In the 19th century, London was the greatest city in the world and "the heart and brains of the greatest empire in the history of the world." It has been described as the symbol of the successes of British imperialism; a city synonymous with wealth, prosperity and morality. Yet in 1888, the crimes of Jack the Ripper were in direct conflict with these Victorian ideals and called into question the true nature of Victorian crime, culture, and society. Between late August and early November, Jack brutally murdered and mutilated five prostitutes in the East End of the Imperial capital. Although he became the subject of an international manhunt, his true identity remains unknown to this day. Perhaps more interesting than his identity, his crimes provide an invaluable means of accessing and analyzing the nature of Victorian society, and assessing the rhetoric of Imperial London against the much darker social reality. This essay will first examine how the murders changed the role of the press, then use the media and reporting of the murders as a gateway to examine reactions to poverty, increased crime, and societal fears caused by a market-induced moral panic. This essay will demonstrate that the reality of life in the East End conflicted with Victorian notions of imperial prowess. One of the main reasons for continued scholarly interest in the Ripper is that his crimes provide a window into the dark nature of Victorian crime, culture and society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Jack the Ripper murders provide insight into the changing role of the press in Victorian society and crime reporting. The timing of the murders meant that they benefited from the abolition of stamp duty in 1855, rising literacy rates and improved printing presses. The arrival of penny evening newspapers such as The Evening News in 1881 and The Star in 1888 promoted the accessibility of journalism by making it affordable, but was often ridiculed for its use of sensationalism and emotive language. Reports often gave "every gruesome detail" of crime scenes in order to attract attention. For example, an article in The Star newspaper from October 1, 1888 describes the double murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. The headline "Murder Maniac Sacrifices More Women to His Bloodlust" and the article's use of phrases such as "hellish demon" and "cold blooded" portrayed the Ripper's crimes as a work of fiction rather than real atrocities. This sensationalism was noted by Jean Chalaby. She said that due to the volume and nature of reporting on the Ripper, "journalists could no longer downplay the phenomenon". Although it reveals an industrialized and increasingly educated society consistent with Victorian imperial rhetoric, interest in the Ripper hints at a society amused by the misfortunes of those less fortunate than themselves. Media coverage of the murders also highlighted interest in real life. crime within Victorian society. This was the case before the "new journalism", which generated enormous interest around cases such as the Red Barn murder, where plays and songs describing the gory details of the victims' deaths were written and sold . Although “crime reporting was not new, what was new were the elements of quantity of coverageand diffusion which naturally accompanied the growing phenomenon of the popular press. This helped to generate increased interest in the Ripper's crimes, as newspapers realized that real crimes generated large profits. Between September 1 and October 20, 1888, the Evening News devoted 82 columns to the murders, or 12% of its total coverage. As interest in the murders increased, Dorset Street tours were also organized and a tacky tourist trade was created. Society was fascinated by death and murder, and the Victorian press exploited the tragedies of the Ripper's victims for popular entertainment. This again reveals a society at odds with both the prudish stereotype of Victorian sensibility and the rhetoric of Victorian empire. Newspaper reports of the Ripper murders provide a useful way of examining middle- and upper-class reactions to the poor. Before the Ripper murders, the concept of the "criminal class" was increasingly discussed by contemporaries in reports, newspaper articles, and popular fiction. In 1883, Andrew Mearns had described the East End as "a vast mass of moral corruption, heartbreaking squalor and utter godlessness", contributing to fears of a truly dangerous residue for Victorian society. Perhaps this is why the crimes of Jack the Ripper provided a unique opportunity for press sensationalism. The murders have become synonymous with the neighborhood and poverty in which they were committed and embody society's existing fears. Conboy argues that this fits the definition of a market-induced moral panic. The press took advantage of existing fears of social unrest and revolution by publishing daily articles on the state of the East End and its synonymy with Jack. Academics now view the “criminal class” as a myth created and believed by the rich in order to dismiss their responsibilities to the poor. Jennifer Davies thinks this "class" was the result of moral panics like this. Notably, the cartoon "Nemesis of Neglect" was released following the double murder and suggested that the Ripper murders were a direct result of poverty in the country. East end. John Marriott notes that this caricature, along with other sensationalism in the popular press, helped to support the idea that "East London was a place of fear, loathing and moral desolation" and thus constituted a threat to Victorian society and empire. Here, the ability of the press to manipulate the situation in order to create a moral panic is evident: the Ripper was not created by the poverty of the East End, but rather by the environment that provided him with both opportunities and victims. As social reformers attacked East End brothels, prostitutes were forced onto the streets. This provided Jack with readily available victims; it happens more often that the poor are victims of crimes. The reality is that the East End was not home to a criminal class but a class of desperate individuals, like the Ripper's victims, who had been left behind in a capitalist system built on Victorian notions of self-help. This illustrates a society rejecting any responsibility towards the lower classes by denouncing them as dangerous, immoral and beyond repair – it did not wish to recognize a class of people at odds with the magnificence of the empire. Despite this obvious moral panic, Drew Gray argues that many of the "new journalists" who wrote about Jack and Whitechapel had..