Heroes or Villains?: The Irish, Crime, and Disorder in Victorian England

Abstract

During the Victorian period the link between Irish immigration, crime, and disorder in England was widely regarded by contemporary observers as axiomatic. In 1836 the Report on the State of the Irish Poor in Great Britain devoted four pages to the examination of Irish criminality, noting that “the Irish in the larger towns of Lancashire commit more crimes than an equal number of natives of the same places,” and in 1839 the Report of the Constabulary Commissioners observed that in the towns of South Lancashire, “when large bodies of Irish of less orderly habits, and far more prone to the use of violence in fits of intoxication settled permanently in these towns, the existing police force, which was sufficient to repress crime and disorders among a purely English population, has been found, under these altered circumstances, inadequate to the regular enforcement of the law.”The belief that the Irish in England were the harbingers of crime was by no means novel. With the substantial increase in Irish immigration during the early Victorian period, the host society's widespread belief in the innate criminality of the Irish—and, more particularly, of the Irish poor—formed an integral component of the negative side of the Irish stereotype. Witness, for example, Thomas Carlyle's much-quoted view that “in his squalor and unreason, in his falsity and drunken violence” the Irishman constituted “the ready-made nucleus of degradation and disorder,” or Henry Mayhew's assertion that “as a body, moreover, the habitual criminals of London are said to be, in nine cases out of ten, ‘Irish Cockneys,’ that is, persons born of Irish parents in the Metropolis.”

Conversations in a Crowded Room: An Assessment of the Contribution of Historical Research to Criminology

“…Of course, criminalisation has several dimensions; it can refer to criminalisation ‘on paper’ or ‘in practice’, as well as to the criminalisation of certain actions or groups (see Lacey and Zedner 2017). In these various senses, a wide range of more recent historical studies might contribute to criminological understandings of criminalisation, including research on fraud (Wilson 2014), embezzlement (Locker and Godfrey 2006), domestic violence (Rowbotham 2000; Wiener 2004, pp.170–239), homicide (Spierenburg 2008), drugs (Berridge 2013; Seddon 2010), sex work (Laite 2012; Self 2003), political activism (Channing 2015), juveniles (King 2006, pp.73–142; Shore 1999), the poor (Welshman 2013), and ethnic minorities (Swift 1997). This diverse corpus of research highlights that, in addition to class conflict, a wide range of other factors have contributed towards shifting understandings of crime through time, including changing gender relations, fluctuating constructions of ethnicity, dynamic campaigns of moral entrepreneurship, varying social mores, reforms to criminal law and criminal justice, and developments in scientific knowledge (to name but a few).…”

Idéologies, structures et contingences : l’historiographie de la justice criminelle britannique depuis 1975

“…75 Similarly, the recent rise in the amount of historical work on the last century has shifted a focus on police racism away from the Irish to immigrants from the New Commonwealth. 76 Other important topics are only now opening up: much of the work on criminal justice makes at least some use of the press as a primary source, although (perhaps surprisingly) the systematic study of newspaper reporting of crime has only recently began. 77 Unfortunately, there is no room here to consider many equally significant themes, historical periods and geographical areas.…”

A time line of the evolution of school bullying in differing social contexts

“…This violent behaviour was seen as private, in the sense that it was first and foremost a matter between individuals. According to Swift (1997), this kind of everyday violence was well documented in the 19th century. Swift pointed out that Irish people were the victims of racist violence targeted against individuals and located in urban and often the neighbourhood space in the country concerned.…”