Key factors cards
A.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs case (1834-6) causes public outcry over the harsh treatment
of farm labourers for swearing an oath as part of a Friendly Society of Agricultural
Labourers. The labourers were sentenced to transportation but their sentence was
later overturned.
F.
The Turf Fraud Scandal (1877) led to the arrest and sentencing for corruption of
three senior Scotland Yard police officers. The case eventually led to re-organisation
of detective policing and the formation of CID in 1878
G.
The trial of Oscar Wilde (1895) scandalised polite society but also shocked many
when they read of the harsh treatment her received in the works he subsequently
published, including the Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) and De Profundis (1905)
B.
The trial of Derek Bentley (1952) caused controversy when Bentley was hanged for
being an accomplice to a crime rather than the actual perpetrator of murder. The
case became a cause celebre in the campaign to abolish capital punishment in the
UK and in 1998 he posthumously received a full official pardon.
K.
While he served as Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel (1822-7) he lay the foundations
of the modern police force by establishing the Metropolitan Police Force (1829). He
also reformed the criminal law by reducing the number of crimes punishable by
death and introduced important reforms to the prison service such as payment for
gaolers and better conditions for inmates.
P.
Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) was a key figure in driving through important reforms to
ensure prisoners were treated more humanely. She counted among her many
admirers Robert Peel and Queen Victoria, who granted her audience on several
occasions.
C.
Sydney Silverman (1895-1968) was a backbench Labour MP and a fervent supporter
of the abolition of capital punishment. He introduced a private member’s bill on the
subject in 1956 which was defeated in the Lords despite strong support in the
Commons.
N.
Violet van der Elst was an outspoken and some would say eccentric campaigner for
the abolition of capital punishment. Although a hugely successful business woman in
her lifetime, she eventually died penniless the year after capital punishment was
abolished in the UK in 1965
J.
Albert Pierrepoint was the twentieth century’s most famous public executioner. He
spoke publicly on many TV documentaries about his experiences, notably the
hanging of Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg Trials and the execution of Ruth
Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK. In his biography, Pierrepoint openly
expressed the view that capital punishment was not an effective deterrent, fuelling
the campaign for its abolition.
M.
Charles Dickens attended the public execution of Marie Manning, a Swiss servant
convicted of killing her lover. Dickens described the event as ‘inconceivably awful’
and wrote of the ‘wickedness and levity’ of the crowds. His words were published in
The Times newspaper (14th November 1849) and read widely.
O.
The Whitechapel Murders excited the interest of authors and journalists. Newspaper
sales soared after each grisly discovery. An adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
running on the West End at the time of the murders was thought to have inspired the
murderer. Depictions of the murders in the Penny Illustrated Paper and other
broadsheets often showed the murderer wearing a top hat and carrying a cane and
doctor’s bag – just like Jack the Ripper.
I.
The wave of garrotting which swept the street of London in the autumn of 1862 was
closely documented by leading newspapers and journals such as the Cornhill
Magazine.
D.
In 1842 Pentonville Prison was opened to great public fanfare. With its 520 cells
modelled on Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon design it was inspired by the debate
over the virtues of the separate over the silent system of punishment. Solitary
confinement remained as a punishment until 1922.
L.
The Penal Servitude Act of 1853 introduced penal servitude to those sentenced to
less than 14 years of transportation. When transportation ceased in 1867, penal
servitude became the only form of long-term punishment
H.
In the early 1900s a series of liberal reforms were introduced. Probation was
introduced in 1907. The Children Act of 1908 abolished the imprisonment of children
under fourteen years of age, whilst the Prevention of Crime Act also that year
extended borstal for youths aged 16 to 21 across the country. In the 1930s the
authorities even considered closing women’s prisons all together, but this didn’t
occur.
E.
The Police Act (1964) gave the Home Secretary new powers to supervise local
constabularies and amalgamate forces where he deemed it was necessary