Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth Century England

Eighteenth-century England, the richest nation in Europe, was also notorious for its violence, its raucous and unfriendly citizens, and its abundant, pervasive crime. Visitors arrived on English shores half expecting to be robbed, raped, or murdered. In the teeming city streets they had their worst fears confirmed: gangs of criminals snatched purses or bludgeoned passers-by; the death penalty, imposed for ever more crimes, proved no deterrent. Why was England like this? Was it that a more open society than the oppressive regimes of its continental neighbours allowed crime to flourish unhindered? Was it, in some crude fashion, a means of redistributing wealth in a society where the contrasts between rich and poor were extreme? Were criminals folk heroes, such as Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, and Jonathan Wild? Frank McLynn provides here the first comprehensive view of crime and its consequences in the eighteenth century.