Talk:Thief-taker

Article quality improvement - University project

Hello everybody! I am an Italian student from a History of English Culture class at Ca' Foscari University in Venice. As part of my exam I have been assigned to improve an article related to the topic of Crime and Justice in the 18th Century England, so this article is the lucky choice. To begin, I was thinking of using the following bibliography:

• Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Tales from the Hanging Court, Bloomsbury Academic (London, 2006)
• Tim Wales, 'Thief-Takers and their Clients in Later Stuart London', in Paul Griffiths and Mark S. R. Jenner (eds.), Londinopolis: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London Manchester University Press (Manchester, 2000)
• J.M. Beattie, Policing and Punishment in London, 1660-1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror, Oxford University Press (New York, 2001)
• Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Clive Emsley, Sharon Howard and Jamie McLaughlin, et al., The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 24 March 2012)

I also wanted to give the article a more formal look, with a lead and a series of paragraphs. Therefore, I would like to capitalise on the work already done on the article making it to serve as the lead. Then, I intend to expand the article creating a historical section based on the above bibliography.

If anyone is willing to give me advice on bibliography or on the article sections, and most of all to correct me if I make mistakes, please do! I would really appreciate it, since I am new to the editing world. Thank you. Altereli (talk) 10:40, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

suggestion for the improvement of the article

Hi @Altereli:, I read the article and found the paragraphs reasonably ordered and the register carefully chosen. However, as our topics are interlinked I thought about suggesting writing more about Charles Hitchen rather than mentioning him in the list of famous thief-takers, as he was as powerful as Wild. You could find the information about him in oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which has its website as well. Hope you will find my suggestion helpful and would not mind giving yours too. --Lela Lazishvili (talk) 15:15, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Thankyou for your suggestion! I was thinking of including a list of leading thief-takers, but I will spend some words more on Wild and Hitchen in the main block of paragraphs as well, as you suggested. Altereli (talk) 10:11, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion

Hi @Altereli:! I read the article and it is very well constructed. I saw you put a link to the Bow Street Runners page in the See also section. Have you thought about spending some words on them also in the article, as a further development of the thief-taker figure? I think it might be interesting. Keep up with the good work! --Elisa.danesin (talk) 14:14, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

Thankyou for the hint! It would be of interest actually to give indications on the destiny of these figures; hence I will dedicate a paragraph to this topic. Altereli (talk) 10:16, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Tone of notable Thief Takers

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think the language/tone in the notable Thief Takers section is a little weird. Ejj003 (talk) 00:47, 13 October 2022 (UTC)