Industrial Revolution and the Crime Conundrum Essay

This is where the abolitionist approach comes in. The term ‘crime’ when used with reference to the abolitionist position should be understood as ‘social conflict’, an ‘accident’ or a ‘problematic event’ from this point in the essay, as abolitionist believe in the reconceptualising of the notion of crime. Abolitionism emerged in the 1960s as an anti-prison movement, it was viewed as a way of reconstructing the social control of crime and deviance (Cohen, 1985). It holds that the role of the criminal justice system should be reduced drastically, and other methods of dealing with deviant behaviour should be adopted. The aim of this approach was to reduce the level of suffering offenders face, pushing for the state and society to rethink punishment and consider the human involved. They see crime as the result of social order and fail to see how punishment is an appropriate reaction. The view here is that there should be minimal involvement in personal lives of individual, but a central focus on care for all members of society. Seeing more importance in reconciliations, as a way to restore both the criminal and the victims of crime within society. Concerning themselves with the integrity and dignity of these individuals in society. The belief within the abolitionist approach is that threatening or punishing criminals is ineffective, sanctions clearly do not work and reoffending rates support this, making offenders feel oppressed and marginalising them within the community only

Evidence suggests that the meaning attached to criminal acts influence the reporting, recording and legal consequences. For example, quantitative evidence or data demonstrates a substantial increase in crime until 1995 and an apparent slight decrease since then (Maquire, 1997, p.158). Qualitative evidence questions this by suggesting that crime is greatly under-reported for reasons such as the feeling that the crime was not serious enough. In contradiction, Maguire (1997) suggests that there is an increased reporting of crimes, for example, through having greater access to a telephone. In relation to conviction, Eitzen (1986, p.427) demonstrates that white-collar crime and street crime carry different legal penalties, thus illustrating the different meanings they hold.

Overcrowding in British cities was extreme during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution for factories, and this led to the need of a labor force. These factors caused the level of population to grow, which caused large cities to develop very quickly, this was the main reason for overcrowding. The rapid population growth caused some serious problems in Britain. The demand for workers in factories caused people to leave small towns and farms to find employment in the cities. This changed Britain from an agriculture based to an urban focussed nation. The lack of adequate sanitation meant diseases spread quickly from poor conditions and unhygienic streets and work areas. The diseases killed many children and

The city of London was a city of surprising sights. The streets were horribly overcrowded slums where people lived in the worst conditions imaginable. The population rose during the 19th century, from about 1 million in 1800 to over 6 million a century later. This growth far exceeded London's ability to look after the basic needs of its citizens. The sanitation was gruesome and was full of human and animal waste causing lots of infectious diseases such as typhoid and cholera which spread quickly due to the cramp conditions.

Crime in the Victorian Era During the 1800’s crime was a rising concern for many residents of the British Empire, crime scene investigation was greatly lacking and tedious. During this time tracking down culprits was the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack. Crime was one of the common events in the Victorian era, it occurs at least once or more in a day. Most people who commit crime have reasons of committing it in the first place though not all get away peacefully. As evident in many Victorian works, Crime was a means of survival and escape for those who encountered an obstacle in the Victorian society.

Crime was widespread and very common in the poorest working classes because the people of those classes did not get paid enough money for their work in order to support themselves and their families. During the Victorian Age in England, juvenile crime rates were elevated. Committed criminals and children, even

It is interesting to note that during hard times crime increases. Particularly, periods of high inflation, or unusually cold

While popular belief is that the British Industrial Revolution laid the foundation for the modern economy and was perhaps the most prosperous time in history, an analysis and further combination of data on human heights, urban populations, morality rates and disease popularity during that time provide a different picture that supports a more pessimistic view of the Industrial Revolution. When attempting to understand the forces of change operating in an economy, it is important to looks at the four metrics mentioned above (height, crowding, morality and disease) because they are all crucial functions of the real standard of living equation.

