In the 18th century, people asssumed that if you shunned work and acted like an idle apprentice, you would become a criminal.
Unruly Apprentices
When “Upperworld” and “Underworld” Meet: Social Class and Crime in “The Mysteries of London (1844-46)
Rich people commit greater crimes than their poorer counterparts, but they are at their most dangerous when members of the “upperworld” and “underworld” work together.
Radical Robin Hood: “Little John and Will Scarlet” (1865)
In 1865 the penny dreadul “Little John and Will Scarlet” appeared, full of ideas of democracy and egalitarianism.
G. W. M. Reynolds on Robin Hood
The “vicious republican” of the Victorian era on Robin Hood.