What new crime prevention methods were set up to deal with changes in crime in this period and what were the problems?

The BIG QUESTION in this Strand is about turning-points in crime prevention. In this Gallery, crime prevention methods take a great leap towards our present system, with the first police forces. But why did this happen at this time?

During the period covered by this gallery, Britain went through some extraordinary changes. The population rose from 10 million in 1750 to 42 million in 1900. In 1750 most of these people lived in villages in the countryside; by 1900 most of the British people lived in towns and cities. London was the only great city in Britain in 1750, with a population of 675,000 people; this rose to over 3 million. But other places, small rural towns or even villages in 1750, had become cities by 1900. For example, Liverpool's population rose from 22,000 to 450,000; Manchester's from 18,000 to 376,000; Preston's from 5,000 to 92,000, and so on. There were new industries, new forms of transport; some people became newly rich and many lived on the edge of poverty. All these factors brought about massive changes in crime, which you can find out about in Gallery 7.
Crime prevention in Britain up to this period had relied on community action (see Galleries Crime Prevention before 1450 & Crime Prevention 1450-1750. But communities had now utterly changed. How could a crime prevention system designed for villages of a few hundred people, most of whom knew each other, cope with crime in a city of a million people, most of whom had arrived there only recently from all over the country and abroad? What was to be done? Did people agree over what was to be done? And how different were their solutions to the crime problems of their era from policing in our own day?
In the Case-Studies in this Gallery of the Crime Prevention Strand you can find out what the responses were, and how people reacted to them.

Five Case-studies:
1. Sir John Fielding
2. Sir Robert Peel and the new Metropolitan Police
3. Provincial police forces
4. The Growth of the police
5. Complaints and Criticisms

How To Work
1. Work through each of these Case-Studies. Read and analyse the Sources in each. There are HINTS in each Case-Study to help you get the most out of the Sources.
2. At the end of your Case-Study, fill in some of the Gallery Worksheet.
3. Move on to the next Case-Study. You will only be able to answer the Key Question when you have done most or all of the Case-Studies.