted themselves to accept and condone in man what is fiercely condemned in woman.”

Josephine Butler, The Philanthropist (October, 1886).

Gender and Morality

It is impossible to accurately evaluate the differences in the portrayal and punishment of male and female criminality in Victorian Britain without first considering the gendered nature of Victorian morality. Victorian morality was largely based around the concept of separate spheres, or the idea that men and women were supposed to occupy different social spheres and to fulfill different moral duties.

Men were expected to occupy the public sphere and were the protectors, providers, and heads of their households. They were considered to be the stronger, more intelligent sex, but were also viewed as being inherently immoral compared to women. Social norms also dictated that men were more physically aggressive and had much stronger and more active sexual drives than women. As a result of this men were held to lower moral standards for sexual morality and were treated less harshly in court when they committed crimes.

The majority of criminals during the Victorian time period were men; therefore no one was surprised when a man committed a crime and while he had violated the law, he had not violated the moral expectations of masculinity.

Women, however, were held to very different moral standards. A moral woman was expected to remain within the domestic sphere. Her role in society was   to bear and raise children, keep her family fed and clothed, maintain the house, maintain the moral standard for the household, and take care of and obey her husband.  It was considered ideal for a woman to not work outside the home in order for her to avoid the dangerous and masculine world of paid employment and be able to devote more time to her family and household.

Women were considered to be the more moral sex and were expected to maintain much higher standards of morality than men.  Women in general were not considered to have strong or active sex drives and were held accountable for any sexual behaviours they engaged in. Women were also considered to be nonviolent and incapable of the levels of mental depravity that men could attain that could motivate criminal behaviour. As a result of this when a woman criminal went before the courts she was often treated more harshly than men in similar circumstances. Because of the moral responsibility assigned to women, it was considered to be a more serious problem for society if a woman committed a criminal act than if a man committed the same act. A woman criminal was considered to be quite shocking to society because she had violated not only the law, but also the ideals of womanhood.

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Can you use Victorian slang to complete the crossword?

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Concluding thoughts

Throughout the semester I could not help to try to relate the issues of the citizens of Victorian Britain to issues of today that can be seen as present day equivalents.  However, as the course moved on and I was able to read through more information I realized when analyzing the Victorian Era there are not very good present day equivalents because the times were completely separate. The people of those times saw the world through a completely different lens than we do today. Additionally, the citizens in Victorian Britain depending on their social class seemingly lived way different types of life and contained way different world views.  In conclusion I have definitely  became more open minded  from taking this class both from the readings, and the discussion based class environment which allowed me to get perspectives from my classmates which often opened me up ideas I previously had not thought about.  This has been one of my favorite classes while at Westminster and I thoroughly enjoyed my time being a part of it.  

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Homosexuality

Like I believe women suffered from many inferior compliments from men I believe people who were homosexual had it worse like they do today. I am not being biased towards any group or anyone’s beliefs but as I believe in the Victorian age we should all have an indifferent mind set. I’ll explain, why should we as people put down others because of THEIR beliefs. To touch upon the Victorian era it was just as bad to be a woman as it was to either be a homosexual man or homosexual woman. The things these people went through, the stereotypes, judgements, assumptions, that is what made it so difficult to be a woman or a homosexual, you were never going to be considered equal to the rest of society at this time. the people were so unfamiliar with this type of behavior that their traditionalist mindset only disrupted society and the way of people’s lives.

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Victorian Fascination with Crime and Mischievous Behavior

Throughout this class I have noticed Victorians seem to be absolutely fascinated by crime and other mischievous behaviors. During this semester many examples have shown this, but the wild level of interest in the Jack the Ripper murders is perhaps the most pressing example.  The relationship between the media at the time and the citizens in many ways emphasized the curiosity in the mischievous behaviors of others. The relationship seemed to be reciprocal in the way that the curiosity in crime by the public would lead the media to publish tabloid-esc types of literature, and as the media would respond to the curiosities by releasing tabloid-esc literature, the curiosity would only grow.  That catch 22 type of relationship present in the media seems to have been able to establish the type of tabloid existence among the media that thrives commercially in present day western nations, especially the United States.   To me at least it seems like elements of the Victorian Britain  media gave birth to the present day style of profit based news outlets.

