Empirical Evidence in the Age of Empire

The Victorians valued empirical evidence in much the same way as it if valued today, as a way of measuring, dispassionately, an objective standard, ' what I want...' says Mr Gradgrind in Hard Times 'is facts.'  There was a prevalence, during the period, of the publication of statistics in magazines and periodicals for public consumption.  

There is a difficulty with these statistics because of the problems of ascertaining the truth behind them.  It is hypothesized that a significant portion of modern crimes go unreported, and statisticians posit that a significantly higher portion of Victorian crime also went unreported to the police.  One statistician posited that London crime statistics during the period are at least 50% higher than recorded.  

There is also the complex issue of identity, the number of individual offenders may well be lower than reported because of the extensive use of aliases.  The severe sentencing practices meant that many offenders went to great lengths not to be associated with their past misdeeds.  As Reverend J.W. Horsley noted in his 1887 book, Jottings from Jail:

            We take very little notice of names and ages in prison, as from various reasons they are apt to alter with each entrance.  Thus Frederick Lane, 15, has just been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.  He has previously been in custody as Alfred Miller, 15, John Smith, 16, John Collins, 16, John Kate, 16, John Klythe, 17, John Keytes, 17.  

As the Quarterly Review 1874 found that:

...our readers in comparing the numbers of criminals in more recent years with those of an earlier period must...remember the additions which have been made to the population of the country.  The number of criminals is not much more than half in 1873. out of 23 millions of people, of what it was in 1841, out of 16 millions...In other words, whilst the growth of population has been nearly 45%, crime has actually diminished by about 25%. 

Frederick Engles (1820-95) blames the rise and expansion of the proletariat in industrial towns like Manchester and London for the rise in crime statistics from 1805 to 1842.  The Condition of the Working Class in England, (1844/45) by Engles, found that in 1805 there were 4,065 crime reported in England and Wales, but by 1842, 4,497 arrests were made in Lancashire alone, and 4,094 in Middlesex, including London.  The reported arrests for these two regions formed a quarter of the entire crime statistics for the country but their populations did not form a quarter of the entire population of England and Wales.  

However, from 1848 on-wards there was an almost year on year fall in those committed to penal custody, with the exception in 1854.  This fall is posited as the result of the higher level of police control during the period, their expanded powers and effectiveness facilitating a fall in penal sentences and crimes committed.   

Quarterly Review, October 1874

By 1840 the number of police officers employed by the Metropolitan Police force has risen to over 3,500 and police powers had been expanded inline with social needs, as the Judicial Statistics 1856-1873 reflects:

The commitments for trial in ...1856 show an unprecedented decrease...this must...be largely attributed to the extended powers of Justice of the Peace [i.e Magistrates] to deal summarily in cases of larceny under the Criminal Justice Act 1855.