Combating recidivist crime in London: the origins and effectiveness of legislation against habitual criminals, 1869 to 1895

Abstract

There has been much research beginning in the 1970s regarding efforts of the mid and late Victorian state to control repeat offenders. These offenders were widely believed to be habitual criminals, who collectively constituted a criminal class. The overall image that emerges from the literature is of increasingly organised police forces working with the courts in order to successfully target members of the so-called criminal class for arrest and harsh punishment. However, little is known about the operation of the only two acts of parliament that specifically targeted this group: the Habitual Criminals Act 1869 and the Prevention of Crime Act 1871. This study investigates the genesis of these measures and the outcomes desired by their proponents. It then assesses the extent to which these outcomes were achieved in London, which was the focal point of many anxieties regarding crime and the activities of repeat offenders. An analysis of the available evidence contradicts the widely held assumption that in Victorian Britain the police and the courts willingly worked alongside parliament, with significant success, to repress elements of the working class that were deemed a threat to law and order. Indeed, in London the police and courts did not cooperate closely with the parliament to enforce these acts.