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Project Research

Since our projects are due tomorrow I thought I would post about all of the new things that I have learned while doing research for my board game. The first thing I came across was how the Irish were being treated. I knew that the Irish were not treated well from class, but I did not realize how severe it really was. Many were killed for absolutely no reason or charged for crime solely because they were Irish. I also learned a lot about the main goods that were sold during the Victorian era. Wheat was becoming increasing popular among Britain, although it wasn’t worth that much because so many people were selling it. Butter and meat were definitely becoming popular goods to sell as well, but they were with much more than the wheat. These goods were also traded. I learned the most from doing research for my project was about the many crimes that were committed. I looked up real life crimes that had happened in Victorian Britain and found that many people committed the same exact crimes, but did not always have the same punishments. for example one guy got charged with assault on a watchman and had to pay 5 shillings. Another guy committed the same crime and paid 10 shillings. A third guy also got charged with assault on a watchman and went to jail for 2 months. There were many other people that this happened to as well. Another thing that I learned about was how terrible the roads were at the time and how hard it was for Britain to convince its people that they needed to pay taxes in order to fix the roads. One of the last things that I learned while researching is that the top 5 diseases in Britain during this era were the measles, scarlet fever, small pox, typhoid, cholera. Many of these diseases were from the dirtiness of the town and from the lack of clean water. All of these things that I have shared that I learned are now a part of my board game to demonstrate the real lives of the working class in Britain. 

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The Empire

The class wrap up was interesting to me. As the British empire expanded it introduce new ideals to cultures all around the world. Although, for some continents like Africa the empire did cause plenty of problems, which we are still dealing with today; I do not think the empire was all bad.

Despite how ethnocentric the British  were, it is my belief that even their era of enlightenment and rational had its limitations. The Victorians especially were already struggling with other aspects of society for the first time at home and in those times specialized studies were not fully developed. Studies such as anthropology, that try to understand cultures around the world. Not to say the British empire is not at fault for some the problems we are struggling to solve in our century; but who in the Victorian era would suspect that their actions would have great consequences, such as pathological conditions. They simply did not have the knowledge we have today. Thanks to the Victorians that brought up topics such as morality, sexuality, and deviance; our century can Thanks to the Victorians that brought up topics such as morality, sexuality, and deviance; our century can finally (hopefully) solve. Also, thanks to the rise of such issues we can now focus on an issue raised in 1968, human rights.

Nonetheless, the Empire made us what we are today. Thanks to the empire the term that we use today to describe the Unites States, the melting pot, can be argued that the empire was the tool that made it global. As the empire grew and people traveled more it caused for interracial relationships. The mixing of different ethnic groups increased. To some people that might seem as great, but to me that is beauty. It is what allows us to learn from each other, care about each other, and grow with each other.

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The Savages of the Empire and the Savages back Home

From my own research I came about a article that talked about words that the British used to describe the slums and the people in it. Words that would typically describe animals, such as den or nest. The word colony was also utilized as if they were not part of Britain.

I hope I make sense. As we have learned the Industrial revolution in Britain together with capitalism is what created or help create the working class and the poor class. Although, the Empire exist before it and so that would mean that the people in the places that had been colonized were (I am assuming) already classified as savages. So my question/ thought is if the 'others'  were already considered savages, might that be where most of the mentality of the British derived from when they discussed the poor in the slums?

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Delinquency: Now and Then

In the Victorian era, within the early years of the existence of the slum life I would argue that despite what the Victorians thought of as immoral or a crime was for the most part survival. Whether it was stealing or prostitution at the end of the day it was to eat and feed the family. Such crimes were easier to commit and it was easier money, then working long tedious hours and not being paid enough. The poor class were viewed as the criminal class rather than hungry people. I think it was mainly due to the news papers exploiting the fears of the people and "fanning the flames of moral panic".

In contrast, as the years roll by in Victorian Britain and gangs begin to rise I belief that is when the delinquency really began. There situation had created them. I think that after some time of being in the same situation the people tried to fight it, and thus the gangs were created. With it came what I would call "real delinquency". Before it was mostly about staying alive and then it did not matter if they had enough to eat people wanted more. They became unsatisfied with simply surviving that the gangs would terrorized their neighborhoods and even kill. I think at this time was when the people crossed the line of hungry people trying to desperately survive, and crime for power and status began.

Any thoughts?

