'The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper' Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Jack The Ripper Coursework- Question Five- 'The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper' Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view.

In my opinion I disagree with this statement 'The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper. This is because we are dealing with a nineteenth century police force and not one of the twenty- first century. In modern times, forensic science deals with analysis of blood samples, DNA, ballistic, fibres, glass and pain, shoe and glove marks and many other scientific applications. The police force at the time of the Jack the Ripper investigations did not have the benefit of such sophisticated methods.

Firstly we know much more about the victims than the police did at that time. Two, Mary Kelly and Francis Coles were attractive young women in their mid - twenties. The rest were middle- aged but few looked their years. It is interesting to note that police and press estimates of age, based on appearance were consistently misjudged by making them younger than they are known to have been. All the victims came from work-class parents, virtually all the