Very Useful Method The Police example essay topic

Jack The Ripper Coursework Question 1 Source A, which is part of an article in the East End Observer describing the murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls. We learn from source A that the murders were brutal as the source tells us that the ripper uses an 'excess of effort' in the killings. The source tell us that the victims; Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls were very poor, "the victims have been of the poorest of the poor". This suggests that the murderer is targeting poor women in the east London area. The content of source A also illustrates that the ripper had no clear reason of the murders "no adequate motive in the shape of plunder can be traced" this explains why the victims were poor as their was no motive to be figured out or there may be a motive but the source, which was a popular east end newspaper may be exaggerating to cause fear.

The murders of Polly Nicholls and Martha Tabram were so peculiar, neither of them were mugged or raped, but mutilated. The source also gives us the idea that the serial killer was a mad man "both crimes are the work of a demented being" so this could have been the reason why he had no motive for the murders as they were poor. The newspaper may be trying to add to the panic in the East End of London "the two murders which have so startled London within the last month" nothing like this had happened before so it was bringing along more shock and confusion. source A was written when Jack the Ripper had committed his first murders. At the time the source would have created considerable alarm among the poor East end public. In the Nineteenth Century there was a large poor population. This suggests they were vulnerable victims for Jack the Ripper.

They may have individual experiences that affected there writing. The source is limited to its evidence. Question 2 Source A, Source B and source C all support each other they all show extreme violence. Source A; part of an article in the east end observer describing the murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls "the excess of effort... Extraordinary violence used is the peculiar feature in each instance". source B; part of the Coroner's report of the death of Polly Nicholls "the injuries are made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge". source C; the report of Dr Frederick Blackwell on the body of Elizabeth Stride, "cutting the windpipe completely in two" the quotes about the windpipe incision in source C confirms use of "excess effort" pointed out in source A. Source B and source C were both official reports written by professionals who were investigating the murder Whose job is to report specific details of the murders, based on evidence from the scene of the crime. However source A is a newspaper and the journalist is mainly interested in selling the newspaper and would exaggerate to make their story interesting.

Source A says that the ripper is a "demented being" whereas sources B and C both make the murderer sound like a doctor or a surgeon as they say he has "anatomical skill and knowledge" and source C makes the murder sound like a operation. The murderer uses a knife in sources B and C "how he should use the knife" and "cutting the windpipe completely in two" source A doesn't show and description of a knife being used so source A and source B doesn't entirely support the evidence of source A. Question 3 Both sources, D; the evidence of Elizabeth Long at the inquest into the death of Annie Chapman and E; part of an article published in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nicholls and Annie Chapman, are useful in helping us understand why the Ripper was able to quite easily avoid capture. Source D is one of the very few eye witnesses accounts of Annie Chapman's final movements before her murder, made by a women named Elizabeth Long. Because it says "the EVIDENCE of Elizabeth long", it makes us feel as if this was a police interview, which help the police to understand the last movements of the deceased. This could have been used in court, and therefore we cant really say that the witness was lying about her statement as she doesn't get anything out of it, and any discrepancies in it would be simply down to her not being sure.

Therefore, in that sense, it is quite reliable. However, in her account she is not too sure about the description of the ripper "he looked to me like a foreigner, as well as I could make out" this wasted the polices precious time as they were busy looking for the immigrant population which the witness was not sure about and it could have been someone else. She may not be lying but she could be stereotyping as she could not see the ripper properly, this is evident were it says "as well as I could make out". source E is an article, it isn't quite reliable because its blaming the police for everything by saying that they were careless and didn't pay attention to the investigation "He was referred from one police officer to another, but without making an impression" this can't be an excuse for saying that the ripper avoided capture because the police force at that time was building up and didn't have enough knowledge or technology to track down a criminal. The source tells us about Whitechapel and how the area of the place made it hard for the police to catch the ripper. ".. connected by a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes" this can't really be trusted as the journalist may only be saying this because Whitechapel was a gossip spot at that time with all the crime going on. The source gives an idea that no one in Whitechapel could be trusted, and anyone could have been the Ripper so they had to be careful "Every one apparently containing some headquarters of infamy. The sights and sounds are an apocalypse of evil", this evidence helps us understand why the ripper was able to avoid capture and it can be trusted because Whitechapel at that time had a bad reputation with lots of working girls around.

