Victorian Era

The Victorian era was during the reign of Queen Victoria which was during the years 1837-1901 and lasted a little bit beyond that.   The Victorian period was a tremendously exciting period when many different ideas and beliefs started to flourish and improve.   The law and order of England was one of those ideas and beliefs that took a great turn for improvement during the Victorian Era.   During this time people saw the rise of the police force, and a change in the way courts were established and organized for the many crimes that were committed as well as a change from dungeons to a rise of a prison system.
Before the rise of a police force, most places in England had only an unpaid parish constable to keep order.   That position ended with the Metropolitan police act of 1829, which was established by Robert Peel.   This act replaced the parish constables with the first policemen, known as ‘Bobbies’ in England and ‘Peelers’ in Ireland.   By September of 1829, the first Metropolitan Police were patrolling the streets of London.   There were 17 divisions, which had 4 inspectors and 144 constables each and the force headquarters was Scotland Yard. (McLynn 69) The police force wore a long blue coat and strengthened tall hats, which protected them from blows to the head and was also used as something to stand on to look over walls. Their only weapon was a truncheon, which is also known a baton.   They would also carry a rattle to raise an alarm if that was needed.   At first the quality of officers was poor. Of the first 2,800 new policemen, only 600 eventually kept their jobs.( McLynn 132) The first policeman ever (who was given the number 1), was sacked after only four hours, for drunkenness.   Despite rising crime levels, most counties retained their Parish Constable.   The parish constable was retained in these counties manly because people were concerned about the idea of a uniformed force and feared that the police would be used to arrest opponents of the government,...