Name:

Date:

Victorian children in trouble with the law

ALL students will be able to DESCRIBE how children were
punished in Victorian Britain.

Key words:
Penal colony
Middle-class

MOST students will able to EXPLAIN whether Victorian

punishments were fair.

Working-class
Hard Labour
Crimes

SOME students will be able to INVESTIGATE the

meanings of key words from this period.

Punishment
Criminals
Theft

Starter:
What is happening in the source? Fill in the boxes.

Context:
Crime, and how to
deal with it, was
one of the great
issues of
Victorian Britain. In the first place there seemed to be a rising crime rate,
from about 5,000 recorded crimes per year in 1800 to 20,000 per year in the
Extension:
1830s. The Victorians had a firm belief in making criminals face up to their
What
are their ages?
responsibilities
and in punishment.
How would they be punished?

During the nineteenth century there was a steady increase in levels of crime in
Britain. The causes of this can be linked to the industrial revolution, which
resulted in more and more people living in towns, and to an increase in population
levels. In 1800 there were about 16 million people living in Britain. One hundred
years later this figure had risen to almost 42 million!
Child crime shocked the Victorians. In the towns and cities such as a London,
there was a big issue with children stealing from shops and the wealthy middle
class. The Middle class blamed working class children, who were poor. The police
would either punish the child severely, send them to an adult prison or send
them to another country as punishment. They believed children were just small
adults and there was no difference.

Main activity
Read through the four Victorian sources in front of you.
Fill out the table on the next page with the information from the sources.

Main activity

a) How old was Joseph?

a) How old was John?

a) How old was Jack?

a) How old was Harry?

b) What crime had he

committed?

b) What crime had he

committed?

b) What crime had he

committed?

b) What crime had he

committed?

c) What was his sentence?

c) What was his sentence?

c) What was his sentence?

c) What was his sentence?

D) How was Joseph punished?

D) How was John punished?

D) How was Jack punished?

D How was Harry punished?

Extension: Do you think their punishments was fair?....

An action thatand
is illegal Crime
or
Victorian Children
against the law.

PENAL COLONY
1.

A place to send prisoners

to separate them from the
MIDDLE-CLASS
general population.

WORKING-CLASS

This was a punishment in the

Victorian era to punish

prisoners.
It was hard and
HARD
LABOUR
boring.

People who are employed for

CRIMES
wages and often do manual or
labour work.

PUNISHMENT

Professional and business people

and their families.

CRIMINALS

Something you have to do or get

for committing a wrongdoing/crime.
People who commit crimes.
4

Extension Task
Write a letter to the prison officer of one of the children above, explaining why they should be released.
To prison officer of .

I am writing this letter to you because.

Can you give yourself a level for your work today?

What did you learn today?
Is there anything you are unsure about?