Wild And Organised Crime Research Paper

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Thief-Takers, House-Breakers and Highwaymen: Jonathan
Wild and Organised Crime in Early Georgian London
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Thief Takers, House-Breakers, and Highwaymen:
Jonathan Wild and Organised Crime in Early-Georgian London

Organised crime is generally considered to be a modern phenomenon, yet it appears that it has ex

further back in history than is generally assumed (Galeotti, 2009, p.1). London in the early-eighte

century was a period in which Thief Takers, house-breakers and highwaymen flourished. Jonathan W

(c.1682-1725) built one of Britain‟s first organised crime networks. An examination of the way th

operated indicates that organised crime
This is because „this “thing”, this phenomenon known as organ

crime, cannot be defined by crimes alone…Any definition, must address and account for the elu

modifying term organised’ (Finckenaur, 2005, p.64). Many crimes are organised, in that they requ

degree of organisation to be carried out, but not all crimes count as „organised crime‟ (Finckenaur, 2

p.76). Galeotti defines the term as, „a continuing enterprise, apart from traditional legal and s

structures, within which a number of persons work together under their own hierarchy to gain power profit for their private gain through illegal activities‟ (Galeotti, 2009, p.6). Thus for a criminal gang

classed as an organised crime network there has to be a structure or hierarchy within which its mem acting under instructions, engage in illegal acts for the sake of profit.
Just as people today receive their understanding of organised crime through the media and films such

The Godfather (1972) it was no different in the early-eighteenth century. Indeed „crime has always be

a sure-fire topic for the entertainment of the public‟ (Cawelti, 1975, p.326). Plays such as The Beggar

Opera (1728) featured criminals as their heroes. Publications such as The Newgate Calendar
In what type of a society, then, does organised crime emerge and flourish? English society was

unequal in the eighteenth century. Most of the working population lived below the breadline, and the

1.2 per cent of the population controlled 14 per cent of the wealth of the nation (Porter, 1982, pp.14-

For the most part, „the poor were regarded as a class apart; to be ignored except when their hardships m

them boisterous‟ (Williams, 1960, p.129). Additionally, the laws were often seen as weighted in favo

the rich against the poor. The law, made by those at the top of society, „allowed the rulers of Englan

make the courts a selective instrument of class justice, yet simultaneously to proclaim the l

incorruptible impartiality and absolute determinacy‟ (Hay, 1975, p.48). In The Beggar’s Opera there

scene in which a group of highwaymen are gathered in a tavern. One hi ghwayman asks of the other, „

are the Laws levell‟d at us? are we more dishonest than the rest of Mankind?‟ (Gay, 1728, p.25). Moreo

London was not a pleasant place in the early-eighteenth century. In the literature of the time, the recu motifs of London were often „squalor, pestilence, ordure, [and] poverty‟ (Rogers, 1972, p.3). Pickard