The analysis focuses primarily on property crimes, the offenses most likely to have arisen out of economic deprivation, and the offenses most often prosecuted before the major courts in England. The effects of poverty were felt most strongly in urban areas, hence the analysis is based on prosecuted crime in London. One of the issues which receives principal attention in the analysis is patterns of women's crime, as women were unusually prominent in Old Bailey prosecutions during the study period, and women were the targets of some of the crime prevention responses initiated by the authorities. 1 table and 2 figures