The police used very basic methods to of catching criminals. There main method was to catch the criminal in the act. This was often unsuccessful, as the criminals would often have left the crime scene before the police had arrived.
The police also began to use dogs to catch criminals. The police believed that working the beat would deter criminals.
In 1850, the police began to carry guns and got the reputation of being heavy handed and violent. There were fewer street crimes, but the number of burglaries went up.
The polices main job was to deal with crime that had been committed, not solve them. In 1877 the Criminal Investigations Department was set up to solve crimes that had been committed. There were only 200 plain-clothes detectives, but by 1883, there were 800. The public saw them as spies, but by the late 19th century England had a low murder rate.
The police force did not yet use advanced methods like forensic detectives yet because the technology was not around yet so the police only had a few methods of catching criminals.
As a result of the Industrial Revolution, England became the richest country in the world. Cities were developed because of this. People moved out of the countryside and into the towns and cities. People became richer and could afford to pay for a better police force.
In the early 1800s, prisons were only used the hold criminals who were awaiting trial. Prisons were not used as a punishment yet. The quality of the prisons was bad.
Over 200 crimes were punishable by death. Another early formed of punishment was to be sent to Australia and South America.
By the late 1800s, prisons use changed. They were used as a form of punishment. Criminals were detained in cells for any time that the jury thought was suitable for the crime. As a result of this, more people were put in prisons. So the conditions of the prisons needed to be improved.
Inside the prison, there were several types of punishment that the prisoner had to suffer.
One was called the separate system where the criminal was completely separate from all human contact for a long period of time.
Another type of punishment called the silent system was used. The prisoner was detained in a cell and was not allowed to speak at all. If they did they were often punished even more.
Hard and pointless labour was also used. Criminals were forced to repeatedly dig ditches and fill them in or to build walls. This labour was often back breaking and many prisoners suffered from injuries.
However by 1895, it was thought too cruel and barbaric to make the prisoners do this so they were forced to get rid of it and prisoners were just kept in cells.
Crime and punishment changed a lot over the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, crime rates were down significantly because of the Metropolitan Police Force and the CID. People also did not want to commit crimes because of the new punishments that were used.
