Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper

Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper?

There are three main reasons why the Police were unable to catch the Whitechapel murderer: the nature of the killings, the limitations of police methods and the problems with the investigation.

The Nature of the Killings
Whitechapel housed a lot of immigrants and most people were poor, meaning a lot of crime took place. The police estimated that there were around 1,200 prostitutes in Whitechapel and many more women who took clients to supplement their weekly earnings. Prostitution made the women extremely vulnerable and an easy target for Jack the Ripper, as they always took their clients into dark and deserted alleyways. This made it very hard for the police to solve the case, as their were only ever a few witnesses, many of whom were reluctant to come forward, especially of they were middle-class men from the city, in search of prostitution. The witnesses, who did come forward, were often unwilling to fully co-operate with t...