50 lashes a time) for a single offence. Under the Security from Violence Act garrotters faced being flogged three times for each offence. This act, which remained on the statute books until the Criminal Justice Act 1948, was described by Grey as "panic legislation [passed] after the panic had subsided". Legacy Social historian Rob Sindall describes the garrotting panics as perhaps the first moral panics in Britain. Turner et al. writing in 2017 consider that the panics had little founding in reality and were largely manufactured by the press. They consider that the increase in violent street robberies observed in the crime statistics is because the police responded by focusing their resources into this area. This increase in recorded crime, as reported in the press, may have led to increase fears. Sindall considers that the criticism of the police for failing to prevent street robbery is not justified. The panics led, by pressure on politicians from the middle classes, to Parliament passing poorly thought-out legislation that was reactionary and ineffective. Outbreaks of garrotting occurred in Liverpool in the 1880s and 1890s and 72 people were flogged for the offence, though with little apparent deterrent effect. The move towards self-defence measures marks the last major attempt by the citizenry to take the lead in self-protection, reversing the general trend at the time to allow the police to adopt this role. References Bibliography Scares Crime in London 1856 in London 1862 in London 1863 in London Metropolitan Police operations Violence in London 1850s crimes in London 1860s crimes in London