Advertisement
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime And Punishment In American History Lawrence Friedman, 1994-09-09 A history of the criminal justice system from colonial times to the present argues that the evolution of the criminal justice system has reflected transformations in American culture, economics, politics, and social structure |
| crime and punishment in american history: The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America Wilbur R. Miller, 2012-07-20 Several encyclopedias overview the contemporary system of criminal justice in America, but full understanding of current social problems and contemporary strategies to deal with them can come only with clear appreciation of the historical underpinnings of those problems. Thus, this five-volume work surveys the history and philosophy of crime, punishment, and criminal justice institutions in America from colonial times to the present. It covers the whole of the criminal justice system, from crimes, law enforcement and policing, to courts, corrections and human services. Among other things, this encyclopedia: explicates philosophical foundations underpinning our system of justice; charts changing patterns in criminal activity and subsequent effects on legal responses; identifies major periods in the development of our system of criminal justice; and explores in the first four volumes - supplemented by a fifth volume containing annotated primary documents - evolving debates and conflicts on how best to address issues of crime and punishment. Its signed entries in the first four volumes--supplemented by a fifth volume containing annotated primary documents--provide the historical context for students to better understand contemporary criminological debates and the contemporary shape of the U.S. system of law and justice. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime And Punishment in American History Lawrence Meir Friedman, 1994-09-01 A history of the criminal justice system from colonial times to the present argues that the evolution of the criminal justice system has reflected transformations in American culture, economics, politics, and social structure |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in America Elliott Currie, 2013 Argues that a policy of mass incarceration is ineffective and that prison expenditures could have greater impact on criminal violence if spent on prevention and rehabilitation programs. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in America David B. Wolcott, Tom Head, 2010 From the first incident of petty theft to modern media piracy, crime and punishment have been a part of every society. However, the structure and values of a particular society shape both the incidences of crime and the punishment of criminals. When the United States became an independent nation, politicians and civilians began the process of deciding which systems of punishment were appropriate for dealing with crimea process that continues to this day. Crime and Punishment in America examines the development of crime and punishment in the United Statesfrom the criminal justice practices of American Indians and the influence of colonists to the mistreatment of slaves, as well as such current criminal issues as the response to international terrorism. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime without Punishment Lawrence M. Friedman, 2018-05-31 In this compelling book, Lawrence M. Friedman looks at situations where killing is condemned by law but not by social norms and, therefore, is rarely punished. He shows how penal codes categorize homicides by degree of intent, which are in turn based on society's sense of moral outrage. Despite being officially defined as murder, many homicides have historically gone unpunished. Friedman looks at early vigilante justice, crimes of passion, murder of necessity, mercy killings, and assisted suicides. In his explorations of these unpunished homicides, Friedman probes what these circumstances tell us about conflicts in social and cultural norms, and the interaction of law and society. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in Latin America Ricardo D. Salvatore, Carlos Aguirre, Gilbert M. Joseph, 2001-09-20 DIVEssays in collection argue that Latin American legal institutions were both mechanisms of social control and unique arenas for ordinary people to contest government policies and resist exploitation./div |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in the Jim Crow South Amy Louise Wood, Natalie J. Ring, 2019 In recent years, there has been renewed attention to problems pervading the criminal justice system in the United States. The prison population has grown exponentially since 1970 due to the war on drugs, minimum sentencing laws, and other crime control measures instituted in the 1980s and 1990s. The U.S. now incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world, over 2 million in 2016. African Americans constitute nearly half of those prisoners. This volume contributes to current debates on the criminal justice system by filling a crucial gap in scholarship with ten original essays by both established and up-and-coming historians on the topics of crime and state punishment in the Jim Crow era. In particular, these essays address the relationship between the modern state, crime control, and white supremacy. Essays in the collection show that the development of the modern penal system was part and parcel of Jim Crow, and so are the racial injustices endemic to it. The essays that Wood and Ring have curated enrich our understanding of how the penal system impacted the New South; demonstrate the centrality of the carceral regime in producing racial, gender, and legal categories in the New South; provide insightful analysis of intellectual work around the U.S. prison regime; use the penal system to make a case for Southern exceptionalism; and extend conversations about the penal system's restriction of African American political and civil rights. As a whole, the volume provides a nuanced portrait of the dynamic between state power and white supremacy in the South beyond a story of top-down social control-- |
