Currently I am looking at the political impact of the Jack the Ripper murders or lack of it. The crimes in Whitechapel in 1888 made global headlines but were largely ignored by politicians, sitting a few miles away in Westminster. To understand why we need to appreciate the difference between the electoral system then and the one in place today. Now all adult citizens in an area can register to vote. In an election they have a choice of several candidates. Then only certain men could vote, and choices were limited.

The table below compares the area in the 1886 and 2024 general elections.

	1886	2024
Constituency	Whitechapel	Bethnal Green and Stepney
Estimated Population	74000	117900
Registered voters	6140	81922
Votes Cast	3771	46647
Candidates	2	11
Votes for winning candidate	2179	15896

Today the friends and families of murder victims may canvass their MP for support. Since the MP requires support from the community, he or she has an incentive to listen and respond. Jack the Ripper’s victims and most of their friends and relatives were not able to vote and consequently nobody was obliged to listen to them.