Crime and Policing in a Seaside Town: interwar Scarborough, 1920-1936

Bradbury, Nicola Jane (2025) Crime and Policing in a Seaside Town: interwar Scarborough, 1920-1936. Masters by Research thesis (MA), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

As a distinctive type of urban environment, the development of seaside resorts and the particular economic and social conditions associated with them has given rise to a body of research over recent decades, examining such settings as a recognized type within the wider study of the urban context. As resorts grew over the later 19th and early 20th century, local authorities were faced with managing a number of competing pressures: promoting the leisure economy whilst balancing visitor and resident interests, assuring the confidence of visitors in the ‘tone’ and security of the resort, and maintaining law and order particularly during the peak times of the holiday season. The case study presented examines the nature of criminality in the environs of Scarborough, a Yorkshire seaside resort, principally during the interwar period of the 20th century, analysing the responses to crime by the police and courts, and examining the lives of those experiencing the criminal justice system as offenders in the aftermath of the First World War. The study makes use of a novel primary source: a Police Photograph Book, (or so-called ‘mugshot book’), dating from the interwar period, containing images of offenders, and documenting personal information, details of offences and outcomes of court appearances.