This article provides an overview of the dictionaries of the Polish criminal jargon, which were published before 1930s. Particular attention is paid to the dictionaries and works of the 19th century, because it is at this time that most of the works of such authors as Estreicher, Kurka, Ludwikowski and Walczak appeared. A special place is given to the description of the work of G. Ulashin, who, on the basis of the work of K. Rusiecki, compiled a dictionary reflecting the criminal jargon of the 1840s. We also consider the phraseological units that were selected from the lexicographical works of the authors mentioned, as well as that of S.Udziela, J. Łoś, J. Jaworski and A. Landau. We attempted to compare four dictionaries from the point of view of the content of some phraseological units in them, and also to explain the reasons for the discrepancies. The analysis data are given in the table. There we give the assumptions about the origin of the units.