{"id":4114,"date":"2026-09-17T10:55:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:55:30","slug":"stop-thief-investigating-the-influence-of-criminal-representations-on-londons-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=4114","title":{"rendered":"Stop Thief! Investigating the influence of criminal representations on London\u2019s imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frankie Raine’s dissertation looked at how perceptions of crime in the nineteenth-century were influenced by sensationalist literary and media representations, contrasting the depiction of men involved in the mid-Victorian garrotting panic, with those of female prostitutes accused of theft. She found that the impact of literary and journalistic depictions on public understanding was mixed, intersecting in a more complex way with on pre-existing gender and class expectations. Below, she describes her research process, and gives some tips for future dissertation students. Frankie’s supervisor was Professor Brad Beaven<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The abundance of media sources detailing crimes and the criminals convicted of carrying them out has long been a cause of amusement and fear to their consumers. [1]<\/a> Whilst the \u2018whoddunit\u2019-style mystery has recently infiltrated digital fields, its saturation in Victorian fictional tales and news columns has been a new source of interest for scholars seeking to determine the media\u2019s impact on perceptions of crime. [2]<\/a> My dissertation aimed to broaden current historiographical understandings by studying the impact street criminal representations across Victorian print culture had on understanding of crime across London.<\/p>\n

\"Scene<\/a>

https:\/\/nationalleathercollection.org\/spotlight-on-anti-garrotte-collars\/ Originally published in the Illustrated Police News 7 August 1880.<\/p><\/div>\n

Much of my degree focus has revolved around social and cultural history, stemming from a passion for studying the materialisation of human experiences, alongside a growing interest in modern history, derived from the explosion of multiple globalising events, such as industrialisation and decolonisation. Therefore, my dissertation became an opportunity to combine these interests. At first, I intended to explore examples of informal nineteenth-century justice, such as vigilantism. However, following initial research it became clear this topic faced limited source accessibility. As a result, I expanded my core concept to explore how and if Victorian Londoners\u2019 perceptions of crime were influenced by popular prints.<\/p>\n

My research began with the broader contextualisation of the nineteenth century. This helped me better understand the Victorian world and identify gaps in historiography for further exploration. For example, much research examining real-world effects related to the absorption of criminal representations, are often reductionist, focusing on political rather than social effects. Consequently, this dissertation aimed to provide a more comprehensive investigation surrounding the relationship between print culture and public perception. Besides shaping the format and focus of my main research question, these readings also helped create a methodological framework, such as selecting which books and newspapers to consult. It also addressed the more challenging measurement of accessing public perception and understanding. Critical analysis of historians works regarding human understanding, revealed language as a useful indicator. Therefore, court statements, trial records and social investigator reports were the most appropriate sources for providing an insight into Victorian minds on crime.<\/p>\n

After exploring current historiographical works and a methodological framework, which set-up Chapter One, I initially intended the rest of my research to compare the influence of representations of thieves to murderers. However, under the guidance of my supervisor it became clear neither theme could adequately be covered given the word count. Therefore, I decided to compare gendered stereotypes of thieving criminals across Victorian culture on shaping linguistic responses and understandings of crime, instead, as this category of crime is often under-researched.<\/p>\n

In the mid-nineteenth century Britain witnessed two moral panics surrounding the perceived epidemic of garrotte robberies.[3]<\/a> These were violent assaults, which were often, but not always, assumed to be committed by men using surprise and strangulation as their method of attack.[4]<\/a> Due to their assumed male identity, the garrotte robber became Chapter Two\u2019s focus. In order to achieve a direct comparison, I needed to identify a popular female street criminal stereotype. Inspired by Piper and Emsley\u2019s work on the perceived gendered segregation of criminal activity, I chose to investigate the influence of prostitute thieves\u2019 profiling.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Extract<\/a>

Extract of Trial Record in The Old Bailey Proceedings for charge of violent therft involving garotting, 13th December 1858. Last accessed 25th July 2026. https:\/\/www.oldbaileyonline.org\/record\/t18581213-116?text=garotte.<\/p><\/div>\n

The final step to completing the dissertation was also the most challenging- the editing. Throughout my four years I have evolved a writing style which enabled me to start my essays, however reworking and word count were a forever struggle! The dissertation was no exception, but by sticking to a routine which focused on rewriting elements little and often, my final submission became a less overwhelming experience.<\/p>\n

