Victorian era#Morality

{{see also|Periodisation}}

In the strictest sense, the Victorian era covers the duration of Victoria's reign as Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from her accession on 20 June 1837—after the death of her uncle, William IV—until her death on 22 January 1901, after which she was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII. Her reign lasted 63 years and seven months, a longer period than any of her predecessors. The term 'Victorian' was in contemporaneous usage to describe the era.{{sfn|Plunkett|2012|page=2}} The era can also be understood in a more extensive sense—the 'long Victorian era'—as a period that possessed sensibilities and characteristics distinct from the periods adjacent to it,{{NoteTag|This is the term used for the period covered by Patrick Leary's international academic mailing-list VICTORIA 19th-century British culture & society.}} in which case it is sometimes dated to begin before Victoria's accession—typically from the passage of or agitation for (during the 1830s) the Reform Act 1832, which introduced a wide-ranging change to the electoral system of England and Wales.{{NoteTag|A Scottish Reform Act and Irish Reform Act were passed separately.}} Definitions that purport a distinct sensibility or politics to the era have also created scepticism about the worth of the label 'Victorian', though there have also been defences of it.{{cite journal |last1=Hewitt |first1=Martin |date=Spring 2006 |title=Why the Notion of Victorian Britain Does Make Sense |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/204106 |url-status=live |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=395–438 |doi=10.2979/VIC.2006.48.3.395 |s2cid=143482564 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030004144/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/204106 |archive-date=30 October 2017 |access-date=23 May 2017 | issn = 0042-5222 }}

Michael Sadleir was insistent that "in truth, the Victorian period is three periods, and not one".{{Cite book |last=Sadleir |first=Michael |title=Trollope |year=1945 |pages=17}} He distinguished early Victorianism—the socially and politically unsettled period from 1837 to 1850{{Cite book |last=Sadleir |first=Michael |title=Trollope |year=1945 |pages=18–19}}—and late Victorianism (from 1880 onwards), with its new waves of aestheticism and imperialism,{{Cite book |last=Sadleir |first=Michael |title=Trollope |year=1945 |pages=13 and 32}} from the Victorian heyday: mid-Victorianism, 1851 to 1879. He saw the latter period as characterised by a distinctive mixture of prosperity, domestic prudery, and complacency{{Cite book |last=Michael |first=Sadleir |title=Trollope |year=1945 |pages=25–30}}—what G. M. Trevelyan called the 'mid-Victorian decades of quiet politics and roaring prosperity'.{{Cite book |last=Trevelyan |first=George Macaulay |title=History of England |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co |year=1926 |pages=650 |oclc=433219629}}

{{main|Political and diplomatic history of the Victorian era|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}

File:Cardiganshire Election ballot paper 1880.jpg, a candidate at the 1880 general election in Cardiganshire (now known as Ceredigion), explaining to supporters how to vote.]]

The Reform Act,{{NoteTag|A Scottish Reform Act and Irish Reform Act were passed separately.}} which made various changes to the electoral system including expanding the franchise, had been passed in 1832.{{Cite book |last=Swisher |first=Clarice |title= Victorian England |publisher=San Diego: Greenhaven Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780737702217 |pages=248–250}} The franchise was expanded again by the Second Reform Act{{NoteTag|See Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1868 and Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868 for equivalent reforms made in those jurisdictions}} in 1867.{{Cite book |last=Anstey |first=Thomas Chisholm |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OrEDAAAAQAAJ&dq=passed+parliament+date+%22The+Representation+of+the+People+Act+1867,+30+&pg=PA169 |title=Notes Upon "the Representation of the People Act, '1867.'" (30 & 31 Vict. C. 102.): With Appendices Concerning the Antient Rights, the Rights Conferred by the 2 & 3 Will. IV C. 45, Population, Rental, Rating, and the Operation of the Repealed Enactments as to Compound Householders |date=1867 |publisher= W. Ridgway |language=en |access-date= 11 May 2023 |archive-date=11 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230511230919/https://books.google.com/books?id=OrEDAAAAQAAJ&dq=passed+parliament+date+%22The+Representation+of+the+People+Act+1867,+30+&+31+Vict.+c.+102%22&pg=PA169 |url-status=live }} The Third Reform Act in 1884 introduced a general principle of one vote per household. All these acts and others simplified the electoral system and reduced corruption. Historian Bruce L Kinzer describes these reforms as putting the United Kingdom on the path towards becoming a democracy. The traditional aristocratic ruling class attempted to maintain as much influence as possible while gradually allowing the middle- and working-classes a role in politics. However, all women and a large minority of men remained outside the system into the early 20th century.{{Cite book |last=Kinzer |first=Bruce L |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=253–255 |chapter=Elections and the Franchise}}

