Crime and Punishment – The Victorians
Fact Sheet
Learn about crimes, laws, trials and punishments in Victorian times,
between 1837-1901.
Victorian Police
The Victorian era, thanks to industrialisation, saw a massive expansion of cities and towns,
and with it a rise in disease, poverty and unemployment. In 1836 Reading Borough police
force (below) was set up on Friar Street, with 30 officers. From 1856 Reading had inspectors
to investigate serious crimes. In an infamous case of 1896 Reading Detectives arrested
Amelia Dyer. She was found guilty of multiple murders.
Neighbourhood police
Constables walked a beat around part of the town, making sure there wasn’t any trouble.
Constables were tall, strong well-built men who could read and write. They didn’t have to
have moustaches, but they were popular (picture above). In 1887 metal whistles replaced
rattles, so constables could whistle for help. Handcuffs were used from 1829, there were
even special small handcuffs for children! From the 1840s photographs of people who had
committed more than one crime were taken to identify people, these are now known as
‘mugshots’. These were useful to tell us what people looked like and how they were
dressed.
Crime and Punishment – The Victorians
Fact Sheet
Victorian School
Victorian children often had tough and dirty jobs, like being Chimney Sweeps. The Victorians
wanted to stop children being forced to work and commit crime. From 1876 ‘The Education
Act’ made compulsory for children to attend school until they were 12 years old. Schoolrooms
were tough places and not everyone wanted to be there. Some children who misbehaved were
placed in ‘Solitary confinement’, locked in a room on their own. Tough reformatory schools
were set up for children who had committed a minor crime, like theft, so that they could get a
better life. Boys were taught how to use machines, while girls were taught how to cook and
clean. It wasn’t a fun life: in reformatory schools children could be hurt, have their hair cut off
or their meals reduced if they misbehaved.
Victorian school punishments
All Victorian schools were
strict and the punishments
were harsh. Students could
be caned or forced to wear a
dunce hat for answering
questions incorrectly. If they
didn’t sit straight, a wooden
back board was pressed into
their back. Their fingers could
be tied behind their backs in
wooden finger stocks if they
were caught fidgeting.
Prejudice and the Workhouse
Many Victorians thought that criminals were born that way, and treated children they found
on the streets as criminals! Children could be sent to Industrial Schools, working hard manual
jobs and having only a few lessons. Poor people, many of them starving children, were forced
to go to the Workhouse. Children weren’t allowed to see their parents and everyone wore
dull uncomfortable uniforms and had to do hard labour. Children were even punished for
crying or playing games! Some workhouses were worse than prisons. Reading’s workhouse
was called The Oracle. It was opened in an old Stuart craft workhouse and closed in the
1850s.
Crime and Punishment – The Victorians
Fact Sheet
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned at Reading Gaol from
1895-1897. He was sentenced to hard labour. He
broke stones and picked oakum (old rope) but became
seriously ill and was allowed to stop. He had a tough
time in prison and wrote about his ordeal and the
cruelty of Victorian gaols. These writings are titled ‘De
Profundis’ and ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’
Victorian Gaol
Victorian prisons were harsh and many prisoners were already poor and unhealthy when
they arrived. Some prisoners were sentenced to hard labour, they had to do tough
physical work. They were made to turn a crank, a heavy metal handle or walk on
treadmills hundreds of times a day as punishment. Prisoners could be hurt or have their
food taken away for misbehaving. Some children were imprisoned with grown-ups:
Warder Martin, a prison guard at Reading Gaol, was sacked in 1895 for giving a sick child
food. From 1850-1900 a series of Acts, laws in parliament were passed to improve prison
life and rehabilitate prisoners, help them settle when they were released from prison.
Borstals, prisons for young offenders, were also introduced.
Reading Gaol was built in 1844 by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonythorn Moffatt.
Prisoners were locked in their cells for nearly every hour and were not allowed to see
people: it was called the ‘Separate System’. There was a library and an exercise yard, but
outside their cells inmates they wore a cap to cover their face and were not allowed to
talk, this was called the ‘Silent System’. When they arrived at the gaol, prisoners had a cold
bath, their hair was cut off and they were given a rough grey suit.
