Re:Hundreds arrested as crime chat network cracked
by simplicio on Thursday July 02, 2020 @12:08PM
(#23714783)
At least in the States, pickpocketing has almost disappeared. Part of this is probably part of the general trend of falling crime rates, but also because people carry much less cash around and cel-phones etc. are difficult to fence.
It's ostensibly a study of the specialized language of pickpockets, but actually goes in to great detail on how pickpocket gangs work.
Before reading this book, and knowing nothing about the subject matter, I had somehow assumed pickpockets worked alone and were just bottom-of-the-barrel amateur opportunists. I couldn't have been more wrong, as it turned out they work in highly organized units.
Fortunately, probably through the ubiquity of video surveillance, such gangs don't seem to be as widespread as they used to be.
[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Whiz-Mob-Correlation-Technical-Pickpo...