Often these were hung on poles outside the shops for sale to passers-by, many of whom went there to buy back their own stolen property.Ĭrowded places such as fairs, marketplaces and public executions were particularly profitable for young thieves. Field Lane in London for example (the setting of Fagin’s den in Oliver Twist) was the home to several notorious receivers of stolen goods, where it was believed more than 5,000 handkerchiefs were handled each week. Dr Valerie Watters reported that the picking of pockets was especially troublesome, particularly the theft of silk handkerchiefs, which had a relatively high resale value and could thus be easily sold.
One report in 1817 described flash-houses as containing ‘distinct parties or gangs’ of young boys, while later in 1837 a police witness recalled how one lodging house in London had ‘20 boys and ten girls under the age of 16’ living together, most of whom were ‘encouraged in picking pockets’ by their ‘captain’.Įvidence from the courts and newspaper articles during the first half of the 19th century suggests that juvenile crime was indeed a genuine problem. These were pubs or lodging houses where stolen property was ‘fenced’, and was considered by the police and magistrates to be ‘nurseries of crime’. ‘Flash-houses’ also received regular attention from the police during the first half of the century. Solomon gained notoriety for being a trainer of young thieves and was for some time (incorrectly) considered to be the inspiration behind Dickens’s character of Fagin owing to his similar Jewish heritage. Similarly, Isaac ‘Ikey’ Solomon was a well-known receiver of stolen goods in the 1810s and 1820s who was arrested several times, and on one occasion escaped from custody. Among King’s gang was a 13-year-old boy named John Reeves, who stole over £100 worth of property in one week alone.
#JOHN ANY BIRD BELL PROFESSIONAL#
Thomas Duggin, for example, was an infamous ‘thief-trainer’ who worked in London’s notorious St Giles slum in 1817, and as late as 1855 The Times newspaper reported the activities of Charles King, a man who ran a gang of professional pick-pockets. These were criminal bosses who supposedly trained young boys to steal and then later sold the stolen goods they received from them. The activities of so-called ‘lads-men’ were regularly reported. Sensational stories of crime and violence filled the pages of the popular press after 1800 with details of juvenile crime appearing in newspapers, broadsides and pamphlets. But how realistic was Dickens’s portrayal of criminality among Victorian boys and girls?Īlthough youth crime had been a concern since the 1700s, a decline in formal apprenticeships and the disruptive effects of industrialisation on family life after 1800 did much to create fears among the general public about the activities of criminal gangs of boys and girls in London and elsewhere. The novel’s prominent theme though is criminality, witnessed most vividly in the activities of Fagin’s gang of nimble-fingered child-thieves. The misery of workhouses, the morally corrosive effects of poverty and the degradation of life in Victorian slums all received Dickens’s close attention. The success of Oliver Twist owes much to the biting satire and keen social observations contained within its pages.
Novels such as Oliver Twist have made Victorian child-thieves familiar to us, but to what extent did juvenile crime actually, exist in the 19th century? Drawing on contemporary accounts and printed ephemera, Dr Matthew White uncovers the facts behind the fiction. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. Juvenile Crime in the 19th Century IELTS Reading Passage with Answers READING PASSAGE 3
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