TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF DEPREDATORS, OFFENDERS, AND SUSPECTED PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN BROUGHT WITHIN THE COGNIZANCE OF THE POLICE IN THE YEAR 1837, COMPREHENDING:—
1. Persons who have no visible means of subsistence, and who are believed to live wholly by violation of the law, as by habitual depredation, by fraud, by prostitution, &c.
2. Persons following some ostensible and legal occupation, but who are known to have committed an offence, and are believed to augment their gains by habitual or occasional violation of the law.
3. Persons not known to have committed any offences, but known as associates of the above classes, and otherwise deemed to be suspicious characters.
| Character and description of Offenders. | Metropolitan Police District. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Class. | 2nd Class. | 3rd Class. | Total all Classes. | ||||||
| Rampsmen[14] | Burglars | 77 | 22 | 8 | 107 | ||||
| Housebreakers | 59 | 17 | 34 | 110 | |||||
| Highway robbers | 19 | 8 | 11 | 38 | |||||
| —— | 155 | —— | 47 | —— | 53 | —— | 255 | ||
| Mobsmen | Pickpockets | 544 | 75 | 154 | 773 | ||||
| Sneaksmen | Common thieves | 1667 | 1338 | 652 | 3657 | ||||
| Animal stealers | Horse stealers | 7 | 4 | 11 | |||||
| Cattle stealers | |||||||||
| Dog stealers | 45 | 48 | 48 | 141 | |||||
| —— | 52 | —— | 52 | —— | 152 | ||||
| Shofulmen | [15]Forgers | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| [15]Coiners | 25 | 1 | 2 | 28 | |||||
| Utterers of base coin | 202 | 54 | 61 | 317 | |||||
| —— | 227 | —— | 58 | —— | 63 | —— | 348 | ||
| Flatcatchers | [15]Obtainers of goods by false pretences | 33 | 108 | 141 | |||||
| [15]Persons committing frauds of any other description | 23 | 118 | 41 | 182 | |||||
| —— | 56 | —— | 226 | —— | 323 | ||||
| Receivers of stolen goods | 51 | 158 | 134 | 343 | |||||
| [15]Habitual disturbers of the public peace | 723 | 1866 | 179 | 2768 | |||||
| Vagrants | 1089 | 186 | 20 | 1295 | |||||
| Cadgers | [15]Begging-letter writers | 12 | 17 | 21 | 50 | ||||
| Bearers of begging-letters | 22 | 40 | 24 | 86 | |||||
| —— | 34 | —— | 57 | —— | 45 | —— | 136 | ||
| Prostitutes | [15]Prostitutes, well-dressed, living in brothels | 813 | 62 | 20 | 895 | ||||
| [15]Prostitutes, well-dressed, walking the streets | 1460 | 79 | 73 | 1612 | |||||
| Prostitutes, low, infesting low neighbourhoods | 3533 | 147 | 184 | 3864 | |||||
| —— | 5806 | —— | 288 | —— | 277 | —— | 6371 | ||
| [15]Classes not before enumerated | 40 | 2 | 438 | 470 | |||||
| Total | 10,444 | 4353 | 2104 | 16,901 | |||||
The estimate made for five of the principal provincial towns in the same year was as follows:—