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Cities were given greater political autonomy and the labour movement was legalised.{{Cite book |last=National Geographic |title=Essential Visual History of the World |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4262-0091-5 |pages=290–292}} From 1845 to 1852, the Potato Famine caused mass starvation, disease and death in Ireland, sparking large-scale emigration.{{Cite book |last=Kinealy |first=Christine |title=This Great Calamity |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |year=1994 |isbn= 9781570981401 |page=xv}} The Corn Laws were repealed in response to this.{{cite journal |last1=Lusztig |first1=Michael |date=July 1995 |title=Solving Peel's Puzzle: Repeal of the Corn Laws and Institutional Preservation |journal= Comparative Politics |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=393–408 |doi= 10.2307/422226 |jstor=422226}} Across the British Empire, reform included rapid expansion, the complete abolition of slavery in the African possessions and the end of transportation of convicts to Australia. Restrictions on colonial trade were loosened and responsible (i.e. semi-autonomous) government was introduced in some territories.{{Cite journal |author=Livingston Schuyler |first= Robert |date=September 1941 |title= The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume II: The Growth of the New Empire, 1783-1870 |journal= Political Science Quarterly |volume=56 |issue=3 |page=449 |doi= 10.2307/2143685 |issn=0032-3195 |jstor=2143685}}{{Cite book |last= Benians |first=E. A. |title=The Cambridge History of the British Empire Vol. iii: The Empire – Commonwealth 1870–1919 |year=1959 |isbn=978-0521045124 |pages=1–16|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}File:Défense_de_Rorke's_Drift.jpg during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 by Alphonse de Neuville (1880)]]

Throughout most of the 19th century Britain was the most powerful country in the world.{{Cite book |last= Sandiford |first=Keith A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher= Routledge |year=2011 |isbn= 9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=307–309 |chapter=Foreign relations}} The period from 1815 to 1914, known as the Pax Britannica, was a time of relatively peaceful relations between the world's great powers. This is particularly true of Britain's interactions with the others.{{Cite book |last= Holland |first=Rose, John |title=The Cambridge history of the British empire: volume II: the growth of the new empire, 1783-1870 |date=1940 |pages= x–vi |oclc=81942369}} The only war in which the British Empire fought against another major power was the Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856.{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=A. J. P. |url= https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.13016 |title=The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848–1918 |date= 1954 |publisher= Oxford University Press | location = Mumbai |pages=60–61}} There were various revolts and violent conflicts within the British Empire, and Britain participated in wars against minor powers.{{Cite book |last=Swisher |first= Clarice |url= https://archive.org/details/victorianengland00swis/page/n5/mode/2up |title=Victorian England |publisher= Greenhaven Press |year=2000 |isbn= 9780737702217 |pages=248–250}} It also took part in the diplomatic struggles of the Great Game and the Scramble for Africa.

In 1840, Queen Victoria married her German cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple had nine children, who themselves married into various royal families, and the queen thus became known as the 'grandmother of Europe'.{{Cite web |title=Queen Victoria: The woman who redefined Britain's monarchy |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks3-gcse-history-queen-victoria-monarchy/z73rnrd |access-date=12 October 2020 |website=BBC Teach |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127013659/https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks3-gcse-history-queen-victoria-monarchy/z73rnrd |url-status=live }} In 1861, Albert died. Victoria went into mourning and withdrew from public life for ten years. In 1871, with republican sentiments growing in Britain, she began to return to public life. In her later years, her popularity soared as she became a symbol of the British Empire. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901.

{{Main|Society and culture of the Victorian era}}

The Victorian era saw a rapidly growing middle class who became an important cultural influence, to a significant extent replacing the aristocracy as British society's dominant class.{{Cite book |last=Houghton |first=Walter E. |date=2008 |title=The Victorian Frame of Mind |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |doi=10.12987/9780300194289|isbn=9780300194289 |s2cid=246119772 }}{{Cite book |last=Halévy |first=Élie |title=A history of the English people ... |publisher=T. F. Unwin |date=1924 |pages=585–595 |oclc=1295721374}} A distinctive middle-class lifestyle developed that influenced what society valued as a whole.{{cite book |last=Wohl |first=Anthony S. |title=The Victorian family: structure and stresses |publisher=Croom Helm |year=1978 |isbn=9780856644382 |location=London}}

