Is it true that murder was uncommon

[jonwilson]

in White Chapel during Jack's serial killing spree? I heard Don Rumbelow say murder was pretty uncommon before Jack struck. I know we don't know for sure, but has anyone wondered why Jack decided to start killing when he did? If he have been a local man, why not kill earlier than 1888? I wonder what triggered him to start killing women when he did. Anyone have any theories?

[KatBradshaw]

You could argue that he started killing when he did due to the fact that this was when the urge took him. I don't know that there is any significance to why then as opposed to why any other time.

I have also heard that murder was uncommon in that time.
This site on BBC History is interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/crime_01.shtml

In particular it has this to say about the Ripper crimes.

The murders of Jack the Ripper in the autumn of 1888 were confined to a small area of London's East End, but similarly provoked a nation-wide panic whipped up by press sensationalism. Violence, especially violence with a sexual frisson, sold newspapers. But violent crime in the form of murder and street robbery never figured significantly in the statistics or in the courts.

[Sam Flynn]

It might not be as simple as we'd like!

One needs to consider a number of factors, and facts, before leaping to the conclusion that Whitechapel (or any similar neighbourhood) was a "murder-free zone" in 1888, or any other year. For example:

1. Not all murders reached the newspapers;

2. Not all murders ended up with an arrest;

3. Some actual murders would have ended up in a verdict of "manslaughter", "misadventure" and so forth;

4. Some murders would never have been discovered - missing persons, nameless immigrants, loners "disappearing", assumptions that X or Y had "gone away" etc.;

5. Not all murders would be reported for practical or personal reasons - e.g. those within the criminal fraternity;

6. Some "intended" murders would have gone wrong (from the would-be murderer's perspective), resulting in the victim escaping and/or only sustaining minor injury;

7. Some officials would on occasion manipulate their figures to make their patch appear less violent than it was.

[Supe]

In 2001, M.B. Emmerichs published a paper, "Getting away with murder? Homicide and the coroners in nineteenth century London," in Social Science History No. 25 in which he concluded that the often cited low murder rates in Whitechapel in the LVP were erroneous and that "murders in Whitechapel were likely more common and typical of other high crime areas in London." The reasons he gave for an under-reported murder rate were much the same as Gareth's. Keeping a clean blotter was important to bureaucrats then as now. I know of several instances in my home town where probable murder or manslaughter were tidily dismissed as "death by misadventure." So much less messy than a murder investigation, don't you know.

Don.

[kensei]

With the conditions in Whitechapel- massive overcrowding of people wallowing in poverty, poor health, alcoholism, competition for jobs, and just a general bad mood all the time- petty fights must have broken out hundreds of times a day. Sometimes a fight goes too far, someone gets hit on the head a little too hard and dies. I can't believe that wasn't extraordinarily common.

[DVV]

Hi Kensei,

perhaps they had sturdy heads at the time...
Saddler would be an example.

Amitiés,
David

[Hunter]

Common?

Hello everyone,

Though crime and even violent crime were comonplace in the East End I believe that most murders were the result of arguments and domestics. John Brown cut his wife's throat in Westminster on the same night that Stride and Eddowes were killed.

The type of killings like those that became known as the Whitechapel Murders must have been rare enough to garner the press coverage that they indeed did- which sets them apart.

While some criminal activity probably went unreported ( though the papers were full of reports of throwing rocks through windows to assaults on cops) I doubt that murders weren't reported - given the plethora of newspapers looking for a story.

Best Wishes,
Hunter

[Pontius2000]

I'm very pro-gun ownership, so don't get me wrong here. but the access to firearms greatly facilitates violent crime. shooting someone is very easy and impersonal. guns make killers out of people who normally would not kill. not many people owned guns in those days. so it is naturally understandable the murder rate was lower per capita than it is today. that's not to say that murder was non-existent. but I bet the murder rate per capita was much much much lower than it is today.

[Jdombrowski89]

I would think that one of the distinctions of the Ripper victims and all is the way they were murdered which distances itself from crime in general around Whitechapel. In the fact that these women were being mutilated,etc, brings it to light that that certain form of crime was uncommon indeed. You didn't have everyone and their uncle running around ripping women from the sternum to the vagina. So in aspects I would have to agree with Sam, but also in the aspect that in terms of mutilation,etc, it was VERY rare, me thinks, in Victorian London. Murder itself with homicides with a lesser extent and degree of death to the victim, to me, is more of a 50/50 issue. Anything's possible.

Regards,
Justin

[DVV]

Anything's possible.

Justin

Especially the fact that murder wasn't common at all.
Hence the "sensation" recently caused by the "Horsnell/nail" case, when it was unearthed and shared by Debra.

Amitiés,
David

[Sox]

With the conditions in Whitechapel- massive overcrowding of people wallowing in poverty, poor health, alcoholism, competition for jobs, and just a general bad mood all the time- petty fights must have broken out hundreds of times a day. Sometimes a fight goes too far, someone gets hit on the head a little too hard and dies. I can't believe that wasn't extraordinarily common.

Which, in the absence of hard statistics, is the basic premise. But, as I am sure Sam will tell you, crime figures are based upon more than the number of crimes committed. Given the social climate, the huge amount of people packed into such a small area, and the absence of firearms to any great degree....I would say that murder was uncommon in the East End of London.

