Gustave Doré’s engravings of 19th-century London include grim depictions of slum life, including A Scene in a London Slum Court — an illustration of the lower criminal courts where the poor, homeless, and unemployed were routinely processed.
The image reveals the criminalization of poverty. The courtroom is overcrowded, dark, and impersonal. The accused are often children, vagrants, or the working poor, while the magistrate sits elevated, remote from the lives of those judged.
Doré’s drawing critiques a system where law is used to manage social inequality, not correct it. The court does not offer rehabilitation or justice — it enforces order. Small offenses (loitering, petty theft, drunkenness) are treated with disproportionate severity.
Legally, the image exposes the roots of systemic injustice — the way minor infractions are punished harshly when committed by the poor, while larger crimes by the wealthy are often overlooked. These themes persist today in debates over cash bail, homelessness ordinances, and discriminatory policing.
Doré’s court is not broken — it’s functioning exactly as designed: to regulate poverty under the guise of justice. His image remains a sharp reminder that who you are often matters more than what you did.