: Cited in: {{cite book |last=Summerscale |first=Kate |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780747582151 |title=The suspicions of Mr. Whicher or the murder at Road Hill House |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2008 |isbn=9780747596486 |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780747582151/page/109 109–110] |author-link=Kate Summerscale |url-access=registration |ref=none}} (novel) Increased importance was placed on the value of the family, and the idea that marriage should be based on romantic love gained popularity.{{Cite book |last=Theodore. |first=Hoppen, K. |title=The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846-1886 |date=30 June 2000 |isbn=978-0-19-254397-4 |pages=316 |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=1016061494}}{{Cite web |last=Boston |first=Michelle |date=12 February 2019 |title=Five Victorian paintings that break tradition in their celebration of love |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/2948/five-victorian-paintings-break-tradition/ |access-date=18 December 2020 |website=USC Dornsife |publisher=University of Southern California |archive-date=10 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210193513/https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/2948/five-victorian-paintings-break-tradition/ |url-status=live }} A clear separation was established between the home and the workplace, which had often not been the case before. The home was seen as a private environment, where housewives provided their husbands with a respite from the troubles of the outside world. Within this ideal, women were expected to focus on domestic matters and to rely on men as breadwinners.{{cite book |last1=Robyn Ryle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHHz_p-j9hMC&pg=PA342 |title=Questioning gender: a sociological exploration |publisher=SAGE/Pine Forge Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4129-6594-1 |location=Thousand Oaks, Calif. |pages=342–343}}{{Cite book |last=Rubinow. |first=Gorsky, Susan |title=Femininity to feminism: women and literature in the Nineteenth century |date=1992 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=0-8057-8978-2 |oclc=802891481}} Women had limited legal rights in most areas of life, and a feminist movement developed.{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=F. Elizabeth |year=2004 |title="Angel of the House" in Adams, ed. |journal=Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era |volume=1 |issue= |pages=40–41}} Parental authority was seen as important, but children were given legal protections against abuse and neglect for the first time towards the end of the period.{{Cite web |last=Bilston |first=Barbara |date=4 July 2010 |title=A history of child protection |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=Open University |language=en |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202903/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |url-status=live }} Access to education increased rapidly during the 19th century. State-funded schools were established in England and Wales for the first time. Education became compulsory for pre-teenaged children in England, Scotland and Wales. Literacy rates increased rapidly, and had become nearly universal by the end of the century.{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Amy |date=2007 |title=Education, Literacy and the Reading Public |url=https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=27 January 2022 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=The 1870 Education Act |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/1870educationact/ |website=UK Parliament}} Private education for wealthier children, boys and more gradually girls, became more formalised over the course of the century.

The growing middle class and strong evangelical movement placed great emphasis on a respectable and moral code of behaviour. This included features such as charity, personal responsibility, controlled habits,{{NoteTag|Avoiding addictions such as alcoholism and excessive gambling}} child discipline and self-criticism.{{Cite book |last=Young |first=G. M. |title=Victorian England: Portrait of an Age |year=1936 |pages=1–6}} As well as personal improvement, importance was given to social reform.{{Cite book |last=Briggs |first=Asa |title=The Age of Improvement 1783–1867 |year=1957 |pages=236–285}} Utilitarianism was another philosophy that saw itself as based on science rather than on morality, but also emphasised social progress.{{Cite journal |last=Roach |first=John |date=1957 |title=Liberalism and the Victorian Intelligentsia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020631 |journal=The Cambridge Historical Journal |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=58–81 |doi=10.1017/S1474691300000056 |jstor=3020631 |issn=1474-6913 |access-date=2 September 2020 |archive-date=2 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902130752/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020631/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Young |first=G. M. |title=Victorian England: Portrait of an Age |pages=10–12}} An alliance formed between these two ideological strands.{{Cite book |last=Halevy |first=Elie |url= |title=A History Of The English People In 1815 |date=1924 |pages=585–95}} The reformers emphasised causes such as improving the conditions of women and children, giving police reform priority over harsh punishment to prevent crime, religious equality, and political reform in order to establish a democracy.{{Cite book |last=Woodward |first=Llewellyn |title=The Age of Reform, 1815–1870 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1962 |edition=2nd |pages=28, 78–90, 446, 456, 464–465}} The political legacy of the reform movement was to link the nonconformists (part of the evangelical movement) in England and Wales with the Liberal Party.{{Cite book |last=Bebbington |first=D. W. |title=The Nonconformist Conscience: Chapel and Politics, 1870–1914 |publisher=George Allen & Unwin, 1982 |year=1982}} This continued until the First World War.{{Cite journal |last1=Glaser |first1=John F. |year=1958 |title=English Nonconformity and the Decline of Liberalism |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=352–363 |doi=10.2307/1849549 |jstor=1849549}} The Presbyterians played a similar role as a religious voice for reform in Scotland.{{cite journal |last1=Wykes |first1=David L. |year=2005 |title=Introduction: Parliament and Dissent from the Restoration to the Twentieth Century |journal=Parliamentary History |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1111/j.1750-0206.2005.tb00399.x}}

