This social history not only studies crime and punishment in early 19th-century England, but also draws on higher court records to reconstruct case histories of the actual people involved in crime: the prisoners and the victims. The book focuses on Sussex, Gloucester, and Middlesec counties, each in its own way typical of developments in early British industrial society between 1800 and 1850. By examining crime as a social as well as a legal phenomenon, the book casts new light on the different urban and rural patterns of crime, the influence of economic and political factors, and the social profiles of both criminals and victims.