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Crime in Oliver Twist

Summary:   This essay shows how individuals in the novel, Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, will sometimes result in commiting crimes to gain fulfillment of their basic human needs.

Crime in Oliver Twist

During the 1830's in Victorian England, criminals had very severe punishments, yet many people indured the risk of being involved in gangs and other crimes because they felt the need and the right to belong. In this novel Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens shows that in Victorian England, just like today, individuals without a nurturing home life will sometimes become gang members to gain fulfillment of their basic human needs.

In this period the Victorian rule, crime was rapidly spreading greatly. Larceny, weather breaking into houses or pick pocketing, had become very popular. (plag) Many people started locking their doors, windows, cellars, and other entrances to their houses. Many newspapers started advertising locks that could not be picked. Breaking into houses was the second highest crime. (plag) Robberies, burglaries, and house- breaking occurred mostly in the suburbs.(plag) Servants or people who were familiar with the house usually were the people who broke into the houses.(plag) A different type of crime during this time was insurance fraud.(plag) "As insurance companies were becoming more widespread so were the demands on the claims made" (Smalls 2). A big claim was arson.(plag) It was used by the manufactures to make more money. (plag) As more people lost their jobs, the more desperate they were for money and food. More and more people started pick pocketing, which lead to gangs. Many people had different opinions about crime. Some people did not know what to think about it. Everyone had their different explanations and opinions about why there was crime and why people committed it. People also did not understand why certain crimes were committed more than others were. Men, women, and children will never stop being thieves because there is no stop to it. "There is a direct correlation in the crimes committed, by the poor, and the laws passed against them" (4). For some people it was a game about who would get the most money, but for others they really needed it. It was very hard to prevent crime in the 1930's. The London Times had many newspaper articles about crime. (plag) They passed this one bill that said that, .".. if prisoners accused of minor offenses would plead guilty and receive their sentences at the petty sessions open court, to spare prosecutors and their witness the trouble and expense of attending" (3). There were many ways to prevent crime, which included the police. The police had been invented about eight years before the Queens accession. Many citizens looked to the police as their "trusted upper servants." The magistrates were mixed of the lower class and the working classes. They were very well educated. Most of the jurymen were probably policemen too. They thought it was their duty to give a lesson to the criminals every chance they got. One of the consequences for a crime was public hangings, which were very popular. The night before someone got hung, huge crowds of people would come and surround the place. Many trade unions were formed that had campaigns of terrorism. Shops where the hangings were located always expected many customers that day. (plag)

Many things lead to crime, including poverty. The more people that were poor meant having more people be thieves. Poverty had a great influence in many people's lives. It controlled the way people thought about England and its men. People that were not poor had a dreadful fear of becoming poor. English men, women, and children were unemployed during the 1830's because the government did not protect them. (plag) Men, women, and children without jobs led to starting gangs. Workers could lose their jobs any time of the year, which included the end of the day, week, month, or year. Many workers had nothing to fall back upon, except their savings. The poor were unskilled men or women. Men worked in the factories. They were craftsmen and did hand- loom weaving, bricklaying, and other jobs. (plag) A great amount of the poor people also performed on the streets to make money. They played music, sang, did magic, and whatever else they could think of to get the publics attention. People made a living by the unprofitable ways even though they did not want to. Men went from honesty to committing crimes and many of them also went to prison. The Irish Immigrants were also involved in being criminals. Women and children were scared to be outside in the London and England streets at nighttime. (plag) The towns were growing rapidly with more and more bad people. An excessive amount of people had no where to go at night so they slept on the streets. The middle class workers had a great fear of bankruptcy. Some men, women and children had some assistance of family, friends, pawnshops, private charities, and shopkeepers. Many things had to change in Victorian England before the government would recognize the welfare of the people. (plag) In Oliver Twist, Dickens talks about the prices, wages, job prospects, property offenses, and the trade cycle of crime. "The complexion of crime changed significantly in the 'hungry forty's'" (3). The middle classes had a great fear of the poor people. In 1834 in Victorian England they made the Poor Law. It announced to the world that in England poverty was a crime. This "incarcerated" the paupers in the workhouses. (plag) "In short the very poor and the pauper class are placed at the farthest reaches of civilized society, and one consequence is that they appear as a separate race" (Cody 1). Some people did not see the racial view of the poor dominant. Many people who put their faith in education did not see the poor as a separate race. (plag) "Nonetheless, there existed a racial frame of mind which was remarkably pervasive and which influenced perceptions of the working classes" (1). What people thought of the working classes went through three stages. They went through the early, mid, and late Victorian periods. In the first it is "the pig which makes the stye: in the second, that the stye makes the pig: and the third, there is a serious questioning of what, then, makes the stye" (1). During the Victorian period, most of the queens ruled the world. They were building the great industrial power while the life of English people were changing. (plag) There was new machinery being built and mass production. People were looking to the twentieth century and beyond. In the 1830's during Queen Victoria's reign, people believed that the economic system would get rid of poverty. (plag)Sooner and sooner more working class people than ever before were able to live in comfort.