Religion was politically controversial during this era, with Nonconformists pushing for the disestablishment of the Church of England.{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Owen |title=The Victorian church |publisher=A. & C. Black |year=1966 |isbn=978-0334024095 |volume=1 |pages=7–9, 47–48}} Nonconformists comprised about half of church attendees in England in 1851,{{NoteTag|They were a clear majority in Wales. Scotland and Ireland had separate religious cultures.}}{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Dale A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=546–547 |chapter=Nonconformism}} and gradually the legal discrimination that had been established against them outside of Scotland was removed.{{Cite journal |last=Machin |first=G. I. T. |year=1979 |title=Resistance to Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1828 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=115–139 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00016708 |s2cid=154680968 |issn=0018-246X}}{{Cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=R. W. |year=1966 |title=The Strategy of "Dissent" in the Repeal Campaign, 1820–1828 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=374–393 |doi=10.1086/239951 |jstor=1876681 |s2cid=154716174}}{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Olive |author-link=Olive Anderson|year=1974 |title=Gladstone's Abolition of Compulsory Church Rates: a Minor Political Myth and its Historiographical Career |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=185–198 |doi=10.1017/s0022046900045735 |s2cid=159668040 |issn=0022-0469}}{{Cite journal |last=Bowen |first=Desmond |year=1979 |title=Conscience of the Victorian State, edited by Peter Marsh |journal=Canadian Journal of History |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=318–320 |doi=10.3138/cjh.14.2.318 |issn=0008-4107}} Legal restrictions on Roman Catholics were also largely removed. The number of Catholics grew in Great Britain due to conversions and immigration from Ireland. Secularism and doubts about the accuracy of the Old Testament grew among people with higher levels of education.{{Cite web |title=Coleridge's Religion |url=https://victorianweb.org/previctorian/stc/religion1.html |access-date=2022-08-10 |website=victorianweb.org |archive-date=30 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330103435/https://victorianweb.org/previctorian/stc/religion1.html |url-status=live }} Northern English and Scottish academics tended to be more religiously conservative, whilst agnosticism and even atheism (though its promotion was illegal){{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Owen |title=The Victorian Church |year=1966 |volume=1: 1829–1859 |pages=487–489}} gained appeal among academics in the south.{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Christopher |title=Heat and Thermodynamics: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33332-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 5: Energy and Entropy: The Birth of Thermodynamics}} Historians refer to a 'Victorian Crisis of Faith', a period when religious views had to readjust to accommodate new scientific knowledge and criticism of the Bible.{{cite book |last=Eisen |first=Sydney |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-10974-6_2 |title=Victorian Faith in Crisis: Essays on Continuity and Change in Nineteenth-Century Religious Belief |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=1990 |isbn=9781349109746 |editor-last1=Helmstadter |editor-first1=Richard J. |pages=2–9 |chapter=The Victorian Crisis of Faith and the Faith That was Lost |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-10974-6_2 |editor-last2=Lightman |editor-first2=Bernard |access-date=18 October 2022 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019085106/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-10974-6_2 |url-status=live }}

A variety of reading materials grew in popularity during the period, including novels,{{Cite web |title=Aspects of the Victorian book: the novel |url=http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_novel.html |access-date=October 23, 2020 |website=British Library |archive-date=24 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524101310/http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_novel.html |url-status=live }} women's magazines,{{Cite web |title=Aspects of the Victorian book: Magazines for Women |url=http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_magaz.html |access-date=23 October 2020 |website=British Library |archive-date=3 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203044916/http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_magaz.html |url-status=live }} children's literature,{{Cite web |last=McGillis |first=Roderick |date=6 May 2016 |title=Children's Literature - Victorian Literature |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0088.xml |access-date=28 October 2020 |website=Oxford Bibliographies |archive-date=31 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031081053/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0088.xml |url-status=live }} and newspapers.{{Cite book |last=Weiner |first=Joel H. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=628–630 |chapter=Press, Popular}} Much literature, including chapbooks, was distributed on the street.{{Cite web |last=Richardson |first=Ruth |date=15 May 2014 |title=Street literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/street-literature |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422020111/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/street-literature |archive-date=22 April 2022 |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library}}{{Cite web |last=Richardson |first=Ruth |date=15 May 2014 |title=Chapbooks |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422024529/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks |archive-date=22 April 2022 |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library}} Music was also very popular, with genres such as folk music, broadsides, music halls, brass bands, theater music and choral music having mass appeal. What is now called classical music was somewhat undeveloped compared to parts of Europe but did have significant support.{{Cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Sally |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |pages=518–520 |chapter=Music}} Many sports were introduced or popularised during the Victorian era.{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=William J. |title=The state of British sport history |publisher=Journal of Sport History |year=1983 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=53–66}} They became important to male identity.{{cite journal |last1=Maguire |first1=Joe |year=1986 |title=Images of manliness and competing ways of living in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain |journal=International Journal of the History of Sport |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=265–287 |doi=10.1080/02649378608713604}} Examples included cricket,{{Cite book |last=Sandiford |first=Keith A. P. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=199–200 |chapter=Cricket}} football,{{Cite book |last=Seiler |first=Robert M. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=728–729 |chapter=Soccer}} rugby,{{Cite book |last=Sandiford |first=Keith A. P. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=685 |chapter=Rugby football}} tennis{{Cite book |last=Blouet |first=Olwyn M. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=791 |chapter=Tennis}} and cycling.{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Maxwell |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=74–75 |chapter=Bicycle}} The idea of women participating in sport did not fit well with the Victorian view of femininity, but their involvement did increase as the period progressed.{{Cite book |last=Kathleen E. |first=McGrone |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=750–752 |chapter=Sport and Games, Women}}

For the middle classes, many leisure activities such as table games could be done in the home while domestic holidays to rural locations such as the Lake District and Scottish Highlands were increasingly practical.{{Cite book |last=Scheuerle H. |first=William |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=17–19 |chapter=Amusements and Recreation: Middle class}} The working classes had their own culture separate from that of their richer counterparts, various cheaper forms of entertainment and recreational activities provided by philanthropy. Trips to resorts such as Blackpool were increasingly popular towards the end of period.{{Cite book |last=Waters |first=Chris |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=19–20 |chapter=Amusements and Recreation: Working class}} Photography became an increasingly accessible and popular part of everyday life.{{Cite web |date=27 January 2010 |title=Photocollages Reveal Wit and Whimsy of the Victorian Era in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening February 2 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2010/photocollages-reveal-wit-and-whimsy-of-the-victorian-era-in-metropolitan-museum-exhibition-opening-february-2 |access-date=18 November 2024 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art}} Initially the industrial revolution increased working hours, but over the course of the 19th century a variety of political and economic changes caused them to fall back down to and in some cases below pre-industrial levels, creating more time for leisure.{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Bernard A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=878–879 |chapter=Working hours}}

