10. Women committed many other crimes besides burglary
Although burglary occupied a strangely exalted place as a crime, many other transgressions in Victorian Britain took place, which did not. Thefts occurred at all times of the day, and though strong-armed robberies were common, they were usually committed by men. Besides shoplifting, purse-snatching, and smash and grab robberies, women committed many other types of thefts. One common in the slums of British cities became known as clothes harvesting. Laundry was commonly left to dry on lines strung in the mews and alleyways behind laundries and private homes. Snatching them proved simple, especially when the backs of the launderers were turned. Again, women proved particularly adept at the practice, since stolen clothes could easily be hidden beneath the thief’s own garments. Stolen clothes rapidly made their way to a fence, often still damp from washing.
Thieves of all sorts seldom kept items stolen by whatever means, since doing so unnecessarily burdened themselves with evidence. Stolen items were meant for sale, conversion to hard currency as quickly as possible. The fences established the means to resell the items. Often stolen goods were sold to the very merchant, laborer, or manufacturer from whom they were stolen in the first place. Although laws existed prohibiting the purchase of stolen goods, they were often unenforceable. It was usually a matter of one person’s word against another, and magistrates had little means of establishing whether a fence or jeweler knew of the provenance of a particular item. Items stolen in burglaries were usually described in exacting detail by the press, especially jewelry. However, most jewelry was quickly broken down into its constituent parts, the metals melted down, and the jewels sold separately.