Eighteenth-century England’s lawlessness hit the unprotected middle class hardest

Evidence

More than just sensibilities were involved however. John Miller has called eighteenth century England, “the most lawless country in the civilized world” (1966:264), and it was undoubtedly the not-so-rich middle class, who could afford no protective covey of servants and guards, who bore the brunt of lawlessness. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 338