Rough Justice

On 5 February 1777 a woman called Mary Clarke was set upon, beaten and thrown into the Mersey. The community was so shocked at this heartless act that Mayor Crosbie set up an appeal for money to help the victim, who could no longer earn a living. Since it was clear that the existing system of policing was not working, a new police committee was formed to sit daily. A curfew was also imposed, with all respectable people being advised that if they wished to avoid arrest they should not leave the house at night. These were worrying times. In 1779 detachments of the Yorkshire Militia were stationed at the town's garrison to keep order on the streets.

Despite such local scares, it was not until the nineteenth century that crime became the national issue it is today. In the eighteenth century there was little sense of media or government concern about the causes of delinquency, no link between social conditions and criminal behaviour. Robbery and violence affected individuals but there was no great public debate about crime. Even into the early nineteenth century, law-breaking was simply put down to a moral weakness in people. When a woman, just released from the Borough Gaol, immediately committed another crime, the Liverpool Mercury enquired whether she was without employment. If so, it was suggested that she might have been driven to commit the offence through ‘absolute want, as well as depravity’.