| crime and punishment in american history: A History of Crime and the American Criminal Justice System Mitchel P. Roth, 2018-10-10 This book offers a history of crime and the criminal justice system in America, written particularly for students of criminal justice and those interested in the history of crime and punishment. It follows the evolution of the criminal justice system chronologically and, when necessary, offers parallels between related criminal justice issues in different historical eras. From its antecedents in England to revolutionary times, to the American Civil War, right through the twentieth century to the age of terrorism, this book combines a wealth of resources with keen historical judgement to offer a fascinating account of the development of criminal justice in America. A new chapter brings the story up to date, looking at criminal justice through the Obama era and the early days of the Trump administration. Each chapter is broken down into four crucial components related to the American criminal justice system from the historical perspective: lawmakers and the judiciary; law enforcement; corrections; and crime and punishment. A range of pedagogical features, including timelines of key events, learning objectives, critical thinking questions and sources, as well as a full glossary of key terms and a Who’s Who in Criminal Justice History, ensures that readers are well-equipped to navigate the immense body of knowledge related to criminal justice history. Essential reading for Criminal Justice majors and historians alike, this book will be a fascinating text for anyone interested in the development of the American criminal justice system from ancient times to the present day. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Vengeance and Justice Edward L. Ayers, 1986 Exploring the major elements of southern crime and punishment at a time that saw the formation of the fundamental patterns of class and race, Ayers studies the inner workings of the police, prison, and judicial systems, and the nature of crime. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Punishment Without Crime Alexandra Natapoff, 2018-12-31 A revelatory account of the misdemeanor machine that unjustly brands millions of Americans as criminals. Punishment Without Crime offers an urgent new interpretation of inequality and injustice in America by examining the paradigmatic American offense: the lowly misdemeanor. Based on extensive original research, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense system that produces over 13 million cases each year. People arrested for minor crimes are swept through courts where defendants often lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty. This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people long before they are convicted; it punishes the innocent; and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime. As a result, vast numbers of Americans -- most of them poor and people of color -- are stigmatized as criminals, impoverished through fines and fees, and stripped of drivers' licenses, jobs, and housing. For too long, misdemeanors have been ignored. But they are crucial to understanding our punitive criminal system and our widening economic and racial divides. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018 |
| crime and punishment in american history: Cruel and Unusual Anne-Marie Cusac, 2009-03-17 The statistics are startling. Since 1973, America’s imprisonment rate has multiplied over five times to become the highest in the world. More than two million inmates reside in state and federal prisons. What does this say about our attitudes toward criminals and punishment? What does it say about us? This book explores the cultural evolution of punishment practices in the United States. Anne-Marie Cusac first looks at punishment in the nation’s early days, when Americans repudiated Old World cruelty toward criminals and emphasized rehabilitation over retribution. This attitude persisted for some 200 years, but in recent decades we have abandoned it, Cusac shows. She discusses the dramatic rise in the use of torture and restraint, corporal and capital punishment, and punitive physical pain. And she links this new climate of punishment to shifts in other aspects of American culture, including changes in dominant religious beliefs, child-rearing practices, politics, television shows, movies, and more. America now punishes harder and longer and with methods we would have rejected as cruel and unusual not long ago. These changes are profound, their impact affects all our lives, and we have yet to understand the full consequences. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Locking Up Our Own James Forman, Jr., 2017-04-18 WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTON ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWS' 10 BEST BOOKS LONG-LISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, CURRENT INTEREST CATEGORY, LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZES Locking Up Our Own is an engaging, insightful, and provocative reexamination of over-incarceration in the black community. James Forman Jr. carefully exposes the complexities of crime, criminal justice, and race. What he illuminates should not be ignored. —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative A beautiful book, written so well, that gives us the origins and consequences of where we are . . . I can see why [the Pulitzer prize] was awarded. —Trevor Noah, The Daily Show Former public defender James Forman, Jr. is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers. Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness—and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods. A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas—from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country. |
| crime and punishment in american history: The Constitution Michael Stokes Paulsen, Luke Paulsen, 2017-01-03 The definitive modern primer on the US Constitution, “an eloquent testament to the Constitution as a covenant across generations” (National Review). From freedom of speech to gun ownership, religious liberty to abortion, practically every aspect of American life is shaped by the Constitution. Yet most of us know surprisingly little about the Constitution itself. In The Constitution, legal scholars Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen offer a lively introduction to the supreme law of the United States. Beginning with the Constitution’s birth in 1787, Paulsen and Paulsen offer a grand tour of its provisions, principles, and interpretation, introducing readers to the characters and controversies that have shaped the Constitution in the 200-plus years since its creation. Along the way, the authors correct popular misconceptions about the Constitution and offer powerful insights into its true meaning. This lucid guide provides readers with the tools to think critically about constitutional issues — a skill that is ever more essential to the continued flourishing of American democracy. |
| crime and punishment in american history: An Eye for an Eye Mitchel P. Roth, 2014-10-15 From “an eye for an eye” to debates over capital punishment, humanity has a long and controversial relationship with doling out justice for criminal acts. Today, crime and punishment remain significant parts of our culture, but societies vary greatly on what is considered criminal and how it should be punished. In this global survey of crime and punishment throughout history, Mitchel P. Roth examines how and why we penalize certain activities, and he scrutinizes the effectiveness of such efforts in both punishing wrongdoers and bringing a sense of justice to victims. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, folklore, and literature, Roth chronicles the global history of crime and punishment—from early civilizations to the outlawing of sex crimes and serial homicide to the development of organized crime and the threat today of global piracy. He explores the birth of the penitentiary and the practice of incarceration as well as the modern philosophy of rehabilitation, arguing that these are perhaps the most important advances in the effort to safeguard citizens from harm. Looking closely at the retributions societies have condoned, Roth also look at execution and its many forms, showing how stoning, hemlock, the firing squad, and lethal injection are considered either barbaric or justified across different cultures. Ultimately, he illustrates that despite advances in every level of human experience, there is remarkable continuity in what is considered a crime and the sanctions administered. Perfect for students, academics, and general readers alike, this interdisciplinary book provides a fascinating look at criminality and its consequences. |