Children need many things during life. First, they need food and clothing. They need water, vegetables, and all the other kinds of food needed to be healthy. For clothing, they need all of their warm clothes for the winter and all of their cool clothes for the summer. Children also need to be loved and sheltered. They need a good strong home so they will grow up being nice and caring. "Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist shows how a lack of community coupled with poverty, and the innate desire of the poor to survive by any means brought out the deviant side of society" (Smalls 1). Most adults worked with other people to pick pocket. Many people felt that if they pick pocketed people they would get more out of life. Some kids also did it for the sake of "sensationalism" and to get attention. (plag) Most children should be put in day care so they will not witness violence and crimes in the home. Crime has changed greatly in the world since the 1800's. Also, children need to be in school so they are "invisible in a sense." (plag) Crime had a negative impact on the children later in life. "Children who witness violence- whether at home, at school, or in their neighborhood- are much more likely to become delinquents and adult abusers, research has shown" (Perrett 1).

Gangs have been a problem in the world forever. There have been many projects to stop gangs and crime. There are many reasons why people are in gangs and why they do crimes. There are different types of gangs. There are street gangs, groups of small men, large groups of men, and many others. A street gang is a group of men who do not have a definite territory or commit crimes. During the Victorian England period, another type of gangs was butty gangs. The butty gangs were small groups of men who had jobs by bidding competitively for the whole gang. Many men were uncertain of their wages by doing the butty system. (plag) Wages of the men had a great effect of their income. In 1859-1860 the gangs were beginning to spread to places such as shipyards and engineering works. (plag) Many crimes deal with drug dealing. Gangs deal with many things including drive- by shootings, murders, and drug dealing. Gangs feel that they need to do this stuff to people will be afraid of them. Many of the gangs do most of the same crimes throughout the society. When gangs attend social gatherings there is a better chance for violence to happen there than id there were no gangs there. Violence usually ruins the lives of innocent people. "Gangs sell drugs, exort businesses, burglarize homes, rob people, intimidate minorities, steal cars, to commit other crimes for financial gain" (Orange County Sheriff's Department 1). Gangs do graffiti on different walls to make their mark. People who live in occupied houses were in constant fear of gangs in certain areas. (plag) Children and teenagers all over the world join gangs. Some people join because of peer pressure or because it is a family tradition. The activity excites other people and they think they get financial gain. (plag) Many of the parents have no idea that their children are involved in gangs most gang members do not hide that they are involved in gangs and they like to tell other people. Gangs members are very easy to identify. They often wear baggy clothes and have special tattoos. Gangs have signs with their fingers to identify them. Gangs rely upon their friends in the gang to help them. The leaders in the gang are not always pointed out. When people pick the leaders they pick the best and toughest man. They also have the most money. If the gangs are large they are probably divided into smaller groups. (plag)When people are in gangs it harms their future. They do no have any friends besides their members. Some members are killed or injured severely.

In Oliver Twist people joined gangs because they were poor. They needed food and shelter over their head. Gangs were big groups of children and some men. Some of the children were better than others and they kept everyone together. Most of the other children in the gangs were lead by one adult who sometimes got help from other people. The gangs lived in various places. They usually lived on dark streets in secret places. They got little food and privacy. The leader taught them new techniques about stealing, including how to pick pocket and other ways to steal. If the children did not want to learn the leader often thought of fun games to make it more fun and exciting. Gangs often convinced other children to be in gangs by being sneaky. They usually tricked the children by telling them that it was such a good life. The children did not know any better at such a young age and they also felt a sense of belonging.

The world would be a much better place if violence, crimes, and gangs stopped. We would be healthy and a stronger nation. If more people donated to charities and other foundations there would also be less poor people. "Any person who actively participates in any criminal street gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang..."