Mark Roodhouse. Black Market Britain, 1939–1955.

Abstract

There are many studies of criminality in which the focus ends with the start of either World War I or World War II, and there have been some published studies on postwar crime and policing. Very few studies of criminal offending run across wartime periods, however, because conditions in those extraordinary periods are just so different from peacetime situations. For example, in World War II the number of police available for duty shrank dramatically, so the conditions of war created new opportunities for criminal behavior—the looting of bombed-out houses, increased levels of prostitution, and, not least, more property crime due to the darkness created by blackout restrictions. For the notorious East End criminal “Mad” Frankie Fraser, the wartime lootings after bombing raids were some of the best times of his life. The war also saw the creation of a raft of regulations to govern civilian behavior—rationing, of course, was introduced to ensure the equitable distribution of food supplies, petrol, and other commodities.