Policing difficulties

• High levels of poverty and unemployment meant crime levels were high in Whitechapel.
• There were also practical difficulties involved in policing rookeries, and pursuing criminals around narrow alleyways and courts with poor lighting and multiple entrances and exits.
• Prostitution was common, and, although it was not illegal, it was seen as a social problem that needed to be monitored. By 1888 it was estimated that there were 62 brothels in Whitechapel and 1200 prostitutes. Women who became prostitutes were vulnerable to assault and rape.
• With no reliable contraception available, abortions were also common. These were illegal, but police turned a blind eye. They were performed in bad conditions that meant many women died from infection or surgical shock.
• Alcoholism was common, and gin was cheap. In just one mile of the Whitechapel Road there were 45 buildings serving as pubs or gin palaces.
• There were also a number of opium dens.
• Some of the violence in Whitechapel was stirred up by gangs like the Bessarabian Tigers and the Odessians, both made up of immigrants from Eastern Europe.
• Gangs would run protection rackets: demanding money from small business owners, and smashing up the shops or market stall of anyone who refused.
• Ordinary people were afraid to report gang members to the police, and this made it very difficult to gather enough evidence to arrest them.