| crime and punishment in american history: An Essay on Crimes and Punishments Cesare Beccaria, Cesare marchese di Beccaria, Voltaire, 2006 Reprint of the fourth edition, which contains an additional text attributed to Voltaire. Originally published anonymously in 1764, Dei Delitti e Delle Pene was the first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought, which had changed little since the Middle Ages. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law in Europe and the United States. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Engines of Liberty David Cole, 2016-03-29 From the national legal director of the ACLU, an essential guidebook for anyone seeking to stand up for fundamental civil liberties and rights One of Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2016 In an age of executive overreach, what role do American citizens have in safeguarding our Constitution and defending liberty? Must we rely on the federal courts, and the Supreme Court above all, to protect our rights? In Engines of Liberty, the esteemed legal scholar David Cole argues that we all have a part to play in the grand civic dramas of our era -- and in a revised introduction and conclusion, he proposes specific tactics for fighting Donald Trump's policies. Examining the most successful rights movements of the last thirty years, Cole reveals how groups of ordinary Americans confronting long odds have managed, time and time again, to convince the courts to grant new rights and protect existing ones. Engines of Liberty is a fundamentally new explanation of how our Constitution works and the part citizens play in it. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Personal Identity in the Modern World Lawrence M. Friedman, 2022-08-01 In a society of strangers, there develops what can be called crimes of mobility -- forms of criminality rare in traditional societies: bigamy, the confidence game, and blackmail, for example. What they have in common is a kind of fraudulent role-playing, which the new society makes possible. This book explores the social and legal consequences of social and geographical mobility in the United States and Great Britain from the beginning of the 19th century on. Personal identity became more fluid. Lines between classes blurred. Impostors abound. |
| crime and punishment in american history: The History of Punishment Michael Kerrigan, 2017 No nation in history has valued individual freedom more highly than the United States of America. Its people's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is enshrined in the Constitution. But even the most free, democratic society cannot allow its members to do entirely as they want. Every civilization has had its code of values, its system of laws--and each has defended that system by punishing wrongdoers. America has led the world in developing and upholding an even-handed, humane, and accountable criminal-justice system. Although an impressive achievement, there are few signs of an end to crime. Where have we gone wrong? Have we tried too hard to be lenient or have we, on the contrary, brutalized offenders with harsh and unfair punishments? As enthralling as it is illuminating, this book sets our current situation in its longer-term perspective, tracing the history of punishment from the earliest times to the present day. Each title in this series contains a foreword from the Chairman of the National Law Enforcement Association, color photos throughout, charts, and back matter including: an index, chronology, and further reading lists for books and internet resources. Key Icons appear throughout the books in this series in an effort to encourage library readers to build knowledge, gain awareness, explore possibilities and expand their viewpoints through our content rich non-fiction books. Key Icons in this series are as follows: Words to Understand are shown at the front of each chapter with definitions. These words are set in boldfaced type in that chapter, so that readers are able to reference back to the definitions--building their vocabulary and enhancing their reading comprehension. Sidebars are highlighted graphics with content rich material within that allows readers to build knowledge and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Text-Dependent Questions are placed at the end of each chapter. They challenge the reader's comprehension of the chapter they have just read, while sending the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects are provided at the end of each chapter as well and provide readers with suggestions for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. And a Series Glossary of Key Terms is included in the back matter containing terminology used throughout the series. Words found here broaden the reader's knowledge and understanding of terms used in this field. |
| crime and punishment in american history: The Roots of Justice Lawrence M. Friedman, Robert V. Percival, 2017-10-10 Focusing on a single county at a time when the population grew from 24,000 to 246,000, the authors combine statistical analysis of documentary sources, contemporary newspaper accounts, and exploration in criminal case files to give a detailed reconstruction of the operations of the county's entire criminal justice system. By tracing the process from arrest to trial, sentencing, and punishment, this study will have a profound effect on our perception of American criminal justice. Originally published in 1981. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in African American History James Campbell, James Campbell provides an in-depth survey of crime, punishment and justice in African American history. Presenting cutting-edge scholarship on issues of criminal justice in African American history in an accessible way for students, he makes connections between black experiences of criminal justice and violence from the slave era to the present.-- |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in American History Lawrence Friedman, 2010-11-05 In a panoramic history of our criminal justice system from Colonial times to today, one of our foremost legal thinkers shows how America fashioned a system of crime and punishment in its own image. |
