I just wrote my MA thesis on the impact of crime on working class people in Victorian Wales/Britain, and how the criminal justice system operated at petty level.

Here's my secondary sources - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dAGEFV9SE-XC6XpGbL6o2rGJ8AL867Ka4VBz6ZiV1I4/edit?usp=sharing.

All the big British survey works are in there, and specialised studies, and the main historians of British Victorian crime. Be careful about anything by Tobias or pre-1960. It's riven with class warfare. Start with David J. V. Jones' work and go from there. He's very accessible. It's Wales specific but there's a great deal of comparative analysis with England too. We had the same legal system, albeit with a different character of judiciary. You need to get a good understanding of how JPs and Magistrates operated too, and the kind of people they were. They were world builders and leaders of their community that used the criminal justice system for their own ends at petty level.

Patrick Allitt's lecture series on Victorian Britain is probably the best that there is online - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorian-Britain/dp/B00DTV3ZI6

Old Bailey Online is your go to resource, but most petty offences took place in Petty Sessions Courts, which are held in local repositories and not digitised. They are fascinating sources though. Here's a sample of my Welsh data from late-Victorian Swansea.

I can help with any specific crimes too, or areas of Britain. Drop me a DM if you want to chat and welcome to the Victorian criminal world! Petty crime is a burgeoning field and it contains some fascinating human interest stories. There are also vast misconceptions abound about how the state treated working class people, and how the lower orders used the criminal justice system for their own ends.

Victorian England* I feel I should clarify.