ABSTRACT
In eighteenth-century London, the parish constables were charged with keeping the peace and dealing with any disorderly or criminal behaviour that came to their attention, and the night watch with guarding the streets after sunset. This was to change in the eighteenth century as a number of men in London became involved in the business of detection and prosecution. The Bow Street Runners were a product of the beliefs in the necessity of detective policing and more effective prosecution. Over the quarter century between 1720 and 1745, and again briefly between 1750 and 1752, the reward for the conviction of a robber in London was £140, a sum that approached three or four years' income for even a skilled workman. The impunity with which London robbers acted, the indifference they showed to the consequences of their actions, exposed, in Fielding's view, the serious weakness and incapacity of the civil authorities.
