Victorian crime and punishment

We bring you the facts about crime and punishment in the Victorian era – from Jack the Ripper, who stalked the streets of Whitechapel for his five victims in 1888, to the pick-pocketing street urchins popularised by Charles Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist’. Why were the Victorians so fascinated by murder? Did grave-robbers really steal corpses in the dead of night? Find out more below…

A black and white illustration shows a man in smart clothes slumped in a chair. To the left, a woman in a long skirt and jacket bends over him, taking his pocket watch from him

Victorian Britain's fearless female felons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The school for girls imprisoned at Tothill Fields in the late 1850s. A dedicated schoolmistress was employed to teach that institution’s large female population; in other prisons, the matron took lessons. (Engraving from Chronicle, via Alamy)

Reading, writing and retribution: inside Victorian prison schools. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian women gossip at the opera (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The floating hell of prison hulks. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prisoners exercise and play sport in the courtyard of the Fleet Prison, circa 1872

Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain

Workers repair Fleet sewer in 1854. London’s creaking sewer network sparked anxieties over what lay beneath the sprawling capital. (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’

Hallie Rubenhold. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The women killed by Jack the Ripper. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"For those of noble birth who were condemned to die, execution by beheading (which was considered the least brutal method of execution) was used until the 18th century," says criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal. This illustration depicts the execution of Charles I in January 1649. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of capital punishment in Britain

An engraving from 'The Illustrated Police News', c1889, imagines Jack the Ripper

Your guide to Jack the Ripper

A big day in history: Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first victim of ‘Jack the Ripper’ (31 August 1888). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Ripper of our nightmares: 5 theories about Jack the Ripper's identity

The ‘Princes in the Tower’: Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, disappeared in mysterious circumstances following the death of their father, King Edward IV. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

6 notorious unsolved crimes from history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

East End crime. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of a public execution at Newgate, London, late 18th century. (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The LibraryA deadly obsession in Victorian London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ripper Street series four: behind the scenes with writer Richard Warlow

A Victorian murder and a ship that made history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Kate Summerscale. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The wicked boy: the mystery of a Victorian child murderer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Victorians’ grisly fascination with murder. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea in a duel at Battersea Fields. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

Pistols at dawn: duelling in the Victorian age. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

9 astonishing deaths reported in Victorian newspapers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A policeman feels the full force of a blast in this illustration – from the 7 June 1884 issue of 'The Illustrated Police News' – depicting a Fenian attack on Scotland Yard. The Fenians' dynamite campaign of the early 1880s provoked a radical response from the British government. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Victorian war on terror. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.