| crime and punishment in american history: American Exceptionalism in Crime and Punishment Kevin R. Reitz, 2018 Introduction -- American exceptionalism : perspectives -- American exceptionalism in crime, punishment, and disadvantage : race, federalization, and politicization in the perspective of local autonomy / Nicola Lacey and David Soskice -- The concept of American exceptionalism and the case of capital punishment / David Garland -- Penal optimism : understanding American mass imprisonment from a Canadian perspective / Cheryl Marie Webster and Anthony N. Doob -- The complications of penal federalism : American exceptionalism or fifty different countries? / Franklin E. Zimring -- American exceptionalism in crime -- American exceptionalism in comparative perspective : explaining trends and variation in the use of incarceration / Tapio Lappi-Seppälä -- How exceptional is the history of violence and criminal justice in the United States? : variation across time and space as the keys to understanding homicide and punitiveness / Randolph Roth -- Making the state pay : violence and the politicization of crime in comparative perspective / Lisa L. Miller -- Comparing serious violent crime in the United States and England and Wales : why it matters, and how it can be done / Zelia Gallo, Nicola Lacey, and David Soskice -- American exceptionalism in community supervision : a comparative analysis of probation in the United States, Scotland, and Sweden / Edward E. Rhine and Faye S. Taxman -- American exceptionalism in parole release and supervision : a European perspective / Dirk van Zyl Smit and Alessandro Corda -- Collateral sanctions and American exceptionalism : a comparative perspective / Nora V. Demleitner -- Index |
| crime and punishment in american history: The Death Penalty Stuart BANNER, Stuart Banner, 2009-06-30 The death penalty arouses our passions as does few other issues. Some view taking another person's life as just and reasonable punishment while others see it as an inhumane and barbaric act. But the intensity of feeling that capital punishment provokes often obscures its long and varied history in this country. Now, for the first time, we have a comprehensive history of the death penalty in the United States. Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the penalty was standard for a laundry list of crimes--from adultery to murder, from arson to stealing horses. Hangings were public events, staged before audiences numbering in the thousands, attended by women and men, young and old, black and white alike. Early on, the gruesome spectacle had explicitly religious purposes--an event replete with sermons, confessions, and last minute penitence--to promote the salvation of both the condemned and the crowd. Through the nineteenth century, the execution became desacralized, increasingly secular and private, in response to changing mores. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, ironically, as it has become a quiet, sanitary, technological procedure, the death penalty is as divisive as ever. By recreating what it was like to be the condemned, the executioner, and the spectator, Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment's many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment. Table of Contents: Abbreviations Introduction 1. Terror, Blood, and Repentance 2. Hanging Day 3. Degrees of Death 4. The Origins of Opposition 5. Northern Reform, Southern Retention 6. Into the Jail Yard 7. Technological Cures 8. Decline 9. To the Supreme Court 10. Resurrection Epilogue Appendix: Counting Executions Notes Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: [Banner] deftly balances history and politics, crafting a book that will be valuable to anyone interested in knowing more about capital punishment, no matter what his or her views are on the ethical issues surrounding the topic. --David Pitt, Booklist Reviews of this book: In this well-researched and clear account...Banner charts how and why this country went from having one of the world's mildest punitive systems to one of its harshest. --Publishers Weekly Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's book is fine and balanced and important. His lucid history of this grim subject is scrupulously accurate...It is refreshingly free of the tendentiousness and the sensationalism that this subject invites. --Richard A. Posner, New Republic Reviews of this book: [The] contrast between the past and the present can now be seen with great clarity thanks to...Stuart Banner and his comprehensive book, The Death Penalty...American historians have been slow to undertake anything like a full-scale study of the subject...Banner's book does much to fill [the gaps]. His book is an important and comprehensive...treatment of the topic. --Hugo Adam Bedau, Boston Review Reviews of this book: Despite the gruesome nature of the book's topic, it is difficult to stop reading. Banner's research is fascinating, his writing style compelling. Given the emotional nature of the subject (few people known to me are wishy-washy about whether the death penalty is moral or immoral), Banner walks the line of neutrality skillfully, without seeming evasive. --Steve Weinberg, Legal Times Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's The Death Penalty is a tour de force, remarkable for its neutrality as it traces the ways in which the death penalty has been applied, and for what kinds of crimes, from the Colonial era to the present. Banner...writes like a historian who believes perspective is best gained by dispassionately setting out what happened and letting everyone come to his or her own conclusions. I think, in this book, that works wonderfully. On a subject in which emotions run so high, it seems awfully useful to have a dispassionate voice. After all, if Banner allowed his own feelings on the death penalty--pro, con or somewhere in the middle--to be known, the book easily could be dismissed as a diatribe. He doesn't, and it can't. --Judith Neuman Beck, San Jose Mercury News Reviews of this book: Law professor Banner...offers a persuasive examination of the evolution of capital punishment from Colonial times onward. He makes clear that the death penalty has possessed generally consistent support from the US populace, although changes in the sensibilities of juries, executioners, legal theoreticians, and judges have occurred...Highly recommended. --R. C. Cottrell, Choice Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner aptly illustrates in The Death Penalty, like the nation, the death penalty has changed with the times...Banner's account spotlights a number of interesting trends in American history...Mostly evenhanded in the tour he provides through the history of the death penalty and its role in and reflection of American society, he has managed to provide an accessible look at what is a profoundly controversial and complicated subject. --Steven Martinovich, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Reviews of this book: For centuries, Stuart Banner tells us, Americans had been proud to possess a criminal-justice system that made less use of the death penalty than just about any other place on the globe, including the countries of western Europe. But no longer. Now we possess one of the harshest criminal codes in the world. The Death Penalty helps explain that turnaround, but only in the course of a complicated story in which different factors emerge at different times to play often unforeseeable roles...