The London Riots and the subsequent

actions are a modern continuation of

the Chartist Artful Dodgers...
 “In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the
reward of those who violently take our property.” Isaiah 17:14. No such Old Testament fate greeted the residents of
N18 who strolled nonchalantly away from megastores with arms full of iPod accessories.

 The mistrust of the Police escalate as people appear sceptical as to whether Mark Duggan (whose death preceded the
initial riot) first fired at the police.
 The second alleged culprit is ethnicity. However Tottenham MP, David Lammy has stated that “there are no race riots”.
The 1980s uprising in Brixton, Toxteth and Broadwater Farm were by-products partly of racism that seems to be
missing from Tottenham, in which the African Hairdressers, the Chinese grocery and the Turkish restaurant co-exist in
harmony.

 Tottenham is among one of London‟s financially derelict boroughs, with 10,000 occupants on jobseeker‟s allowance and
54 people chasing one job vacancy.
 In 1846, Walter Buchanan thought that the parents of juvenile criminals „care
no more for their offspring than hyenas for their whelps after they are
 Juvenile delinquency was thought to be a grave
suckled‟, whilst casting his view across to „the low-browed and inexpressive
physiognomy being seen as a „‟true index to the mental darkness, the stubborn
tempers, the hopeless spirits‟.
Beggs was blatant in this view that „the children who constitute the predatory

hordes of the street... And appear almost to belong to another race‟.
 These young, male juveniles were so un-civilised, un-Christian and in some
ways unregenerate that they were pickpockets and scoundrels. They were
often referred to as „English Kaffirs‟, „Street Arabs‟ and „Hottentots‟.
 Worsley calculated that in the last thirty years
 Joseph Adshead proposed that „nearly 7,000
 The image above shows members of gangs in
Victorian Birmingahm (1870). Examples of gangs
were called The Peaky Blinders and the Sloggers.
foreshadowing of political insurgency at the
hands of the lower classes. This was not only
the thought of Marxist advocates, such as
Engels. Political worries and predictions came
to be deeply associated with charity, whence it
was repeatedly believed that philanthropic
moral instruction was needed to be given to the
poor, otherwise criminal behaviour would
inevitably lead to social revolution.
„crime generally... Has increased five-fold‟,
specifically among youth aged between 15 and
20 „who form not quite one-tenth of the
population... But are guilty of nearly one-fourth
of its crime‟ said to be „a feature... of crime in
this country even more alarming‟.
youth are annually added to our criminal
population‟, and calculating from the statistical
data available to such native humanitarians,
Engels predicted an increase in crime between
1805 and 1842.
 There are many factors which contributed to the
outbreak of the London Riots such as the
absence of our political leaders, ethnicity, lack
of Police intervention and social deprivation.
 However, what is more certain is that one must
not sweep its problems under the carpet in light
of the Olympics... If Britain wishes for its youth
to be the future.
 Victorian juvenile delinquency was on the
increase in light of the UK being on the brink of
social revolution. Boys were becoming men, in
the absence of religious affiliation, education,
employment and stability.
 Sound familiar?
 Electronic Resources:
 Sunday Mercury News – Book Review:
http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/08/01/gangs-of-
victorian-birmingham-revealed-in-new-book-66331-26971738/ (accessed 4th
February 2012)
 Telegaph: The Underclass Lashes Out:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8630533/Riots-the-
underclass-lashes-out.html (accessed 4th February 2012)
 Academic Books:
 Adshead, J. (1856) On Juvenile Criminals, Reformatories etc, (Harrison) p.10;
Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, p.160.
 Buchanan, W. (1846) Remarks and State of Juvenile Crime in the Metropolis;
Beggs, An Inquiry, pp. 49-51.
 Pearson, G (1983) “The Artful Chartist Dodger” from Pearson, G., Hooligan:
The history of respectable fears. pp. 156-182, 264-268, Basingstoke,
Macmillan
 Worsley, Juvenile Depravity, pp. 6, 9, 10.