Source E can only be partly trusted as its an news article and it could be exaggerating to make there story good. Question 4 There were many ways in which the police tried to catch Jack the Ripper. Source F and G give us two different methods the police used to try and catch Jack the Ripper. As Jack the Ripper was never caught unfortunately, many of their techniques were flawed. firstly, the police used leaflets, source F is a police leaflet published after the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Kate Eddoes. These leaflets were posted through peoples doors in the East End by the police. These leaflets were to encourage people to come forward and put people's names who were believed to be suspicious, and any information they had on who the murderer was.

There were however many short comings in this. Already without even reading this source you notice that there is a problem with the police using this form of communication to the public. In the nineteenth Century many people in the East end were illiterate and uneducated, and consequently the leaflets made no impact at them at all as they could not read this leaflet. In addition, there were problems even if the people could read.

The leaflet itself was general. "should you know any person to whom suspicion is attached" it is very universal. To some people, a non-Englishman would have been a suspect. The leaflet is also very general because it contains no description of the murderer or any suspect so it was unlikely they knew the killer "supposed by someone residing in the immediate neighbourhood" it is quite obvious the people of Whitechapel would stereotype as there is no description of the ripper in the leaflet. The government decided not to offer rewards in source G which is part of a letter from the Home Secretary to the mile End Vigilance Committee on the 17 September 1888 "the practice of offering reward for the discovery of criminals was discontinued some years ago because experience showed that such offers of reward tended to produce more harm than good" the source tell us that the government stopped using offers to discover criminals this didn't help, as the ripper was not captured anyway, it wouldn't have been any destruction if they offered a reward for a witness.

However this was not the polices fault it was the government that had stopped this policy. The methods of using rewards would probably not had helped but there was no harm in trying the method out. The police also used the method of house to house enquiries, they asked people about the victims and eventually came to their identity. The idea of offering rewards would have been a good idea in a place like Whitechapel, because people often didn't become witnesses as the police had a bad name, the rewards would have helped.

The house to house enquiry was a very useful technique the police used in the nineteenth Century, as many witnesses came forward with description of the victims and what time they were seen with who could have been the Ripper. The police were endeavoring to track the murderer using the method of using bloodhounds. Bloodhounds were dogs that were very good detectives. The bloodhounds were used by the police so that the animal could find any evidence at the place of murder, this was a very useful method but it wasn't used properly, the police should have kept bloodhounds with constables on the beat to sniff out trouble. This would have helped a lot.

The police increased police on the beat, this was quite effective as there was someone in the streets to keep an eye and make sure the murders didn't take place, this also cut down in a lot of other crimes. The police used another scheme of dressing up as prostitutes, this wasn't really a good idea, as the Ripper seemed to clever to fall for this and it would have been risking the polices lives, but it still was a good idea. The police used witness statements to help them identify the serial killer, this was a very useful method the police had used, it helped them figure out the identity of the serial killer, but a lot of witnesses wasted the polices time "he looked to me like a foreigner" this evidence of source D tell us that due to some witnesses the police wasted a lot of useful time looking through the immigrant population; which was used as scapegoats, when it could have been someone else. There were many techniques the police could not use as it was the dawn of the new scientific age, and could not be used. Like the cctv cameras, fingerprinting, DNA testing and so on, as they were not invented yet.

