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]Burglars77228107
Housebreakers591734110
Highway robbers1981138
——155——47——53——255
MobsmenPickpockets54475154773
SneaksmenCommon thieves166713386523657
Animal stealersHorse stealers7411
Cattle stealers
Dog stealers454848141
——52——52——152
Shofulmen[15]Forgers33
[15]Coiners251228
Utterers of base coin2025461317
——227——58——63——348
Flatcatchers[15]Obtainers of goods by false pretences33108141
[15]Persons committing frauds of any other description2311841182
——56——226——323
Receivers of stolen goods51158134343
[15]Habitual disturbers of the public peace72318661792768
Vagrants1089186201295
Cadgers[15]Begging-letter writers12172150
Bearers of begging-letters22402486
——34——57——45——136
Prostitutes[15]Prostitutes, well-dressed, living in brothels8136220895
[15]Prostitutes, well-dressed, walking the streets146079731612
Prostitutes, low, infesting low neighbourhoods35331471843864
——5806——288——277——6371
[15]Classes not before enumerated402438470
Total10,4444353210416,901

The estimate made for five of the principal provincial towns in the same year was as follows:—