[Natalie Severn]

You would be right Sox.A figure of 146,000 "unfortunates" in the Tower Hamlets alone[which includes the area of the East End about which we write] --- but only 17 murders in the year 1888! Moreover,it has been stated recently in Ripperologist that the French writer Emile Zola the French equivalent of Dickens only he wrote about red light areas too,after visiting Whitechapel and writing many many books on poverty and the the French slums,said the East End,particularly Whitechapel didnt look like a slum at all compared to certain areas in Paris. He wrote that Whitechapel was a well lit thriving place,its alleys and badly lit squares where the slum dwellers lived tucked mostly out of sight .He added that there were however other areas of London where poverty was to be seen more obviously in Covent Garden and Holborn.George Sims who also wrote on poverty stated more than once that parts of Whitechapel were the most vibrant and colourful in London and that he used to love going to Whitechapel High Street and see the shops full of exotic wares and young Jewesses parading up and down in their best outfits etc.
Best
Norma

[Gman992]

A lot of crime was probably never reported or "solved" by a lot of people who "nothing."

Copper: Are you telling me that you didn't see the large, fat man dressed as bright as a clown in the middle of daylight at high noon, as you wearing your glasses, in the town square with all the other people here, kill the large 7 feet tall man with a chainsaw?

Witness: I saw nothing, officer. I didn't see a thing.

People sometimes just don't want to get involved, which is why Mary Kelly's upstairs neighborhood did nothing when someone screamed, "Murder" at 4am.

[Septic Blue]

You would be right Sox.A figure of 146,000 "unfortunates" in the Tower Hamlets alone[which includes the area of the East End about which we write] --- but only 17 murders in the year 1888!

"... 146,000 "unfortunates" in the Tower Hamlets alone ..."

I'm afraid that figure is quite excessive, Norma! It actually exceeds the total number of females (ages 12-to-59) residing in the Parliamentary Borough of Tower Hamlets, in 1891.

The Parliamentary Borough of Tower Hamlets

Whitechapel Registration District / Poor Law Union:
- The Liberty of Norton Folgate
- The Old Artillery Ground
- The Parish of Christ Church Spitalfields
- The Hamlet of Mile End New Town
- The Parish of Holy Trinity ('Minories')
- The Parish of St. Mary Whitechapel (portion within the County of Middlesex, -1889; the County of London, 1889-1965)
- The Liberty of Her Majesty's Tower of London
--- {The Liberty of the Tower}
--- {The Precinct of Old Tower Without}
--- {The Tower}
- The Precinct of St. Katharine
- The Parish of St. Botolph without Aldgate (portion within the County of Middlesex, -1889; the County of London, 1889-1965)

- Total Population (1891 Census): 74,462
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 73,518

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 39.20%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 60.80%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 38,935
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 35,527

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 3,538
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 3,709
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 3,920
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 3,219
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 2,550
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 2,044
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 1,838
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 1,473
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 1,289
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 894

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 24,474
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~23,059*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.

Mile End Old Town Registration District / Poor Law Parish:
- The Hamlet of Mile End Old Town

- Total Population (1891 Census): 107,592
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 110,321

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 26.20%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 73.80%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 52,340
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 55,252

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 5,729
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 5,326
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 5,431
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 4,734
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 3,850
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 3,257
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 2,962
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 2,530
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 2,141
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 1,585

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 37,545
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~35,253*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.

St. George in the East Registration District / Poor Law Parish:
- The Parish of St. George in the East

- Total Population (1891 Census): 45,795
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 47,578

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 48.80%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 51.20%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 23,096
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 22,699

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 2,277
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 2,112
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 2,194
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 1,983
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 1,624
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 1,311
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 1,204
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 974
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 942
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 605

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 15,226
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~14,315*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.

Stepney Registration District / Poor Law Union:
- The Parish of St. John of Wapping
- The Parish of St. Paul Shadwell
- The Hamlet of Ratcliff
- The Parish of St. Anne Limehouse

- Total Population (1891 Census): 57,376
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 62,063

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 38.10%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 61.90%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 29,403
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 27,973

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 3,092
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 2,751
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 2,589
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 2,246
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 1,989
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 1,708
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 1,542
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 1,294
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 1,100
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 801

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 19,112
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~17,875*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.

Poplar Registration District / Poor Law Union:
- The Parish of St. Mary Stratford Bow
- The Parish of Bromley St. Leonard
- The Parish of All Saints Poplar

- Total Population (1891 Census): 166,748
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 166,393

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 36.50%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 63.50%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 84,302
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 82,446

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 9,192
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 7,674
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 6,997
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 6,640
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 5,755
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 5,040
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 4,464
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 3,774
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 3,222
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 2,268

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 55,026
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~51,349*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.

Total (Parliamentary Borough of Tower Hamlets):

- Total Population (1891 Census): 451,973
- Total Population (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 459,873

- Percentage of Total Population Living Below the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 35.95%
- Percentage of Total Population Living Above the 'Line of Poverty' (Charles Booth 1889 Estimate): 64.05%

- Total Population - Male (1891 Census): 228,076
- Total Population - Female (1891 Census): 223,897

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-14 (1891 Census): 23,828
- Total Population - Female; Ages 15-to-19 (1891 Census): 21,572
- Total Population - Female; Ages 20-to-24 (1891 Census): 21,131
- Total Population - Female; Ages 25-to-29 (1891 Census): 18,822
- Total Population - Female; Ages 30-to-34 (1891 Census): 15,768
- Total Population - Female; Ages 35-to-39 (1891 Census): 13,360
- Total Population - Female; Ages 40-to-44 (1891 Census): 12,010
- Total Population - Female; Ages 45-to-49 (1891 Census): 10,045
- Total Population - Female; Ages 50-to-54 (1891 Census): 8,694
- Total Population - Female; Ages 55-to-59 (1891 Census): 6,153

- Total Population - Female; Ages 10-to-59 (1891 Census): 151,383
- Total Population - Female; Ages 12-to-59 (1891 Census): ~141,852*

* Figure for 'Ages 10-to-14' reduced by 40 percent.