Crime rates have moved in parallel in Western social orders subsequent to the late Middle Ages. Murder rates declined from 20 to 100 for every 100,000 populace in Western Europe to one for every 100,000 in most Western nations by the start of the twentieth century. Crime rates in real urban communities and in nations tumbled from the mid nineteenth century until the center of the twentieth. From the 1960s to the 1990s, rates for savage and property crimes ascended in all well off Western nations. From that point forward, rates in all have fallen precipitately for murder, thievery, auto robbery, and other property crimes. The examples show up in both police and exploitation information. Rates for nonlethal roughness have fallen forcefully in the English-talking nations and parts of mainland Europe. In different parts of Europe, nonlethal viciousness has been steady or expanding, however the information are most likely off-base.

Primarily, the Industrial Revolution had a huge effect on urbanizing the rural population and sharply changing living conditions. Although this was experienced in Austrian, French, and German lands to a lesser extent, the best example of this explosion in growth is attributed to Britain, whose urban population in London alone doubled to a total of 2,363,000 people in 50 years, while the number of major cities (having between 50,000 and 100,000 residents) tripled. To put this in context relative to the rest of the populace, the percentage of people living in towns had skyrocketed to 27.5% by 1801 (compared to 13.5% in 1670), while the total population of England and Wales increased from 5.5 million in 1700 to roughly 14 million by 1831. Moreover,

By this time, many more factories had been implemented and the coal business had taken off, thanks to the new steam engines that ran off of coal and steam rather than the kinetic energy from river water. As such, more workers were needed to fuel the booming industries. Business owners had decided that hiring children and women was much cheaper than the grown men in the city. They worked for lower wages, fit in smaller spaces, and endured depressing conditions, which made them much more affordable and efficient. Men, now jobless, looked to alcohol for comfort as their wives and children went to work. This lead to one of the first times in England’s history that debauchery was a problem for society. Crime rates rose, and new jails had to be constructed to hold all of the murders, thieves, and various other criminals which had done something stupid while under the influence. Around the same time, new railroad systems were built, providing faster transportation to the public. This meant that a work force was needed to construct all the differing branches around the cities and surrounding countryside. More people flooded into these areas to fill this role, requiring more tenements and houses. After the railroad was finished, these people found jobs, either at newer or pre existing factories. By 1838, the influx of people and jobs had worsened

In this essay I will unpack three motives of why crime has been posited to be a social construction rather a reality in itself autonomous or neutral.

During the last four decades, the study on the economics of crime has become a new economics field to appeal more economists. The first previous literature attempts systematically to introduce the potential correlation between the crimes rates and the business cycle in the 19th century can be seen in Thomas (1925). There are existing weak negative correlations between the various crime and the business cycle, but positive correlation between drunkenness and the business cycle after examining data on the economic situation and the rates of crime and suicide in the UK, as she claims. This statement is confirmed by Radzinowicz (1941), who analyses Poland data and concludes that the rates of suicide has an inverse relation with unemployment. Nonetheless,

At the beginning of the nineteenth century during the Victorian era, London was the largest city in Europe. During this period and mainly due to the effects of the Industrial Revolution, a great many innovations and developments were taking place in all areas of society. The industrial revolution changed families and lifestyles and also made a huge impact on the conditions living there as well. The classes were divided during this era to poor working-class, middle-class and most well-off Victorians. Industrialization drew a large numbers workers away from their homes and into large cities which caused the population to be increased at an unprecedented rate, crowding them into miserable housing, which spurred a high demand for cheap housing and slums. The workers were subject to the dangerous, hard jobs and low pay. Industrialization brought about a number of changes in society, economic and art. The huge impact was on the society whereas no longer had an appropriate moral, ethical and spiritual. Critics and intellectuals such as Augustus Welby

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales(CSEW,2013), shows the illegality incident (all crime, acquisitive crime and violent crime) during year 1981 to year 2013. It suggests that for all crime, there were slightly increase from 1981 to 1990 (11000 to 15000), achieved at the peak in year 1995(19000) and generally dropped to 90000 in year 2013. While the violent crime has the lowest crime rate throughout years in an average of 30000; acquisitive crime was