[1] Police Magistrate John Fielding, head of the Bow Street Runners, believed that "It is much better to prevent even one man from being a rogue than apprehending and bringing forty to justice."
[1] Despite the introduction of the Bow Street Runners and other paid professionals, private citizens were still overwhelmingly responsible for initiating criminal charges against culprits.
In contrast to the Bow Street Runners, the river police acted as a deterrent by their continual presence on the riverfront, in addition to being able to intervene if they spotted a crime in progress.
On the subject of policing, Bentham promoted the views of Italian Marquis Cesare Beccaria, and disseminated a translated version of "Essay on Crime in Punishment".
Not only would a preventive police trump punishment as a deterrent, it would also reduce the costs of a criminal justice system over-burdened by prosecuting crimes that have already been committed.
[6] Later historians would attribute the perception of England's "appearance of orderliness and love of public order" to the preventive principle entrenched in Peel's police system.
[7] More recent histories have considered the preventive principle in a more critical light, attempting to reconcile its introduction with the broader social changes that were underway in late eighteenth century Britain.