File:NiddMuseum1 Victorian Parlour.jpg|Recreation of a Victorian parlour at Nidderdale Museum, Yorkshire

File:Halfpenny dinners for poor children in East London. Wellcome L0001135.jpg|Cheap meals for poor children in East London (1870)

File:The Leisure Hour. 1855. George-Hardy.jpg|Leisure Hours (1855), depiction of a man resting by George Hardy

{{further|Economy, industry, and trade of the Victorian era|Industrial Revolution|Second Industrial Revolution}}

File:Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield - ILN 1861.jpg, Enfield in The Illustrated London News (1861)]]

Before the Industrial Revolution, daily life had changed little for hundreds of years. The 19th century saw rapid technological development with a wide range of new inventions. This led Great Britain to become the foremost industrial and trading nation of the time.{{Cite web |last=Atterbury |first=Paul |date=17 February 2011 |title=Victorian Technology |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_technology_01.shtml |access-date=13 October 2020 |website=BBC History |archive-date=6 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106232436/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_technology_01.shtml |url-status=live }} Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era (1850–1870) as Britain's 'Golden Years',{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Bernard |title=Britannia's Burden: The Political Evolution of Modern Britain 1851–1890 |year=1994 |chapter=Chapter 3}}{{Cite book |last=Hobsbawn |first=Eric |title=The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991 |publisher=Abacus |year=1995 |isbn=9780349106717 |chapter=Chapter Nine: The Golden Years |author-link=Eric Hobsbawm}} with national income per person increasing by half. This prosperity was driven by increased industrialisation, especially in textiles and machinery, along with exports to the empire and elsewhere.{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=F. M. L. |title=Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain, 1830–1900 |year=1988 |pages=211–214}} The positive economic conditions, as well as a fashion among employers for providing welfare services to their workers, led to relative social stability.{{Cite book |last1=Porter |first1=K |title=The Mid-Victorian Generation: 1846–1886 |last2=Hoppen |first2=Theodore |pages=9–11 |chapter=Chapters 1 to 3}} The Chartist movement for working-class men to be given the right to vote, which had been prominent in the early Victorian period, dissipated. Government involvement in the economy was limited. Only in the post-World War II period, around a century later, did the country experience substantial economic growth again. But whilst industry was well developed, education and the arts were mediocre. Wage rates continued to improve in the later 19th century: real wages (after taking inflation into account) were 65 per cent higher in 1901 compared to 1871. Much of the money was saved, as the number of depositors in savings banks rose from 430,000 in 1831 to 5.2 million in 1887, and their deposits from £14 million to over £90 million.{{Cite book |last=Marriott |first=J. A. R. |title=Modern England: 1885–1945 |year=1948 |edition=4th |pages=166}}

File:Coaltub.png) pulling a coal tub was originally published in the Children's Employment Commission (Mines) 1842 report.]]

Children had always played a role in economic life but exploitation of their labour became especially intense during the Victorian era. Children were put to work in a wide range of occupations, but particularly associated with this period are factories. Employing children had advantages, as they were cheap, had limited ability to resist harsh working conditions, and could enter spaces too small for adults. Some accounts exist of happy upbringings involving child labour, but conditions were generally poor. Pay was low, punishments severe, work was dangerous and disrupted children's development (often leaving them too tired to play even in their free time). Early labour could do lifelong harm; even in the 1960s and '70s, the elderly people of industrial towns were noted for their often unusually short stature, deformed physiques, and diseases associated with unhealthy working conditions.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=W. John |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=136–137 |chapter=Child Labor}} Reformers wanted the children in school; in 1840 only about 20 per cent of the children in London had any schooling.{{Cite web |title=Child Labor |url=https://victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=victorianweb.org |archive-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123112325/https://victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html |url-status=live }} By the 1850s, around half of the children in England and Wales were in school (not including Sunday school).{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Amy |date=2007 |title=Education, Literacy and the Reading Public |url=https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=27 January 2022 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |url-status=live }} From the 1833 Factory Act onwards, attempts were made to get child labourers into part time education, though this was often difficult to achieve.{{Cite book |last=May |first=Trevor |title=The Victorian Schoolroom |publisher=Shire Publications |year=1994 |location=Great Britain |pages=3, 29 |language=EN}} Only in the 1870s and 1880s did children begin to be compelled into school. Work continued to inhibit children's schooling into the early 20th century.

