ABSTRACT
The sources of crime in rural districts are chiefly the four following: beer-shops, the game laws, the tramp system, and the arrangements of cottages and lodging-houses. Although crime in rural England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries never assumed the threatening proportions that it did in the towns, it remained a cause for unease. the suppression of crime was beyond the capacity of the existing law-enforcement agencies parish constables, private prosecuting societies and magistrates. Incendiarism, as an instrument of vengeance or intimidation, was one of the most feared rural crimes. Another crime widely tolerated by the well-to-do was duelling, despite the fact that it was a capital offence. The taking of game was one major cause of law breaking in rural areas, but petty theft was still more prevalent. Arrest and conviction for an offence were, in these circumstances, something of a lottery.
