... these 'underground organisations' we need to look more closely at the crime in this period. Historians have suggested the idea of a "criminal class" through out Western Europe at this time.2 The formation of this so-called 'criminal class' is attributed to the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation that was taking place at this time in England. This is because it bought large groups of poor people together in a concentrated area and as a result of this criminal groups were formed. It has been asserted that these groups lived "mainly of the proceeds of crime"3 and that their life styles were different to that of the other working class's in urban areas. Sharpe suggests that these criminal groups were organised in to a "unique social hierarchy"4 suggesting that there were indeed organised criminal underworlds in urban areas. It was not the case that all organised crime took place in urban areas. It ...

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