"Crime is an important and persistent theme in the social history of the nineteenth century, always in the public eye and a source of controversy, yet even today lacking an objective literature. Dr Tobias approaches his subject through a wide selection of contemporary documents. After a general introduction, the first section shows that the people of the nineteenth century were as familiar as we are with the social causes of crime. The second gives descriptions of the criminals, their methods of work and the places in which they lived, some from criminals themselves; the third section presents some statistics of nineteenth-century crime with contemporary discussion of the problems of enumeration in this field. The fourth describes the changing policing systems of the era; the fifth portrays the debate about the penal theory and the actual penal practices of the century. Dr Tobias has succeeded in blending the less well-known with the familiar in selecting his extracts. Each document is accompanied by linking paragraphs and full bibliographical notes"--dust jacket