The dynamite, wreckage, and scum in our cities: The social construction of deviance in industrial America

Class Jurisprudes: Free Labor Ideology and For-Profit Penal Labor in Gilded Age Courts

“…Treatise author Christopher Tiedeman argued that burdening the public with pauperism was a crime necessitating compensatory work (Tiedeman 1886, 118) 18 . As bourgeois voices demanded action, municipalities expanded law enforcement and imposed servitude, such that criminalized paupers became convict laborers (Ringenbach 1973, 11-13; Katz 1983, 180; Monkkonen 1984; Adler 1994). The conversion of poor into imprisoned laborers embodied class values demanding the laboring class to labor (Rodgers 1978, 223; Phelps 1992).…”

Unauthorized Migrants and the (Il)Logic of “Crime Control”: A Human Rights Perspective on US Federal and Local State Immigration Policies

“…These immigrants poured into cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, where they encountered long‐standing ethnic biases that, in turn, were exacerbated by the many social problems that emerged in the “ghettos” in which they settled. In his best‐selling book Our Country , Congregationalist minister Josiah Strong articulated the fears that were widely held by Anglo Americans, including “experts” on crime: “Immigration complicates our moral and political problems by swelling our dangerous classes” (cited in Adler 1994, 37). “They [immigrants] are a volatile people”, “exasperated and goaded they become a dangerous, turbulent, blood thirsty element” (cited in Adler 1994, 39).…”

“…In the United States, immigrants were first defined en masse as a ''dangerous class'' in the 19th century. Social reformers, intellectuals and public officials alike embraced the term in response to several waves of immigration that brought, for the first time, millions of Irish Catholics, Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as other groups defined as ''non-White'' to America (Adler 1994). These immigrants poured into cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, where they encountered long-standing ethnic biases that, in turn, were exacerbated by the many social problems that emerged in the ''ghettos'' in which they settled.…”

“…Police departments grew dramatically in size and perhaps more importantly, the powers accorded officers were broadened enormously. First and foremost, police were given greater power to arrest -including the power to arrest ''dangerous characters'' before any crime was committed (Adler 1994). According to Friedman and Percival (1981), ''police roamed the street, in a 'trawling' operation [that] swept offenders into their nets, in gigantic numbers, like schools of fish''.…”

“…In the United States, this reality reflects the racial and class biases that have often tainted immigration policy. More than a century ago, thousands of new immigrants from Europe who were defined as non‐White and/or poor were arrested without “reasonable cause”, sentenced to work houses and penitentiaries, and in other ways denied their rights (Adler 1994). These policies were legitimated by defining these immigrants as “the dangerous classes”, a threat to public safety and the moral fabric of Anglo American society.…”