{{Further|History of public health in the United Kingdom|Demographics of the Victorian era}}

19th-century Britain saw a huge population increase accompanied by rapid urbanisation stimulated by the Industrial Revolution.{{Cite book |last=Marriott |first=J. A. R. |title=Modern England: 1885–1945 |year=1948 |edition=4th |pages=166}} In the 1901 census, more than three out of every four people were classified as living in an urban area, compared to one in five a century earlier.{{Cite book |last=Chapman Sharpe |first=William |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=162–164 |chapter=Cities}} Historian Richard A. Soloway wrote that "Great Britain had become the most urbanized country in the West."{{Cite book |last=Soloway |first=Richard A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=617–618 |chapter=Population and demographics}} The rapid growth in the urban population included the new industrial and manufacturing cities, as well as service centres such as Edinburgh and London.{{Cite book |last=Theerman |first=Paul |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=9780415669726 |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=237–238 |chapter=Edinburgh}} Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants.{{cite journal |last1=Kemp |first1=P. |year=1982 |title=Housing landlordism in late nineteenth-century Britain |journal=Environment and Planning A |volume=14 |issue=11 |pages=1437–1447 |doi=10.1068/a141437 |bibcode=1982EnPlA..14.1437K |s2cid=154957991}} Overcrowding was a major problem with seven or eight people frequently sleeping in a single room. Until at least the 1880s, sanitation was inadequate in areas such as water supply and disposal of sewage. This all had a negative effect on health, especially that of the impoverished young. For instance, of the babies born in Liverpool in 1851, only 45 per cent survived to age 20.{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Bernard A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=622–625 |chapter=Poverty}} Conditions were particularly bad in London, where the population rose sharply and poorly maintained, overcrowded dwellings became slum housing. Kellow Chesney wrote of the situation:{{Cite web |title=Poverty and Families in the Victorian Era |url=http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=www.hiddenlives.org.uk |language=en |archive-date=6 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206083852/http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html |url-status=live }}

{{Blockquote|text=Hideous slums, some of them acres wide, some no more than crannies of obscure misery, make up a substantial part of the metropolis... In big, once handsome houses, thirty or more people of all ages may inhabit a single room}}

Hunger and poor diet was a common aspect of life across the UK in the Victorian period, especially in the 1840s, but the mass starvation seen in the Great Famine in Ireland was unique.{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Ruth |title=How to be a Victorian |publisher=Penguin. |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-241-95834-6 |chapter=Chapter 6: Breakfast: Hunger}} Levels of poverty fell significantly during the 19th century from as much as two thirds of the population in 1800 to less than a third by 1901. However, 1890s studies suggested that almost 10% of the urban population lived in a state of desperation lacking the food necessary to maintain basic physical functions. Attitudes towards the poor were often unsympathetic and they were frequently blamed for their situation. In that spirit, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 had been deliberately designed to punish them and would remain the basis for welfare provision into the 20th century. While many people were prone to vices, not least alcoholism, historian Bernard A. Cook argues that the main reason for 19th century poverty was that typical wages for much of the population were simply too low. Barely enough to provide a subsistence living in good times, let alone save up for bad.

Improvements were made over time to housing along with the management of sewage and water eventually giving the UK the most advanced system of public health protection anywhere in the world.{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Bruce |date=17 February 2011 |title=Victorian Medicine – From Fluke to Theory |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_medicine_01.shtml |access-date=13 October 2020 |website=BBC History |archive-date=8 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108110941/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_medicine_01.shtml |url-status=live }} The quality and safety of household lighting improved over the period with oil lamps becoming the norm in the early 1860s, gas lighting in the 1890s and electric lights beginning to appear in the homes of the richest by the end of the period.{{Cite book |last=Loomis |first=Abigail A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=452–453 |chapter=Lighting}} Medicine advanced rapidly during the 19th century and germ theory was developed for the first time. Doctors became more specialised and the number of hospitals grew. The overall number of deaths fell by about 20%. The life expectancy of women increased from around 42 to 55 and 40 to 56 for men.{{NoteTag|These life expectancy figures are rounded to the nearest whole.}} In spite of this, the mortality rate fell only marginally, from 20.8 per thousand in 1850 to 18.2 by the end of the century. Urbanisation aided the spread of diseases and squalid living conditions in many places exacerbated the problem. The population of England, Scotland and Wales grew rapidly during the 19th century.{{Cite web |last=Jefferies |first=Julie |year=2005 |title=The UK population: past, present and future |url=https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20060215211500/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/fom2005/01_FOPM_Population.pdf |access-date=2023-04-29 |website=webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk |pages=3 to 4 |archive-date=29 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429012738/https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20060215211500/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/fom2005/01_FOPM_Population.pdf |url-status=live }} Various factors are considered contributary to this, including a rising fertility rate (though it was falling by the end of the period), the lack of a catastrophic pandemic or famine in the island of Great Britain during the 19th century for the first time in history,{{cite journal |last=Szreter |first=Simon |year=1988 |title=The importance of social intervention in Britain's mortality decline c.1850–1914: A re-interpretation of the role of public health |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=1 |pages=1–37 |doi=10.1093/shm/1.1.1 |s2cid=34704101}} {{Subscription required}} improved nutrition, and a lower overall mortality rate. Ireland's population shrank significantly, mostly due to emigration and the Great Famine.{{cite web |title=Ireland – Population Summary |url=http://homepage.tinet.ie/~cronews/geog/census/popcosum.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728111229/http://homepage.tinet.ie/~cronews/geog/census/popcosum.html |archive-date=28 July 2011 |access-date=10 August 2010 |publisher=Homepage.tinet.ie}}

