The term has become an idiom describing a person who engages in skilful deception. In the novel, he is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London trained and overseen by the elderly Fagin.
The Dodger is a pickpocket and his nickname refers to his skill and cunning in that occupation. Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist.
