Were convicts members of a ‘criminal class’? What evidence do those who consider convicts ‘professional criminals’ draw upon?
It is difficult to accurately assess the validity of whether or not Australia’s convicts were mostly members of a professional criminal class or instead casual or one off offenders. Manning Clark is of this opinion that this criminal class exists, however many other historians tend to lean towards the idea that rather than being criminals, convicts were instead the victims, being the subjects of social, economic and environmental factors. In terms of evidence to support Clark’s claim, there are two aspects that need to be looked at. The first is to look at whether or not the transported convicts had any previous criminal convictions, however, these records are held by the British House of Commons are too ambiguous to make any claims. The second way of proving that this ‘criminal class’ existed is by common knowledge and opinion from the time, with the results mostly concurring on the fact that the “criminals are one section of the working class for whom crime is an occupation.” Another form of evidence drawn upon is the witness of social commentator Henry Mayhew. Mayhew through many reports, personal experience and investigation, comes to the conclusion that yes, indeed there was a majority criminal class. However, there is not an abundance of evidence available from the time, in order to make a conclusion as to the convicts of Australia’s origin. It's interesting to look at the records of convicts in terms of their age, sex, crime etc. These records make it easy to sympathise with the convicts on some level, due to most of the recorded crimes being of such a ‘trivial’ nature within the standards of modern day society. For example, with the majority of the crimes being theft of some description, with very little being more serious crimes of manslaughter or murder.
Convicts at work in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Picture found at: http://www.warrenfahey.com/oz-trad-music2.htm by Unknown Artist
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