A Rotten Apple or a Diseased Orchard? Corruption and the Metropolitan Police since 1829

Event information

In this talk Clive Emsley looks at colourful, bent coppers over the 19th and 20th centuries such as Charles King, who ran a gang of juvenile pickpockets in Dickens’s London, and George Goddard, who organised the Vice Squad in the West End during the 1920s - but made a lot of money while he was about it. Clive will also explore the issue of police corruption and question whether it is the result of rotten individuals or is systemic in the nature of policing.

Clive Emsley is Emeritus Professor of History at the Open University. He has published widely on the history of crime and policing in Britain and continental Europe, most recently 'The Great British Bobby' and 'Crime, Police and Penal Policy: European Experiences'.

To book concessionary tickets for this event please telephone Bishopsgate Institute on 020 7392 9200.