[This is a] superbly told history. --Paul Rosenberg, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's lucid, richly researched book brings us, for the first time, a comprehensive history of American capital punishment from colonial times to the present. He describes the practices that characterized the institution at different periods, elucidates their ritual purposes and social meanings, and identifies the forces that led to their transformation. The book's well-ordered narrative is interspersed with individual case histories, that give flesh and blood to the account. --David Garland, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: [An] informative, even-handed, chillingly fascinating account of why and how the U.S. government and many state governments decided to sponsor executions of criminals--even though innocent defendants might die, too. --Jane Henderson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reviews of this book: Stuart Banner's The Death Penalty is a splendidly objective achievement. Delightfully written, free of academic pretense, liberally sprinkled with apt references from contemporary sources, the book exhaustively explores the multifaceted evolution of America's penal practices. --Elsbeth Bothe, Baltimore Sun The Death Penalty is certain to be the definitive account of the American experience with capital punishment, from its beginnings in the seventeenth century, to the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001. This is a first rate piece of scholarship: well written, deeply researched, fascinating to read, and full of insights and good common sense. It is, in my view, one of the finest books to deal with this troubled and troubling subject. Historical and legal scholarship owe a debt of gratitude to Stuart Banner. --Lawrence Friedman, Stanford Law School A masterful book. This is a long overdue account which fills a huge gap in our understanding of America's long and complex relationship to state killing. With meticulous scholarship and lucid prose, Banner has written a compelling account of the place of capital punishment in our society. It sets the standard for all future scholarship on the history of the death penalty in America. --Austin Sarat, author of When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition The Death Penalty, a study we have badly needed, is the first history of the nation's engagement--as well as its disengagement--with capital punishment from the country's earliest days to the present. With a sure grasp of the constitutional issues, Stuart Banner greatly advances a conversation at last underway about the rightness of putting people to death for having inflicted a death. Banner's greatest and most useful feat is remaining dispassionate on a subject that he cares deeply about--as do a growing number of his fellow Americans. --William S. McFeely, author of Proximity to Death The Death Penalty beautifully explains the changing paths traveled by supporters and opponents of capital punishment over the years. It explores a subject of enormous symbolic importance to Americans today, linking our views about the death penalty to our larger concerns about crime. --David Oshinsky, author of Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice Banner's book is a superbly detailed and textured social history of a subject too often treated in legal abstractions. It demonstrates how capital punishment has gnawed at the conscience and imagination of Americans, and how it has challenged their efforts to define themselves culturally, politically, and racially. --Robert Weisberg, Stanford Law School |
| crime and punishment in american history: Presumed Criminal Carl Suddler, 2020-09-01 A startling examination of the deliberate criminalization of black youths from the 1930s to today A stark disparity exists between black and white youth experiences in the justice system today. Black youths are perceived to be older and less innocent than their white peers. When it comes to incarceration, race trumps class, and even as black youths articulate their own experiences with carceral authorities, many Americans remain surprised by the inequalities they continue to endure. In this revealing book, Carl Suddler brings to light a much longer history of the policies and strategies that tethered the lives of black youths to the justice system indefinitely. The criminalization of black youth is inseparable from its racialized origins. In the mid-twentieth century, the United States justice system began to focus on punishment, rather than rehabilitation. By the time the federal government began to address the issue of juvenile delinquency, the juvenile justice system shifted its priorities from saving delinquent youth to purely controlling crime, and black teens bore the brunt of the transition. In New York City, increased state surveillance of predominantly black communities compounded arrest rates during the post–World War II period, providing justification for tough-on-crime policies. Questionable police practices, like stop-and-frisk, combined with media sensationalism, cemented the belief that black youth were the primary cause for concern. Even before the War on Crime, the stakes were clear: race would continue to be the crucial determinant in American notions of crime and delinquency, and black youths condemned with a stigma of criminality would continue to confront the overwhelming power of the state. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in African American History James Campbell, 2013 African American history has been scarred by violent and discriminatory law enforcement - from the mass executions of rebel slaves through to the present day in which more black citizens are incarcerated than ever before. This book provides an in-depth overview of crime, punishment, and justice in African American history. It presents cutting-edge scholarship on major issues of criminal justice history in the United States, and explores everyday African American experiences alongside famous trials and court decisions. It also highlights the ways in which resistance to oppressive policies, punishment, and vigilante justice has advanced the broader struggle for black freedom, and driven an ongoing process of criminal justice reforms.--Back Cover. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Russia Nancy Kollmann, 2012-10-11 A magisterial account of criminal law in early modern Russia in a wider European and Eurasian context. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China Frank Dikötter, 2002 This book is a richly textured social and cultural study exploring the profound effects and lasting repercussions of superimposing Western-derived models of repentance and rehabilitation on traditional categories of crime and punishment. