‘Us Girls Won’t Put One Another Away’: relations among Melbourne’s prostitute pickpockets, 1860–1920

Abstract

Larceny from the person, or pickpocketing, was the most common form of indictable crime committed by female offenders in turn-of-the-century Melbourne. It was an offence particularly likely to appear within the criminal careers of recidivist female offenders. Female pickpocketing, however, was notoriously difficult to prosecute. The usual differences found in trial outcomes for men and women were exacerbated by the specific contexts in which such robberies occurred, that is in the context of solicitation or sex work. This not only meant victims were reluctant to prosecute, but that women's offending often took place within criminal subcultures that fostered interpersonal relationships between women that served to support them throughout the commission of the crime and during the trial process.

Victimization Narratives and Courtroom Sexual Politics: Prosecuting Male Burglars and Female Pickpockets in Melbourne, 1860–1921

“…While some contemporaries assumed that women often acted in concert with male "bullies" or pimps in robbing customers, 26 this is not borne out by court records, which suggest that women were far more likely to pickpocket alone or with other women. 27 The archetypal male pickpocket meanwhile was usually depicted as an adolescent, or at least a youthful male who affected a dandified appearance in order to pickpocket milling crowds. 28 As a result, pickpocketing was constructed as a more feminized form of crime than outright robbery or burglary itself.…”