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Lady with an umbrella in Africa

With wrapping up class today and talking the British Empire, you get the sense that it had a huge impact on the rest of the world that wasn’t under British rule. At least I did. The question of why do people still talk about the Victorian Era, I think that it is because of the British Empire. They both had some significant overlap, and I think that it helped push the Victorian way of life outside England. Also I think that since there was a big influence of England around the world, it spread the ideals and morals of the Victorian people. What they thought went wherever they went, and a wider audience was able to picture what the life was like back in England. Another thought also, is the people who probably traveled were probably the wealthy. Which I think could explain why people look at Victorian Era people as proper, and moral. I just get the picture in my head of the lady in a huge dress with an umbrella, and her husband in a suite and top hat cruising down a river in Africa. That again is why I think that the empire helped shape the Victorian Era, and these pictures people have in their minds I think comes from this.

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Newspapers and Panic

It was interesting to learn about the over dramatization that was used to sell more newspapers. The over dramatization seems to go along with the Victorian Era in the sense that it went against what people wanted to portray. People would put their morals out in the open and tried to be this almost perfect person. The dramatization seems to go against what people wanted to hear, and know, but in reality people ate it up. The total opposite of it all sticks out to me. It was also the start of giving people more of what they wanted to hear. The shock value of news is relevant today. The other side was the panic that some of news stories caused, even if the panic was unjustified. For example the story of a guy who was strangled lead to a public wide panic which caused people to overreact. It goes to show the power of fear in people. One positive though was that more people were able to read because of all the different newspaper publications that came out of this new way of reporting “news.” 

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Victorian Sex Talks: Creating the Homosexual

Our class discussions about sex and sexuality in Victorian Britain led me to focus on the creation of the homosexual. I had not thought about when the term came about, nor did I think about how it could completely change society’s views on the subject. As a twenty-first century American, the identity of a homosexual means nothing different to me than any other gender identity, and the fight for equality was one that never made sense to me, since all of us are human. But as a history student, it fascinated me to learn when the stigma came about, since Ancient Greek society had no problems with bisexuality. It makes me a little happy to know that the term, identity, and phobia of the homosexual have been around for a little more than a century. Interestingly though, the homosexual at this time in Britain only referred to men. No concept of female-with-female sexual action was considered when laws were being put in place. Historians believe this is because the idea that women could have sexual desires had not been thought about in British society. Women were just inactive beings who gave birth and worked as laborers. Having a sex drive would not fit into this view. I think that the men in charge of making laws were not this ignorant, as they were among the most educated of the time. I think that perhaps they ignored female homosexuality because they did not want to give women any extra power. By equalizing the forbidden act, women would have accidently taken a huge step forward. Additionally, the Victorian Era was so focused on covering up the act of sex, that I think it was also a ploy against the power of women in a male-dominated society. Prostitution was by far the most common crime, even if the official records will have more thefts. Many men used prostitutes, and most were likely never caught. In this way, the concession that women had a sexual desire similar to men would have destabilized the social hierarchy of Britain. Prostitution would have become a career, rather than a necessary evil, and the idea that women could not be equal to men would have had its first step in the long process.

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Stealing the Spotlight: Jack the Ripper

Learning about Jack the Ripper was enlightening for me. I had always heard the stories, but never really paid much attention to them. It was always just a history fun fact that wasn’t super important. Reading and listening to the group present about the case and the details though fascinated me. My biggest experience with any sort of serial killer comes from the show Criminal Minds, where the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit tracks them down. This is very much a modern take on the criminal aspect of the Whitechapel murders, but one that I could not shake thinking about while we were discussing Jack the Ripper and all the possible suspects. Personally, I think it’s interesting that the case has held popular interest for so long, but should pass into “fun fact” rather than actual history. Ripperologists give true historians a bad name, and bring focus away from what the average person would have been doing during the time. Modern societies are so focused on solving the mystery, that they are neglecting to learn about the average British citizen and what they were focused on. While the Whitechapel murders scared many people, the fact that they were targeting prostitutes quelled much of that fear. The average British civilian was more afraid of being mugged or not having enough money to feed their family. Jack the Ripper may still steal focus away from everyday Victorians in the twenty-first century, but that does not mean that the rest of the people should be forgotten.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere!” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . .

Based on our current Cook, Law reading I’ve discovered that the law in victorian Britain was established to that help the general public understand  sexual behavior an ideologies in the past.

Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 criminalized acts of gross indecency between men[1]. Gross indecency is a broad term, almost too broad of a term to be used when imposing harsh punishments like death on the perpetrators of such offenses. 

