"Criminals" ??!
Absolutely NOT - remember that in those days the urban poor were regularly gaoled or strung up for minor offences of desperation - e.g. stealing gloves to survive .... Or bonded into service to pay for their passages. The rich/poor divide was the size of the Grand Canyon - the nobility and Church a tiny percentage who exploited the common people. England may have been the worst, France had the French Revolution, there was the Irish Potato Famine, Russian serfs in name only - actually slaves.
The story of urban slum life just prior to and during the Industrial Revolution makes for horrifying reading. I would use the tem "criminal" with a large grain of salt, actually never. And "sociopaths" is truly a stretch  .-( 
Spain settled Middle & South America with their surplus "nobility". How did that turn out ?
My sympathy extends to those victims of our not so brilliant humanity back then. They accomplished our current life style, democracy and free market economy of NA. 
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