File:Slum in Glasgow, 1871.jpg|Slum area in Glasgow (1871)

File:Llanfyllin Workhouse - geograph.org.uk - 3098623.jpg|Buildings originally built as Llanfyllin workhouse, a state-funded home for the destitute which operated from 1838 to 1930.{{cite web|title=Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire|url=http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Llanfyllin/|access-date=30 May 2023|archive-date=7 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507044551/https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Llanfyllin/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Llanfyllin and district – The Union Workhouse – A Victorian prison for the poor|url=http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/llanfyllin/workmenu.shtml|publisher=Victorian Powys|access-date=30 May 2023|archive-date=25 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425161039/http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/llanfyllin/workmenu.shtml|url-status=live}}

File:-Vignetted portrait, woman holding a baby- MET DP113912.jpg|Photograph of a mother and baby by Alfred Capel-Cure ({{Circa|1850s or 60s}})

{{Main|Mathematics, science, technology and engineering of the Victorian era}}

File:Faraday Michael Christmas lecture detail.jpg delivering a Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution ({{Circa|1855}})]]

The professionalisation of scientific study began in parts of Europe following the French Revolution but was slow to reach Britain. William Whewell coined the term 'scientist' in 1833 to refer to those who studied what was generally then known as natural philosophy, but it took a while to catch on. Having been previously dominated by amateurs with a separate income, the Royal Society admitted only professionals from 1847 onwards. The British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley indicated in 1852 that it remained difficult to earn a living as a scientist alone. Scientific knowledge and debates such as that about Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), which sought to explain biological evolution by natural selection, gained a high profile in the public consciousness. Simplified (and at times inaccurate) popular science was increasingly distributed through a variety of publications which caused tension with the professionals.{{Cite book |last=Yeo |first=Richard R. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=694–696 |chapter=Science}} There were significant advances in various fields of research, including statistics,{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Victor |title=A History of Mathematics: An Introduction |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-321-38700-4 |pages=824–830 |chapter=Chapter 23: Probability and Statistics in the Nineteenth Century}} elasticity,{{Cite book |last=Kline |first=Morris |title=Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1972 |isbn=0-19-506136-5 |location=United States of America |pages=696–7 |chapter=28.7: Systems of Partial Differential Equations}} refrigeration,{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Christoper |title=Heat and Thermodynamics: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33332-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 7: Black Bodies, Free Energy, and Absolute Zero}} natural history, electromagnetism,{{Cite book |last=Baigrie |first=Brian |title=Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33358-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 8: Forces and Fields}} and logic.{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Victor |title=A History of Mathematics: An Introduction |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-321-38700-4 |pages=738–9 |chapter=21.3: Symbolic Algebra}}

File:Victorian Railways F Class.jpgKnown as the 'workshop of the world', Britain was uniquely advanced in technology in the mid-19th century.{{Cite book |last=Buchanan |first=R. A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=784–787 |chapter=Technology and invention}} Engineering, having developed into a profession in the 18th century, gained new profile and prestige in this period.{{Cite book |last=Buchanan |first=R. A. |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=265–267 |chapter=Engineering}} The Victorian era saw methods of communication and transportation develop significantly. In 1837, William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone invented the first telegraph system. This system, which used electrical currents to transmit coded messages, quickly spread across Britain, appearing in every town and post office. A worldwide network developed towards the end of the century. In 1876, an American patented the telephone. A little over a decade later, 26,000 telephones were in service in Britain. Multiple switchboards were installed in every major town and city. Guglielmo Marconi developed early radio broadcasting at the end of the period.{{Cite book |last=Baigrie |first=Brian |title=Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33358-3 |location=United States of America |chapter=Chapter 10: Electromagnetic Waves}} The railways were important economically in the Victorian era, allowing goods, raw materials, and people to be moved around, stimulating trade and industry. They were also a major employer and industry in their own right.{{Cite book |last=Ranlett |first=John |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=663–665 |chapter=Railways}}

{{further|Victorian morality|Women in the Victorian era}}

File:If we lift our skirts they level their eye-glasses at our ankles.png

Expected standards of personal conduct changed in around the first half of the 19th century, with good manners and self-restraint becoming much more common.{{Cite book |last=Perkin |first=Harold |title=The Origins of Modern English Society |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |year=1969 |isbn=9780710045676 |pages=280}} Historians have suggested various contributing factors, such as Britain's major conflicts with France during the early 19th century, meaning that the distracting temptations of sinful behaviour had to be avoided in order to focus on the war effort, and the evangelical movement's push for moral improvement.{{Cite book |last=Briggs |first=Asa |title=The Age of Improvement: 1783–1867 |publisher=Longman |year=1959 |isbn=9780582482043 |pages=66–74, 286–87, 436}} There is evidence that the expected standards of moral behaviour were reflected in action as well as rhetoric across all classes of society.{{Cite book |last=Bradley |first=Ian C. |title=The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians |publisher=Lion Hudson Limited |year=2006 |isbn=9780224011624 |pages=106–109}}{{Cite news |last=Probert |first=Rebecca |date=September 2012 |title=Living in Sin |work=BBC History Magazine}} For instance, an analysis suggested that less than 5% of working class couples cohabited before marriage.