So basically we have a situation were the powerful/elite who constitute a small minority of the population in Victorian Britain however during this Victorian era they are able to make laws that apply to the majority of the citizens. Any time the minority is allowed to make rules that apply to the majority then some kind  of inequity is established.

We have what is referred to in America as a catch 22 but this real life scenario is being played out during the Victorian Era. In this scenario we see that the English law takes precedence over all other reinterpretations of the law in the surrounding regions like Scotland, Jamaica, India and South Africa.

Here is where the problem lies: Women were not allowed to join the military until 1938 [2]. Later in 1949 the women's royal Army Corps is formed [3].

The Victorian law was impudent in the sense that it forbade women from joining the military in the 1850’s, but the law still allowed women to be discriminated against due to militarily related reasons. So in this way women were  not only being marginalized but also abused by  the essence of random STD testing and lockdown detainment in random facilities. All of the former were committed by an organization that would not enlist them to fight for the Victorian state for almost another 100 years.

This catch 22 scenario has sexism and classism written all over it which begs the following question:  why were a men not being tested for STD’s? they were the people who had tax money invested into their  health well being.

1. Simon Duncan and Rosalind Edwards, Lone Mothers, Paid Work and Gendered Moral Rationalities, Macmillan,Basingstoke and London,1999.

2.Weeks, Jeffery, 1945- Sex Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800/ Jefferey Weeks.—3rd ed. p. cm. —(themes in British Social History.

3.Ibid, 167

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Deviant Sexuality and Homosexuality in Victorian Britain

I found it really interesting to examine the extent to which homosexuality and sexual deviance was a construct of the legal system in Victorian Britain. In many cases these behaviors had existed for years before they were legislated against and then became known as “deviant” acts that ought to be suppressed vigorously by society. The initial laws against homosexuality referred only to the act of sodomy without distinguishing between sodomy between homosexual men or heterosexual couples, but with the enactment of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 the law became more focused. All sexual activity between men in public or in private was now to be condemned and prosecuted as “gross indecency”.  Prior to this amendment a man was considered a homosexual if he had committed the act of sodomy, after the amendment any sexual activity with another man could lead to being considered a homosexual and being summarily prosecuted in a court of law. The mere suggestion of homosexuality was often enough to seriously damage a man’s reputation, so men were forced to become more cautious in order to avoid being labeled as a potential homosexual.

I also found it interesting that lesbianism was not considered as a potential problem to be legislated against. This was because the lawmakers at the time assumed that if they legislated against it then people (women especially) would then become aware that it existed and would be more likely to try it. In addition to this the social ideals governing women’s sexuality and sex in general were such that women were expected to not have a strong enough sex drive to even consider engaging in sexual acts with other women and it was also considered physically impossible for women to actually have sex with each other.  

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More to come soon...

No wants to sell their body for money but there was no other choice because there were no job opportunities within the slums. Some of these women were forced into sexual slavery due to their circumstances.When it comes to social purity why is a women expected to model exemplary behavior whilst men pose a constant threat to the well being of some poor women?

I am always interested in finding out what else was happening in the world during certain parts of the Victorian period, namely points in the Victorian era where injustices like the following were acceptable.

According to Jurgen Osterhammel the Post Imperialistic period in Victorian Britain there was a belief that strong nations needed living space to escape the danger of resource shortage that came along with overpopulation, and so in exercising this imperialistic rite of passage they Britain had the ability to “inadequately” commandeer Native land in places like: Australia, Africa, and Scotland just to name a few.

The above example is what I like to refer to as confiscation of property without due process 

Why?: For reason that the less efficient beings are genetically/ racially inferior peoples.

With this perspective in view we can see why in Victorian Britain a woman who was not a member of the elite class did not have her rights weren’t protected by the detectives and local constables. 

Essentially what we have here is a link between sexuality and global power. Outside of that Victorian sexuality politics were being shaped by men who had no idea what some of these women experienced or endured throughout course of their poor lives. 

This is where the elites decided that if a woman had no money then she would be left to fend for herself. To add to women’s burden there was a shortage of opportunities to earn generate steady income within the slums that she lived in.

With the contagious disease act of 1864 sexism was in force against these poor women who sold their bodies to make ends meet. Under the contagious disease that Women were allowed to be harassed by police detained and even taken into custody and held under lockdown supervision for nearly a month just because of suspicion that she was a prostitute.