What effect did Jack the Ripper have on society?

Answer 1

Some of them (his victims) he affected very profoundly - by killing them.

He affected the witnesses to his crimes (especially those who found the bodies) by leaving them with horrific images which they were probably never able to erase from their minds. Others obtained the vicarious kudos of having had a close encounter with a crime which has captured the world's imagination for over a century.

He affected those who were falsely accused of his crimes (and there were a lot of them!) by causing them to be undeservedly hounded by the police, the press and the public, and in some cases causing irretrievable damage to their reputations. At least one suspect committed suicide late in 1888.

He affected the residents of Whitechapel by subjecting them to an ongoing police investigation and all that that entails. No doubt there was a lot of needless suspicion between neighbours, and there was certainly a lot of antagonism stirred up against certain groups (eg. the Jewish community).

He affected the residents of London (and Whitechapel prostitutes in particular) by making them terrified to go out alone at night, for fear that they would be murdered. This probably stopped many prostitutes and other night-workers from earning their normal income, which would in turn have resulted in greater poverty and hardship and therefore greater pressure on institutions such as poor workhouses and soup kitchens.

He affected the police and government of the time by frustrating them in their desire to catch and prosecute him. This resulted in the resignation of at least one senior police official, which no doubt affected his family and household.

Answer 2

Jack the Ripper was a man ahead of his time. There was not much science in the solving of Victorian era crimes. Fingerprints were still a new and often unused technology. Blood typing was still in the future. Trace evidence was unheard of. There were microscopes but they were not used to solve crimes, they were used to cure diseases. Until way after the turn of the 20th century crime detection was primitive and almost non-exsitant. Had JTR committed his crimes today he would have been caught before there were so many victims. His effect on society is a little hard to gage. At the time, the general population considered JTRs crimes as something completely isolated. They had no idea that the future would hold much more of his kind. They were shocked at first but after the buzz died down it was buisness as usual. But post WWII America could not deny the fact that there was a different breed of killer. And the worst kind, the kind that kills strangers, because those are also the hardest to catch and punish.

I don't believe that Jack the Ripper was ahead of his time. I think his story is an old one. I believe that superstitions of werewolves and vampires originated with crimes of this type of killer. Somewhere in the mid nineteenth to early twentieth century, the public and public officials began to look for facts and began turning to science to solve crimes. Jack the Ripper was one of the stepping stones in that process. Many new ways to look at crime were being developed in that era. By 1888, when Jack the Ripper struck, society began to expect more from law enforcement in regard to public safety. Jack the Ripper raised public awareness, which was one of the reasons for the popularity of Sherlock Holmes, created in 1887; a character whose scientific methods fascinated people of the time.

Answer 3

The biggest impact the Ripper murders had actually turned out to be positive. At the very least, these murders brought much-needed attention to the living conditions in the east end. Before the killings, London kept this 'dirty little secret' to herself. But for the first time in history, these crimes were played out in the newspapers on a daily basis. With the world looking on, it was hard to ignore the poor conditions of the inhabitants of Whitechapel. The east end was ripe for reform and reform did come, eventually.

Answer 4

The public and the authorities were outraged at the failure of the police to catch the Ripper, and the Home Office was under urgent pressure to improve the efficiency of the force. (I believe fingerprinting came in soon after.)

Apart from that, the Ripper gave us a mythology that continues to this day, in a never-ending flood of books, films and websites - like this one, for example!

Answer 5

Without a doubt the Ripper murders gave the rest of the world a glimpse into the poverty, desperation and hopelessness that was London's east end. Although most people knew Whitechapel and Spitalfields were not fashionable neighborhoods, few knew the extent of the poverty.

With the onset of the Ripper murders the entire world was focused on this one small area, and they were shocked by what they saw. In a country as wealthy as Great Britian, it was hard to reconcile the living conditions in Whitechapel. Within a few years many of the old, rundown buildings were demolished and new ones put in their place.

Answer 6

The immediate impact was the realization of the horrid living conditions that the people of Whitechapel and Spitalfields endured. Overcrowding meant that the worst of the worst boarding houses and tiny flats rented for unbelievably high prices. Almost no Plumbing, chamber pots were emptied out of windows into the streets and gutters for everyone to walk through. With filth comes disease, many children never saw a first birthday. Adults were lucky to live to 40. Crime was rampant and violence was a way of life.

With the crimes of JTR, there came a need for better ways to detect and apprehend criminals. There were no forensics, Photography had just begun to be used by law enforcement, and preserving a crime scene was non-existant.

And lastly, the use of the press. For the first time the entire case was played out in the press for all to read. Not just in London, or Great Britian, but the whole world. Jack The Ripper was big news everywhere. New Yorker's could barely wait for more news of the killer. I believe it was at least a two week wait, news travelled much slower in the 19th century. The saddest thing about these crimes, as time passes the killer is remembered much more than the victims, these 'throwaway' women of Whitechapel.

Answer 7

A killer such as Jack the Ripper made it quite obvious that police detection was woefully lacking in science. Chances are very good that had the Ripper lived in the 21st century he would have been discovered. At the time though, fingerprints were little understood and rarely used. Blood evidence was basically non-existant. There was no DNA, fiber or hair analysis or criminal profiling. Phrenology (study of scalp characteristics) was in it's heyday and eye witness tesimony was reguarded as an absolute. We now know that eye witness accounts are one of the most unreliable types of evidence and should be accepted with extreme caution. The fact is Jack the Ripper lived out his crimes in an era that lacked the tools to apprehend such a killer.

Answer 8

women were staying inside and prostitutes were staying in brothels instead of the street