CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

If you were to pick up a copy of The Illustrated Police News – one of Victorian Britain’s first tabloid newspapers, which reported murders and hangings in full, salacious detail – you would likely feel that the 19th century was a veritable bloodbath of death and danger. But how worried were Victorians about their personal safety?

“Looking at crime statistics for the Victorian period can only tell you so much,” says Sarah Richardson, professor of history