The volume presents an investigative survey of urban poverty and vice, classifying those who will and will not work and detailing the lives, haunts, and survival strategies of prostitutes, thieves, swindlers, professional beggars, and vagrants. It combines first-person autobiographical testimonies with police information and descriptive reportage, and outlines the operations of charitable, preventive, and punitive institutions in the city. Statistical maps and tables supplement essays on social agencies, showing patterns of criminality, dependency, and relief while assessing the comparative reach of preventive measures versus corrective responses.
