Criminality Oliver was a poor orphan; he was raised in a workhouse and made his way to London, where was "rescued" by a group of young thieves controlled by Fagin. Thus Oliver, according to Victorian ideas about the link between poverty and criminality, is seen as being "naturally" predisposed to crime, because he was brought up poor, and was not school educated. Nevertheless, Oliver's purity and strength of spirit are never compromised throughout the novel
