ABSTRACT
Urbanization, industrialization, and key political changes, such as the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, meant that the physical, ideological, and political landscape of the constituent countries of Britain were wholly transformed between 1700 and 1850. These developments had implications for the would-be criminal. The law became far more centralized during the eighteenth century, especially north of the Tweed, and many customary practices that had previously been an accepted part of everyday life were now criminalized under a new and arguably tougher criminal code. At the same time as the statute book increased, the introduction of summary trials quickened the judicial process, and this, coupled with more intensified policing and greater public vigilance, meant that the number of criminals brought before the courts accelerated over a relatively short period of time.1 It is no surprise, therefore, that crime has been the subject of a good deal of recent historical research on eighteenth-and nineteenthcentury Britain.2