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Troublesome Women Erica Rhodes Hayden, 2019-02-08 This book traces the lived experiences of women lawbreakers in the state of Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1860 through the records of more than six thousand criminal court cases. By following these women from the perpetration of their crimes through the state’s efforts to punish and reform them, Erica Rhodes Hayden places them at the center of their own stories. Women constituted a small percentage of those tried in courtrooms and sentenced to prison terms during the nineteenth century, yet their experiences offer valuable insight into the era’s criminal justice system. Hayden illuminates how criminal punishment and reform intersected with larger social issues of the time, including questions of race, class, and gender, and reveals how women prisoners actively influenced their situation despite class disparities. Hayden’s focus on recovering the individual experiences of women in the criminal justice system across the state of Pennsylvania marks a significant shift from studies that focus on the structure and leadership of penal institutions and reform organizations in urban centers. Troublesome Women advances our understanding of female crime and punishment in the antebellum period and challenges preconceived notions of nineteenth-century womanhood. Scholars of women’s history and the history of crime and punishment, as well as those interested in Pennsylvania history, will benefit greatly from Hayden’s thorough and fascinating research. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 United States, 1994 |
| crime and punishment in american history: Pleading Out Dan Canon, 2022-03-08 A blistering critique of America’s assembly-line approach to criminal justice and the shameful practice at its core: the plea bargain Most Americans believe that the jury trial is the backbone of our criminal justice system. But in fact, the vast majority of cases never make it to trial: almost all criminal convictions are the result of a plea bargain, a deal made entirely out of the public eye. Law professor and civil rights lawyer Dan Canon argues that plea bargaining may swiftly dispose of cases, but it also fuels an unjust system. This practice produces a massive underclass of people who are restricted from voting, working, and otherwise participating in society. And while innocent people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit in exchange for lesser sentences, the truly guilty can get away with murder. With heart-wrenching stories, fierce urgency, and an insider’s perspective, Pleading Out exposes the ugly truth about what’s wrong with America’s criminal justice system today—and offers a prescription for meaningful change. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Women and Capital Punishment in the United States David V. Baker, 2015-11-26 The history of the execution of women in the United States has largely been ignored and scholars have given scant attention to gender issues in capital punishment. This historical analysis examines the social, political and economic contexts in which the justice system has put women to death, revealing a pattern of patriarchal domination and female subordination. The book includes a discussion of condemned women granted executive clemency and judicial commutations, an inquiry into women falsely convicted in potentially capital cases and a profile of the current female death row population. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault, 2012-04-18 A brilliant work from the most influential philosopher since Sartre. In this indispensable work, a brilliant thinker suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Punishment in Popular Culture Austin Sarat, 2015-06-05 Resource added for the Criminal Justice – Law Enforcement 105046 and Professional Studies 105045 programs. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Smart on Crime Garrick L. Percival, 2015-07-28 The most punitive era in American history reached its apex in the 1990s, but the trend has reversed in recent years. Smart on Crime: The Struggle to Build a Better American Penal System examines the factors causing this dramatic turnaround. It relates and echoes the increasing need and desire on the part of actors in the American government system to construct a penal system that is more rational and humane. Author Garrick L. Percival points out that the prison boom did not naturally emerge as a governmental response to increasing crime rates. Instead, political forces actively built and shaped the growth of a more aggressive and populated penal system. He is optimistic that the shifting political forces surrounding crime and punishment can now reform the system, explaining how current political actors can craft more constructive and just policies and programs. The book shows how rationality and humanitarianism lead to a penal system that imprisons fewer people, does less harm to the lives of individual offenders and those close to them, and is less expensive to maintain. The book presents empirical data to concretely demonstrate what is working and what is not in today’s penal system. It closely examines policies and practices in Texas, Ohio, and California as comparative illustrations on what progress has been made or needs to be made in penal systems across the United States. The book includes a comprehensive discussion of highlighted issues, and relates more than two dozen interviews with pivotal political actors who clarify why there is a major shift underway in the American penal system. Their insights reveal paths that can be taken to improve the current penal system. |
| crime and punishment in american history: The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment Wesley G. Jennings, George E. Higgins, Mildred M. Maldonado-Molina, David N. Khey, 2016-01-19 The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment provides the most comprehensive reference for a vast number of topics relevant to crime and punishment with a unique focus on the multi/interdisciplinary and international aspects of these topics and historical perspectives on crime and punishment around the world. Named as one of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles of 2016 Comprising nearly 300 entries, this invaluable reference resource serves as the most up-to-date and wide-ranging resource on crime and punishment Offers a global perspective from an international team of leading scholars, including coverage of the strong and rapidly growing body of work on criminology in Europe, Asia, and other areas Acknowledges the overlap of criminology and criminal justice with a number of disciplines such as sociology, psychology, epidemiology, history, economics, and public health, and law Entry topics are organized around 12 core substantive areas: international aspects, multi/interdisciplinary aspects, crime types, corrections, policing, law and justice, research methods, criminological theory, correlates of crime, organizations and institutions (U.S.), victimology, and special populations Organized, authored and Edited by leading scholars, all of whom come to the project with exemplary track records and international standing 3 Volumes www.crimeandpunishmentencyclopedia.com |
