In Hammett's writings, the social is constructed as a vast Hobbesian landscape of grim functionaries and desperate scrabblers[…]

It's a sad fact that most rapes go unreported.

Which when his german saw, the stony feare / Ran to his hart, and all his sence dismayd […]

And woe betide the peasant who protested! He would be lucky to escape with a few blows across the face from his lord's riding whip, for a noble landowner was also his peasant's judge and could punish him as he pleased.