Whilst the dissertation was a flexible and information-led process, it became clear that it was also important to consider my approach outside the research and writing. For example, I produced a visual tracker to better identify all the elements of the dissertation, how far I had to go and indicate how far I\u2019d already come. Keeping in mind the bigger picture kept me motivated, which complimented the tracker\u2019s ability to break the process into smaller chunks, which made it seem more achievable.<\/p>\n

\"Engraving<\/a>

Frankie’s third chapter looked at perceptions of Victorian prostitutes caught stealing, The Great Social Evil, Punch, 1857.<\/p><\/div>\n

Overcoming challenges also appeared in the findings too. I went into this dissertation with an assumption of what I would find and when this wasn\u2019t the case, I was faced with excitement or panic. Critical analysis identified that both male garrotte robbers and female prostitute thief identities were constructed with strong resonances to Victorian class and gender expectations. Victorian novelists and journalists used animalistic metaphors for shaping street thieves as members of the criminal class. Print culture unified class and street crime through urban imagery, to frame street thieves as villains. For garrotte robbers, the city was narrated as an evolutionary trigger across both novels and newspapers, envisaging industrialisation as responsible for evolving the rural chivalrous highwayman, into a new aggressive identity. Prostitute thieves were linked to the disease, disorder and dirty of city slums, characterising their degeneration through descriptions of their unsanitary physical and living conditions.<\/p>\n

However, these characters had mixed effects on public understanding of these crimes. Therefore, my research focus needed to extend beyond factors influencing the creation of criminal representations and also consider if it effected their ability to permeate into real life understandings. Journalists and novelists needed to supply crime stories which complemented rather than fundamentally changed established understandings of crime. This explains why the highwaymen-turned garrotter grounds well in public imagination, as it evolves pre-existing class and gender perceptions. Attempts to depict prostitute thieves as maternal figures with public agency proved too radical for prescribed gender norms. Representations of prostitute thieves were far more distorted due to concerns not to incriminate the victim prosecutor for taking part in illicit sexual activities.<\/p>\n

Three elements came to light; gender expectations, class prejudices and writing genre. Combined, these factors shaped a variety of response patterns which ultimately contributed a more complex landscape regarding the interactions between print and public perception. Print representations could be powerful, conditional on the alignment of multiple dependencies based on gender, class and genre.<\/p>\n

This concluding section details a few tips I learnt along the way which helped make the dissertation a positive experience for me! This advice is dedicated to those who supported and inspired me along the way and for future final years! \u2013 You\u2019ve got this.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It\u2019s okay if the research changes shape and isn\u2019t going where you wanted, this leads to the most exciting findings.<\/li>\n
  2. Keep a record of your references from the start and add them as you write.<\/li>\n
  3. Lean on the support systems in place whether that\u2019s the academic tutors, your supervisor, friends or family!<\/li>\n
  4. Ensure you have something to look forward to during and after submission. You\u2019ll hit milestones throughout and recognising the smaller wins makes a big difference. For me this looked like exploring new bake and brunch places.<\/li>\n
  5. Create a routine- this helped make the dissertation feel more like a habit and the work soon builds up so in a bad week your future self will thank you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Rob White and Daphne Habibas, Crime and Society,\u00a0<\/em>(Oxford University Press, 2005), 1.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> R. Sindall, \u201cThe London\u00a0Garotting\u00a0Panics of 1856 and 1862,\u201d\u00a0Social History, <\/em>12 no.3 (1987): 351\u201359,\u00a0 at 351.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> E. Godfrey, Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature: Duelling with Danger<\/em>, (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2010), 22, 35.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Piper, \u201cVictimization Narratives and Courtroom Sexual Politics: Prosecuting Male Burglars and Female Pickpockets in Melbourne, 1860\u20131921,\u201d765; Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England:1750 \u2013 1h900<\/em>, (Routledge, 2010), 99-100.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Frankie Raine’s dissertation looked at how perceptions of crime in the nineteenth-century were influenced by sensationalist literary and media representations, contrasting the depiction of men involved in the mid-Victorian garrotting panic, with those of female prostitutes accused of theft. She found that the impact of literary and journalistic depictions on public understanding was mixed, intersecting in a more complex way with on pre-existing gender and class expectations. Below, she describes her research process, and gives some tips for future dissertation students. Frankie’s supervisor was Professor Brad Beaven. The abundance of media sources detailing crimes and the criminals convicted of carrying them out has long been a cause of amusement and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[554,947,734,17,314,528,948],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning_in_focus","category-research-in-focus","category-uncategorized","tag-crime","tag-garrotting","tag-media","tag-nineteenth-century","tag-popular-culture","tag-prostitution","tag-theft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4128,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}