| crime and punishment in american history: Crime and Punishment in Istanbul Fariba Zarinebaf, 2011-01-10 This vividly detailed revisionist history exposes the underworld of the largest metropolis of the early modern Mediterranean and through it the entire fabric of a complex, multicultural society. Fariba Zarinebaf maps the history of crime and punishment in Istanbul over more than one hundred years, considering transgressions such as riots, prostitution, theft, and murder and at the same time tracing how the state controlled and punished its unruly population. Taking us through the city's streets, workshops, and houses, she gives voice to ordinary people—the man accused of stealing, the woman accused of prostitution, and the vagabond expelled from the city. She finds that Istanbul in this period remains mischaracterized—in part by the sensational and exotic accounts of European travelers who portrayed it as the embodiment of Ottoman decline, rife with decadence, sin, and disease. Linking the history of crime and punishment to the dramatic political, economic, and social transformations that occurred in the eighteenth century, Zarinebaf finds in fact that Istanbul had much more in common with other emerging modern cities in Europe, and even in America. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Harsh Justice James Q. Whitman, 2005-04-14 Criminal punishment in America is harsh and degrading--more so than anywhere else in the liberal west. Executions and long prison terms are commonplace in America. Countries like France and Germany, by contrast, are systematically mild. European offenders are rarely sent to prison, and when they are, they serve far shorter terms than their American counterparts. Why is America so comparatively harsh? In this novel work of comparative legal history, James Whitman argues that the answer lies in America's triumphant embrace of a non-hierarchical social system and distrust of state power which have contributed to a law of punishment that is more willing to degrade offenders. |
| crime and punishment in american history: Malign Neglect Michael Tonry, 1995 Tonry focuses on the racial disparities in the criminal justice system, especially apparent discrimination toward black males. |
| crime and punishment in american history: A History of Infamy Pablo Piccato, 2017-04-25 A History of Infamy explores the broken nexus between crime, justice, and truth in mid-twentieth-century Mexico. Faced with the violence and impunity that defined politics, policing, and the judicial system in post-revolutionary times, Mexicans sought truth and justice outside state institutions. During this period, criminal news and crime fiction flourished. Civil society’s search for truth and justice led, paradoxically, to the normalization of extrajudicial violence and neglect of the rights of victims. As Pablo Piccato demonstrates, ordinary people in Mexico have made crime and punishment central concerns of the public sphere during the last century, and in doing so have shaped crime and violence in our times. |
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A midterm examination, a short research paper, and an end-of-semester
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encylopedia
According to the social and legal conventions of Blackstone's time (he died in 1780), an infant was a person under 7 years of age, while a child over 14 was punished as an adult if convicted of a crime.
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A mid-semester twenty-four-hour take-home examination, a short research
History 2810 Crime, Policing, and Punishment in the United …
Course Description. How do we police and punish crime in a democratic society? This course will explore how the answer to that question has changed over time, and how historians have understood the growth and impact of a carceral system that made the United States the global leader in incarceration.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EARLY NATIONAL AMERICA
the modes of punishment of white males and females, free black males and females, and male and female slaves in early Richmond. Before turning to rates of conviction and methods of punishment, it is in order to evaluate the crime trend of Richmond as reflected in the Hustings Court records for 1784-1820. An analysis of the major crimes
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An …
Structural theories mainly examine the organization of society and environmental conditions as being critical to explaining major crime and social control patterns. These perspectives are radical and positivistic (even combined), emerging in the late 19th century and intensifying in …
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the criminal justice system in America. A midterm examination, a short paper, and a final examination will be required.
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An …
The American colonists refused to pay the duty, and a group of American colonists disguised as Indians forced their way onto three British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped all of the cargo of tea into the harbor.
The Transformation of America’s Penal Order: A Historicized Political …
Specifically, over time, national political competition, federal crime control policy, and federal court decisions helped create new state-level political inno-vation and special interest groups that compelled lawmakers to in-creasingly dene the crime problem as a lack of punishment and to fi respond by putting more people in prison for longer p...
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encylopedia
Congressional members explored ideas such as a scientific approach to crime and punishment; the causes of crime, including intemperance and vice; and the nature of criminal populations, including the nationality of offenders.
Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and
Be- tween 1970 and 2010 more people were incarcerated in the United States than were. imprisoned in any other country, and at no other point in its past had the nation's eco- nomic, social, and political institutions become so bound up with the practice of punish- ment.
The Social History of Crime and Punishment America
The social history of crime and punishment in America: an encyclopedia / Wilbur R. Miller, general editor. v.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4129-8876-6 (cloth) 1. Crime--United States--History--Encyclopedias. 2. Punishment--United States--History--Encyclopedias. I. Miller, Wilbur R., 1944-HV6779.S63 2012 364.97303 ...
Crime, Law Enforcement, and Social - JSTOR
history of early American crime and law enforcement may be under-stood both as a discrete specialty and as part of a more broadly gauged attempt to comprehend social and legal change in Britain's North American colonies. 3. Samuel Walker, Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice (New York, 1980). 4.
American History Online - WTPS
The most helpless Americans, in both early and modern times, suffered punishments disproportionately. Crimes of the 17th century, dominated by religious concerns, included breaking the Sabbath, idolatry, blasphemy, and, of course, witchcraft.
