Book contents
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables and Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 The United Kingdom in 1914
- Part I Government
- Part II Resources
- Part III People
- Part IV Production
- Part V Social Impacts
- 24 Press and Propaganda
- 25 Pacifism
- 26 Homes and Families in Wartime
- 27 Crime and Policing
- 28 Children
- 29 The ‘Home Front’ as War Front
- Conclusion
- Index
27 - Crime and Policing
from Part V - Social Impacts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2023
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables and Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 The United Kingdom in 1914
- Part I Government
- Part II Resources
- Part III People
- Part IV Production
- Part V Social Impacts
- 24 Press and Propaganda
- 25 Pacifism
- 26 Homes and Families in Wartime
- 27 Crime and Policing
- 28 Children
- 29 The ‘Home Front’ as War Front
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Seasoned London detective Frederick Porter Wensley recorded in his memoirs that he had been ‘much affected by the war … both personally and professionally’. He had experienced huge family tragedy with the deaths of two sons in the armed forces. His work routine had also been transformed: ‘ As the war went on large numbers of the criminal classes were drawn into the fighting services, but on the other hand, there sprang up a variety of new offences peculiar to the time.’1 The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), rushed through Parliament in August 1914, ushered in a wide range of regulations and prohibitions, including restrictions on lighting and licensing as well as the movement of people, vastly increasing the powers of the state. Whilst the number of prosecutions in the courts for serious ‘crimes’ fell, the volume of work that police officers were required to do expanded seismically across the UK.
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- The British Home Front and the First World War , pp. 543 - 563Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023