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Full Description
Liverpool gained a unique and notorious reputation during the 19th century for being an abnormally violent and criminal place. 'The Monster Evil' intends to explore the historical foundations of this stigmatization: were the fears real or an invention of the Victorian newspapers? In answering such questions the book examines Liverpool's violent crime and how effectively it was policed by the newly established constabulary through the use of local and national press reports, contemporary accounts and police records. In doing so issues relating to public acceptance and tolerance of violence and the police will be explored. All forms of criminal interpersonal violence are described and analysed in the context of the city; including notorious murders such as the Tithebarn-street kicking of 1874, the 'wholesale poisonings' by two sisters in 1883 and the killing of young children by other young children in 1855 and 1891. Everyday acts of violence in the home between family members, or in the street, whether as acts of robbery or as drunken unprovoked attacks on strangers or against the police, are also given prominence. An extract on police night shift duty by Liverpool's foremost 19th-century journalist, Hugh Shimmin, is included.
The book, which covers much of the Victorian period, is based on original and extensive research. Through an examination of a wide range of 'typical' case studies and news stories, which exemplify the various kinds of violent crime found in Liverpool, readers will find the book accessible, authoritative and surprising in its resonance with present day crime and its news coverage by the media.
Contents
List of illustrations, figures and tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Street map of Liverpool in the 1880s
Part I. Liverpool
1. Liverpool and the taint of criminality
2. Liverpool: 'The most immoral of all immoral places'
Part II. Policing the borough
3. 'An army to check barbarism': the policing of Liverpool
4. The community and the police: evidence, lies and violence
Part III. Violent crime in Liverpool
5. The fighting Irish
6. The fist, the boot and the knife: male-on-male violence
7. The Liverpool cornermen, gangs and garrotting
8. Female savages and tippling viragoes: violent women
9. Women as victims of domestic and sexual violence
10. 'A constant state of strife': family violence
11. 'Boy brigands' and 'young savages': juvenile criminals and their young victims
12. 'A most unmerciful beating': adult violence to children
13. A conclusion. 'Giving a dog a bad name': Liverpool and its criminal reputation in the nineteenth century
Appendix. Saturday night and Sunday morning:
Hugh Shimmin's account of the Rosehill night shift
Notes
Bibliography
General index
Index of people
Index of street names and places