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A mid-semester twenty-four-hour take-home examination, a short research
The Carceral State and the Politics of Punishment
Throughout American history, politicians and public officials have exploited public anxieties about crime and disorder for politi-cal gain. Over the past four decades or so, these political strategies and public anxieties have come together in the perfect storm.
Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments: A Mirror on the History of …
In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and deter -
Less Crime, More Punishment - JSTOR
This essay explores the curious, counterintuitive connection of U.S. crime and punishment between the two world wars. Historians have. produced a rich literature on early twentieth-century violence, particularly on hômicide, and the prison.
A History of the Death Penalty in America - Teach Democracy
In the American colonies, legal executions took place as early as 1630. As in England, the death penalty was imposed for many crimes, even minor ones such as picking pockets or stealing a loaf of bread. During the 1800s in England, for example, 270 crimes were capital offenses, or crimes punishable by death.
Penal Measures in the American Colonies: An Overview - JSTOR
we attempt to consider problems of crime and punishment in the American colonies in comparison to the problems and solutions in pre-industrial England and the Continent.
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A midterm examination, a short research paper, and an end-of-semester
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encylopedia
According to the social and legal conventions of Blackstone's time (he died in 1780), an infant was a person under 7 years of age, while a child over 14 was punished as an adult if convicted of a crime.
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A mid-semester twenty-four-hour take-home examination, a short research
History 2810 Crime, Policing, and Punishment in the United …
Course Description. How do we police and punish crime in a democratic society? This course will explore how the answer to that question has changed over time, and how historians have understood the growth and impact of a carceral system that made the United States the global leader in incarceration.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EARLY NATIONAL AMERICA
the modes of punishment of white males and females, free black males and females, and male and female slaves in early Richmond. Before turning to rates of conviction and methods of punishment, it is in order to evaluate the crime trend of Richmond as reflected in the Hustings Court records for 1784-1820. An analysis of the major crimes
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An …
Structural theories mainly examine the organization of society and environmental conditions as being critical to explaining major crime and social control patterns. These perspectives are radical and positivistic (even combined), emerging in the late …
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the criminal justice system in America. A midterm examination, a short paper, and a final examination will be required.
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An …
The American colonists refused to pay the duty, and a group of American colonists disguised as Indians forced their way onto three British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped all of the cargo of tea into the harbor.
The Transformation of America’s Penal Order: A Historicized Political ...
Specifically, over time, national political competition, federal crime control policy, and federal court decisions helped create new state-level political inno-vation and special interest groups that compelled lawmakers to in-creasingly dene the crime problem as a lack of punishment and to fi respond by putting more people in prison for longer p...
The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encylopedia
Congressional members explored ideas such as a scientific approach to crime and punishment; the causes of crime, including intemperance and vice; and the nature of criminal populations, including the nationality of offenders.
Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, …
Be- tween 1970 and 2010 more people were incarcerated in the United States than were. imprisoned in any other country, and at no other point in its past had the nation's eco- nomic, social, and political institutions become so bound up with the practice of punish- ment.
The Social History of Crime and Punishment America
The social history of crime and punishment in America: an encyclopedia / Wilbur R. Miller, general editor. v.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4129-8876-6 (cloth) 1. Crime--United States--History--Encyclopedias. 2. Punishment--United States--History--Encyclopedias. I. Miller, Wilbur R., 1944-HV6779.S63 2012 364.97303 ...
Crime, Law Enforcement, and Social - JSTOR
history of early American crime and law enforcement may be under-stood both as a discrete specialty and as part of a more broadly gauged attempt to comprehend social and legal change in Britain's North American colonies. 3. Samuel Walker, Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice (New York, 1980). 4.
American History Online - WTPS
The most helpless Americans, in both early and modern times, suffered punishments disproportionately. Crimes of the 17th century, dominated by religious concerns, included breaking the Sabbath, idolatry, blasphemy, and, of course, witchcraft.
AMH 4319: CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY - Department of History
This course will examine the history of crime and the development of the American criminal justice system. A mid-semester twenty-four-hour take-home examination, a short research
The Carceral State and the Politics of Punishment
Throughout American history, politicians and public officials have exploited public anxieties about crime and disorder for politi-cal gain. Over the past four decades or so, these political strategies and public anxieties have come together in the perfect storm.
Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments: A Mirror on the History …
In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and deter -
Less Crime, More Punishment - JSTOR
This essay explores the curious, counterintuitive connection of U.S. crime and punishment between the two world wars. Historians have. produced a rich literature on early twentieth-century violence, particularly on hômicide, and the prison.
A History of the Death Penalty in America - Teach Democracy
In the American colonies, legal executions took place as early as 1630. As in England, the death penalty was imposed for many crimes, even minor ones such as picking pockets or stealing a loaf of bread. During the 1800s in England, for example, 270 crimes were capital offenses, or crimes punishable by death.
Penal Measures in the American Colonies: An Overview
we attempt to consider problems of crime and punishment in the American colonies in comparison to the problems and solutions in pre-industrial England and the Continent.