Historian Harold Perkin argued that the change in moral standards led by the middle of the 19th century to 'diminished cruelty to animals, criminals, lunatics, and children (in that order)'. Legal restrictions were placed on cruelty to animals.{{cite web |title=London Police Act 1839, Great Britain Parliament. Section XXXI, XXXIV, XXXV, XLII |url=http://www.animalrightshistory.org/animal-rights-law/victorian-legislation/1839-uk-act-london-police.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110424093224/http://www.animalrightshistory.org/animal-rights-law/victorian-legislation/1839-uk-act-london-police.htm |archive-date=24 April 2011 |access-date=23 January 2011 |df=dmy-all}}{{Cite journal |last=McMullan |first=M. B. |date=1998-05-01 |title=The Day the Dogs Died in London |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/ldn.1998.23.1.32 |journal=The London Journal |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=32–40 |doi=10.1179/ldn.1998.23.1.32 |issn=0305-8034 |access-date=31 March 2023 |archive-date=4 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604043828/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/ldn.1998.23.1.32 |url-status=live }}{{citation |editor-last=Rothfels |editor-first=Nigel |title=Representing Animals |page=12 |year=2002 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34154-9}}. Chapter: 'A Left-handed Blow: Writing the History of Animals' by Erica Fudge Restrictions were placed on the working hours of child labourers in the 1830s and 1840s.{{Cite book |chapter=Cooper, Anthony Ashley, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885) |chapter-url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-6210 |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2018 |language=en |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.6210 }}{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wMhwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA548 |title=Business Law |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=9781317935124 |page=548 |display-authors=etal}} Further interventions took place throughout the century to increase the level of child protection.{{cite book |author1=Litzenberger |first=C. J. |title=The Human Tradition in Modern Britain |author2=Eileen Groth Lyon |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7425-3735-4 |pages=142–143}} Use of the death penalty also decreased. Crime rates fell significantly in the second half of the 19th century. Sociologist Christie Davies linked this change to attempts to morally educate the population, especially at Sunday schools.{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Christie |title=The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America |year=1992 |isbn=978-0907631507 |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Digby |pages=5, 10 |chapter=Moralization and Demoralization: A Moral Explanation for Changes in Crime|publisher=Social Affairs Unit }}

Contrary to popular belief, Victorian society understood that both men and women enjoyed copulation.{{cite book |author=Draznin, Yaffa Claire |title=Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day (#179) |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-31399-8 |series=Contributions in Women's Studies |location=Westport, Connecticut |pages=95–96}} Chastity was expected of women, whilst attitudes to male sexual behaviour were more relaxed.{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Ruth |title=How to be a Victorian |publisher=Penguin |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-241-95834-6 |chapter=Chapter 15: Behind the bedroom door}} The development of police forces led to a rise in prosecutions for illegal sodomy in the middle of the 19th century.Sean Brady, Masculinity and Male Homosexuality in Britain, 1861–1913 (2005). Male sexuality became a favourite subject of medical researchers' study.{{Cite journal |last=Crozier |first=I. |date=2007-08-05 |title=Nineteenth-Century British Psychiatric Writing about Homosexuality before Havelock Ellis: The Missing Story |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrm046 |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=65–102 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrm046 |pmid=18184695 |issn=0022-5045}} For the first time, all male homosexual acts were outlawed.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=F. B. |date=1976 |title=Labouchere's amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment bill |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10314617608595545 |journal=Historical Studies |volume=17 |issue=67 |pages=165–173 |doi=10.1080/10314617608595545 |issn=0018-2559}} Concern about sexual exploitation of adolescent girls increased during the period, especially following the white slavery scandal, which contributed to the increasing of the age of consent from 13 to 16.{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Anna |title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=9780415669726 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Sally |pages=642–645 |chapter=Prostitution}}

At a time when job options for women were limited and generally low-paying, some women, particularly those without familial support, took to prostitution to support themselves. Attitudes in public life and among the general population to prostitution varied. Evidence about prostitutes' situation also varies. One contemporary study argues that the trade was a short-term stepping stone to a different lifestyle for many women, while another, more recent study argues they were subject to physical abuse, financial exploitation, state persecution, and difficult working conditions. Due to worries about venereal disease, especially among soldiers, women suspected of prostitution were for a period between the 1860s and 1880s subject to spot compulsory examinations for sexually transmitted infections, and detainment if they were found to be infected. This caused a great deal of resentment among women in general due to the principle underlying the checks, that women had to be controlled in order to be safe for sexual use by men, and the checks were opposed by some of the earliest feminist campaigning.

• 19th-century London
• Political and diplomatic history of the Victorian era
• Society and culture of the Victorian era
• History of public health in the United Kingdom
• Theatre in the Victorian era
• Victorian burlesque
• Victorian erotica
• Victorian fashion
• Victorian house
• Victorian jewellery
• Victorian masculinity
• Victorian painting
• Victorian Turkish baths
• Women in the Victorian era

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |editor1-last=Plunkett |editor1-first=John |title=Victorian Literature: A Sourcebook |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9780230551756 |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke}}

{{Main|Bibliography of the Victorian era}}

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