Question 5 I agree with 'the police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper' because the police carried out a lot of flaws that slowed down there investigation and brought disruptions in them. Firstly, the police were looking for the wrong person, they considered the Ripper was a human butcher rather than an educated person with medical knowledge "both crimes are the work of a demented being, as the extraordinary violence used is the peculiar feature in each instance" this tells us that the media and possibly the police believed that the murderer was a mad man, but in other sources the murders of the Ripper seemed more like a operation made by a doctor, and educated person like a doctor wouldn't do such killings. However the serial killer was reported as a skillful person with a lot of medical knowledge who knew about each organ and were it was situated, source B; part of the Coroner's report of the death of Polly Nicholls, "the injuries have been made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge... no unskilled person could have known where to find the organs, or to have recognized them when they were found. No mere slaughterer of animals could have carried out these operations" this was a reliable report, it gives us the idea that the butcher was very clever, the police should have looked through the doctors residents in Whitechapel, this information could have maybe caused the police to narrow the search down to doctors, but they didn't do so. The police also looked fro the wrong person because they were told the murderer was a foreigner or a Jew, they didn't believe he was a Englishman, which was obvious at that time as people used Jews and foreigners as scapegoats and the people were illiterate to understand that it could be anyone "he looked to me like a foreigner" this also wasted a lot of the polices time suspecting foreigners when the Ripper could have been someone else. The police didn't respond to public fears that any murder would occur or circumstances would get worse for them, they should have sent out information to the public or media about how much they have learnt through their investigation and who the suspects could be, description of the murderer should be told to the public, this would have helped a lot.

Source E; part of an article published in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nicholls and Annie Chapman, "he was referred from one police office to another, but without making any impression" this source tells us that the police didn't care much about the case and they didn't care about the public fears, it seems like they just saw it as a normal case and didn't pay much attention to it. The police used a lot of useless methods that slowed down their investigation, they used the method of dressing up as prostitutes, this did not help because the Ripper was very cunning and wouldn't fall for this, nor would any other man looking for a prostitute, this was a waste of time. The police didn't use any rewards which would have helped them get some information of the Ripper. The police also lacked a lot of training, they didn't use the methods they had properly to go through their investigation, like the bloodhounds, they should have had bloodhounds on the beat with the police officers. If they didn't have any cctv cameras they could have visited places were murders were most likely to happen, they could stay at lodging houses and secretly follow suspicious people and search through peoples houses, but they didn't have the knowledge to do so as they were not properly trained. Not offering any rewards was a bad idea, in Whitechapel the police had a bad reputation "he was referred from one police office to another, but without making any impression" so the public didn't inform the police anything, if they were offered rewards they would probably do so.

The police only had a very small area to investigate as seen in source I which is a map of the East End in 1888 showing the sites of the murders, having a small place for the police to investigate would be much easier, if they put more police on the beat at all times in a small area like this the Ripper would have been captured, it would also help if the police if they dressed up as normal citizens while on the beat. I disagree with 'the police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper' because the police were tracking a very cunning and clever serial killer "no adequate motive in the shape of plunder can be traced" this gives us the idea that the murderer was so sly that he didn't leave any clue to give the police an idea about his motive or why he was doing the killings, the police didn't have much evidence to work with, this is clearly illustrated in source H; part of an article published in the times after the murder of Mary Kelly "not a trace is left of the murderer, and there is no purpose in the crime to afford the slightest clue". The Ripper was very devious and left no clues for the police to work on and give them an idea of the Ripper, the police had hardly no identity of the killer as he was so quick-witted. There was a great public interest in the cases "the two murders which have so startled London". Nothing like this had ever happened before in the East End and the police had to go through a difficult case like this for the first time.

There was mounting pressure to arrest someone for these crimes, the police tried their best but the public and media didn't help, they constantly blamed the police which lowered the moral and self esteem of the officers, the police arrested a lot of innocent suspects due to the media and witnesses stereotyping, this wasted the polices time "he looked to me like a foreigner". It wasn't entirely the polices fault for not capturing the Ripper, it was also down to the appalling social conditions in Whitechapel that allowed the Ripper to avoid capture this is evident in source E which is part of an article in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nicholls and Annie Chapman "the main thoroughfares of Whitechapel are connected by a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes. Every one apparently containing some headquarters of infamy. The sights and sounds are a apocalypse of evil". This helps us understand that it wasn't fully the polices fault, the lanes of Whitechapel made it hard for the police to capture the ripper, and nobody could be trusted as everyone in Whitechapel had done some sort of crime as they had a bad name for something, so basically everyone in Whitechapel was a suspect. The lack of training of the police was completely not the polices fault, it was down to the lack of government funding for the police and its refusal to increase taxes.

The police did their very best with all the techniques they had available at that time, they did pretty well without all the technologies of today like cctv cameras, DNA identification, finger printing or national, organized police force. A murderer who targets complete strangers with no motive at all is still very rare even by today's standards with all the technology.