Jack the Ripper Coursework - failures of the police, living conditions and the character of the killer.

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        Jack the ripper coursework

In the streets of London in Whitechapel between the months of August and September 1888, a disturbed man, given the name of ‘Jack the Ripper’ by the press, brutally murdered 5 prostitutes. His unfortunate victims included Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth stride, Katherine Edows, Mary Kelly and his 1st possible victim Martha Tabram. This essay will evaluate the question ‘Was it the fault of the police that ‘Jack the Ripper’ was never caught’ by looking at the role of the police, conditions in Whitechapel and whether ‘jack’ had medical knowledge. I will asses this by looking at a variety of sources to answer the question.

In this section I am going to argue if it was the police’s fault they were or were not capable of catching murderers in 1888.

Some people believe that the police were capable of catching murderers in 1888. Source 2 shows this by explaining that the police were very loved and happy to help. A quote even says ‘the blue coats, the defenders of order, are becoming the national favourites’ this shows that the police were so willing to help they should have been able to catch a murderer. The quote was taken from a magazine called punch, a patriotic newspaper. It was written in 1851 which means its reliability is little as a lot can change by 1888. It was written to talk about how great the establishment is as it is patriotic and therefore could be biased. However it is reliable as it was taken from a well known magazine. A table taken from the official police records in source 4 also shows that the police were capable of catching the Ripper. It shows how the number of police had increased dramatically from 8 to 294 from the years 1842 and 1884. Also showing the numbers of arrests were dramatically increasing. Therefore we can assume the police were becoming stronger. Additionally with the introduction of the CID, the chances of the police succeeding in catching murderers escalated quickly. The source was written for police records to show the increase of police and arrests and is therefore reliable. However it is not that useful to us as it doesn’t state what the arrests were for. If they were major incidents such as murder, we must assume that they were capable.  

Some people argue that the police force were incapable of catching murderers. Source A1 quotes ‘only 1,383 officers were available for beat duty at any one time.’ Considering the population of London was 5,255,069 there would have been a lack of police and so would have made catching criminals considerably hard for such an overcrowded place. The source is reliable as it is from the government statistics for the year 1885. I can trust is as it is facts and therefore can’t be biased. Another reason is that the police disobeyed instructions as quoted in source A3. This would mean they were incapable as they were disobedient and would not follow instructions appropriately. It was written for an official report in 1885 and so the content would be reliable and fair. However, the information is not that valid to us as it is for the Derbyshire, Nottingham and Birmingham police and not for the metropolitan police force. Although, we must consider that if this behaviour was widespread, it would have impacted on the capability of the police.

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After assessing all the above sources I have come to a conclusion that the police were not capable of catching the Ripper. I believe this because there was a lack of police at the time as quoted in source A1 but also we found from source A6 that fingerprinting and police photographing was appointed after the 1900’s. Therefore they wouldn’t have all the modern technology they have today so it would be unfair to say they should have been able to catch ‘Jack the Ripper’.

In this section I am going to ...

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