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Between 1750 and 1900, the population of England and Wales rose dramatically, from about 7 million to over 40 million.

• In 1750 most people lived and worked in the countryside.
• By 1900, 80 per cent of people lived and worked in urban areas.

Existing towns and cities swelled in size and new places developed, such as Manchester and Birmingham. There were also changes in rural areas, with new machinery and techniques changing rural workers’ lives.

Causes of urban crime

Urban areas were overcrowded and full of disease. There was little planning, and no infrastructure or amenities. People often lived in back-to-back houses, with open sewers and rubbish-strewn streets. Crimes were more common in urban areas.

Factors relating to urban crime included:

• Many people lived in rookeries, where crime was commonplace. There were nicknames for different types of criminals, such as thimble-screwers, who stole pocket watches by separating them from their chains.
• It was easy for a criminal to evade capture through the narrow, winding streets, alleyways and courts.
• It was easy for people to remain anonymous in a city. In pre-industrial villages, people had known each other, but in these new towns people did not. It was easier to get away with crime.
• Policing was ineffective.
• Poverty and poor living conditions led to many people resorting to crime to improve their lives or meet their basic needs.
• Industrial accidents were common. There was no compensation, and a worker would be sacked if they could no longer work. Accidents led to families becoming destitute, and as a result they often turned to crime to survive.
• Orphans were common in industrial towns, due to low life expectancy. They often committed crimes to survive.
• Most workers had no political rights and so had no legal way to change their living and working conditions. Workers sometimes gathered in groups to protest about their conditions and lack of political rights. An example is the Manchester Chartists, who formed in 1838.
• The poor districts of towns became centres for criminal gangs. For example, the Scuttlers of Manchester, dressed in sailors’ trousers and wore distinctive scarves. They became well-known for their violent clashes with other criminal gangs.

Causes of rural crime

The Industrial Revolution also changed the countryside. Machinery, such as threshing machines, was putting men out of work. Rural poverty was high. Farm labourers had low wages and long hours.

When bread prices were high, many struggled to survive. Some farm labourers turned to the crime of poaching. However, the punishment for poaching was transportation or even execution. The rural poor found it hard to survive. In the Swing Riots of 1830-1831, agricultural labourers resorted to machine breaking and rioting in the south-east of England.

Between 1839 and 1843 in south-west Wales, groups of farmers dressed as women attacked toll gates. They were angry about the prices charged by toll gates and also about increased rents, the Poor Law and tithes. Discontent about tithes also caused outbreaks of violence in rural Wales in the 1880s.