Internal politics at the Metropolitan Police and the detrimental impact of organisational dysfunction on the 1888 Jack the Ripper investigation
Bleakley, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2512-4072
(2016)
Internal politics at the Metropolitan Police and the detrimental impact of organisational dysfunction on the 1888 Jack the Ripper investigation.
The Victorian, 4
(1)
.
pp. 1-18.
ISSN 2309-091X
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Abstract
The investigation into the Whitechapel murders of 1888 was perhaps the greatest challenge faced by the London Metropolitan Police throughout its history. Failing to catch the culprit – arguably the first modern serial killer – was not purely due to the actions of the heavily mythologised ‘Jack the Ripper’; instead, the investigation was hindered by the internal politics that existed within both the force itself and its relationship with the Home Office. A prolonged feud between Police Commissioner Charles Warren and Assistant Commissioner James Monro led to a crisis of leadership within the organisation that inevitably trickled down to affect the morale and functioning of the investigation team. Monro’s resignation resulted in a vacuum of leadership at the CID, undoubtedly contributing to a lack of direction and mistakes being made by investigating officers. The Metropolitan Police were essentially a dysfunctional organisation that were incapable of forming a united front in order to catch the individual responsible for at least five brutal murders. Research highlights several critical issues that would have – in hindsight – improved the chances of a successful investigation; these include managerial relations, the absence of key figures at critical moments of the investigation and poor decision-making leading to the destruction of evidence.
Item Type: | Article |
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Research Areas: | A. > School of Law > Criminology and Sociology |
Item ID: | 27874 |
Notes on copyright: | Published version: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Useful Links: | |
Depositing User: | Paul Bleakley |
Date Deposited: | 17 Oct 2019 11:58 |
Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2022 21:42 |
URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/27874 |
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