thumb|350px|Policemen apprehend a pickpocket taking a license from a publican.
thumb|upright=1.25|"Dandy PickPockets Diving: Scene Near St. James Palace" (1818) by [[Isaac Robert Cruikshank|I. R. Cruikshank]]
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A thief who works in this manner is known as a pickpocket.
Italy, France and Spain have the highest rates of pickpocketing.
As an occupation
thumb|Pickpocketing gang at [[Dongincheon station in Incheon, South Korea (1972)]]
Pickpockets and other thieves, especially those working in teams, sometimes apply distraction, such as asking a question or bumping into the victim. These distractions sometimes require sleight of hand, speed, misdirection and other types of skills.
Pickpockets may be found in any crowded place around the world. However, Barcelona, Spain; and Rome, Italy, have been noted as being particularly dangerous pickpocket havens. Thieves have been known to operate in high traffic areas such as mass transit stations, even boarding subway trains so they can use the distractions of crowds and sudden stop-and-go movements from the train to steal from others. As soon as the thieves have what they want, they simply get off at the next stop leaving the victim unable to figure out who robbed them and when. Pickpockets often target tourists because they carry valuables. Money belts and zippers can prevent being pickpocketed if traveling.
As entertainment
Pickpocketing skills are employed by some magicians as a form of entertainment, either by taking an item from a spectator or by returning it without them knowing they had lost it. became the highest-paid European performer in circuses during the 1950s. For 60 years he was billed as "the King of Pickpockets" and encouraged his son, Charly, to follow in his cunning trade, his offspring being billed as "the Prince of Pickpockets". Henri Kassagi, a French-Tunisian illusionist, acted as technical advisor on Robert Bresson's 1959 film Pickpocket and appeared as instructor and accomplice to the main character. British entertainer James Freedman created the pickpocket sequences for the 2005 film Oliver Twist directed by Roman Polanski. American illusionist David Avadon featured pickpocketing as his trademark act for more than 30 years and promoted himself as "a daring pickpocket with dashing finesse" and "the country's premier exhibition pickpocket, one of the few masters in the world of this underground art." According to Thomas Blacke, an American illusionist who holds several world records, it has become more difficult nowadays to pickpocket both in the streets and on the stage because the general population wears less, or lighter, clothing. In 2015 an artist hired a pickpocket to distribute sculptures at Frieze Art Fair in New York.
Methods
thumb|alt=Two adolescents pickpocketing tourists in a pedestrian area|Two pickpockets attempting to rob a Japanese tourist couple in [[Colmar, France. The tourists were alerted before the theft could be completed.]]
Pickpocketing often requires different levels of skill, relying on a mixture of sleight of hand and misdirection. To get the proper misdirect or distraction, pickpockets will normally use the distracting environment that crowds offer or create situations using accomplices. Pickpocketing still thrives in areas that are high in tourism. It is most common in areas with large crowds. Sometimes pickpockets put signs up that warn tourists to watch for pickpockets. This causes people to worry and quickly check if their valuables are still on them, thereby showing pickpockets exactly where their valuables are. Once a pickpocket finds a person they want to steal from, often called a "mark" or a victim, the pickpocket will then create or look for an opportunity to steal.
The most common methods used by modern-day pickpockets are:
- Offering to help someone with their luggage, then proceeding to disappear in a crowded area. This method works well because it gives the victim a false sense of trust with the pickpocketer.
- The next technique involves a team of three or more people and a crowded area. After finding their mark, two of the pickpockets slow down while walking in front of their mark appearing as a lost couple. Meanwhile, the mark is stuck behind them and their accomplice goes through the mark's bag unnoticed.
- Using large crowds where there is a small doorway, like that in trains, forcing the crowd to squeeze together to get through. A pickpocket uses this opportunity to stick their hands into peoples' pockets and go unnoticed.
- Using a stooge, a fake couple, or group goes up and ask the mark for help. For example, it can be to take their photo, hold their bag, or just simply asking for directions and getting them to hold a map. As this is happening their partner is going through the mark's bags while they are distracted helping.
- Using a child to pickpocket or as a distraction is common in many countries.
- "Bumping" is a method commonly depicted in film. The pickpocket bumps into the mark, briefly drawing their attention away from the goods.
- Another common technique is so-called the "slash and grab"; the pickpocket cuts a purse or bag strap without the mark's knowledge and makes off with the bag. They can then take the contents and leave behind the bag and any form of identification in the trash or a back alley.
Famous pickpockets
thumb|upright|18th-century engraving showing pickpocket [[George Barrington being apprehended in action]]
Famous fictional pickpockets include the Artful Dodger and Fagin, characters from the Charles Dickens' 1838 novel Oliver Twist. Famous true-life historical pickpockets include the Irish prostitute Chicago May, who was profiled in books; Mary Frith, nicknamed Moll Cutpurse; the Gubbins band of highwaymen; and Cutting Ball, a notorious Elizabethan thief. George Barrington's escapades, arrests, and trials, were widely chronicled in the late 18th-century London press.
Pickpocketing in the 17th and 18th centuries
thumb|upright|Farmer at the dentist, [[Johann Liss. While distracted his money is stolen. ]]
thumb|[[Hieronymus Bosch: The Conjurer, 1475–1480. A pickpocket, in cahoots with the conjurer, is shown at far left.]]
The 17th and 18th centuries saw a significant number of men and women pickpockets, operating in public and/or private places and stealing different types of items. Some of those pickpockets were caught and prosecuted for their theft, however, in most cases, they managed to avoid punishment (whether they were skilful enough not to get caught or they were acquitted in court).
In the 17th century, pickpockets were sometimes referred to as "cut-purses", as can be seen in some 17th century ballads. At that time, pockets were not yet sewn to clothes, as they are today. This means that the pockets were a small purse that people wore close to their body. This was especially true for women, since men's pockets were sewn "into the linings of their coats". Women's pockets were worn beneath a piece of clothing, and not "as opposed to pouches or bags hanging outside their clothes". These external pockets were still in fashion until the mid-19th century. Along with shoplifting, pickpocketing was the only type of crime committed by more women than men. It seems that in the 18th century, most pickpockets stole out of economic needs: they were often poor and did not have any economic support, and unemployment was "the single most important cause of poverty", leading the most needy ones to pick pockets.
In most cases, pickpockets operated depending on the opportunities they got: if they saw someone wearing a silver watch or with a handkerchief bulging out of their pocket, the pickpockets took the item. This means that the theft was, in such cases, not premeditated. However, some pickpockets did work as a gang, in which cases they planned thefts, even though they could not be sure of what they would get (Defoe's Moll Flanders gives several examples of how pickpockets worked as a team or on their own, when the eponymous character becomes a thief out of need).
The prosecutions against pickpockets at the Old Bailey between 1780 and 1808 show that male pickpockets were somewhat younger than female ones: 72% of men pickpockets convicted at the time were aged from under 20 to 30, while 72% of women convicted of picking pockets were aged between 20 and 40.