Controlling the Dangerous Classes: A Critical Introduction to the History of Criminal Justice

by Shelden, Randall G.

• ISBN13: 9780205318896
• ISBN10: 0205318894
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

This book covers the history of criminal justice from a critical perspective and explores the historical biases of the criminal justice system. The overall theme of this book is that both the making of laws and the interpretation and application of these laws throughout the history of the criminal justice system has, historically, been class, gender, and racially biased. Moreover, one of the major functions of the criminal justice system has been to control those from the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, that is, the "dangerous classes." This theme is explored using a historical model, tracing the development of criminal law through the development of the police institution, the juvenile justice system, and the prison system. For anyone interested in the history of criminal justice.

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Richard Quinney
Preface	vii
Introduction The History of Criminal Justice from a Critical Perspective	1	(5)
Perspectives on Criminal Law	6	(10)
Consensus/Pluralist Model	8	(1)
Interest Group/Conflict Model	9	(2)
A Critical/Marxist Model	11	(5)
The ``Dangerous Classes''	16	(3)
Outline for the Book	19	(3)
Perpetuating the Class System: The Development of Criminal Law	22	(47)
Introduction: Nature and Function of Criminal Law	23	(1)
Criminal Law in Ancient Times	24	(3)
The Emergence of Criminal Law in Athens	25	(1)
Criminal Law in Rome	26	(1)
Acephelous or ``Non-State'' Societies and Law	26	(1)
Criminal Law in Medieval Times	27	(4)
Emergence of Criminal Law in England	29	(2)
Criminal Law as an Ideological System of ``Legitimate'' Control	31	(1)
Emergence of the Concept of ``Crime''	32	(6)
Two Case Studies: The Law of Theft and the Law of Vagrancy	34	(4)
Emergence of Criminal Law in America	38	(3)
Racism and the Law	41	(6)
An Illustrative Case: The Tramp Acts	45	(2)
Controlling the Dangerous Classes: Drug Laws	47	(15)
Recent Developments: Crack versus Powder Cocaine	54	(8)
Whose Interest Does the Law Serve?	62	(7)
The Development of the Police Institution: Controlling the Dangerous Classes	69	(43)
Early Police Systems	70	(2)
The Emergence of the Police Institution in England	72	(5)
The Metropolitan Police of London	73	(4)
The Development of the Police Institution in the United States	77	(6)
An Illustrative Case: Buffalo, New York	79	(4)
The Rise and Growth of Private Policing	83	(2)
The Growth of the Police Institution in the Twentieth Century	85	(17)
The Progressive Era	86	(5)
New Developments in Private Policing	91	(2)
Policing the Ghetto in the 1960's	93	(1)
Police Corruption: A Continuing Problem	94	(8)
Still Controlling the ``Dangerous Classes'': the War on Gangs and the War on Drugs	102	(10)
The War on Gangs	102	(6)
The War on Drugs	108	(4)
Processing the Dangerous Classes: The American Court System	112	(40)
Introduction	113	(3)
The Development of the Modern Court System: The Colonial System	116	(1)
Elite Dominance of the Legal Profession in Colonial America	117	(1)
Processing Criminal Cases: The Justice of the Peace in Colonial America	118	(2)
Upholding Morality	119	(1)
Hunting Witches and Religious Dissidents: Colonial Court Processes	120	(2)
After the Revolution: The Establishment of the Federal System and the Supreme Court	122	(4)
Post-Civil War Changes in the Court System	126	(2)
The Jail: A Clear Case of ``Rabble Management''	128	(3)
The 1960's: The Warren Court and the Reaffirmation of the Right to Counsel	131	(4)
Traditional versus Radical-Criminal Trial	135	(5)
The Traditional Criminal Trial	135	(1)
Challenging the System: Radical-Criminal Trials	135	(5)
The Modern Era: The War on Drugs and African Americans	140	(7)
The Ultimate Sanction for the Dangerous Classes: The Death Penalty	147	(5)
Housing the Dangerous Classes: The Emergence and Growth of the Prison System	152	(43)
Early Developments of Imprisonment, 1600--1900	153	(1)
Early Capitalism and the Emergence of the Workhouse	154	(2)
Late Eighteenth Century Reforms and the Birth of the Prison System	156	(5)
The Development of the American Prison System	161	(5)
The Walnut Street Jail	161	(2)
The Pennsylvania and Auburn Systems of Penal Discipline	163	(3)
The Rise of the Reformatory	166	(2)
Convict Labor	168	(2)
Convict Leasing	170	(3)
Twentieth Century Developments in the American Prison System	173	(1)
Inmate Self-Government	173	(1)
Classification, Diagnosis, and Treatment: The New Prison Routine	174	(4)
The Decline in Prison Industries	177	(1)
The ``Big House''	178	(1)
The Emergence of the Federal Prison System and the System of Corrections	179	(2)
The Federal Prison System	179	(2)
The System of Corrections	181	(3)
The Modern Era, 1980 to the Present: Warehousing and The New American Apartheid	184	(4)
The American Gulag	188	(3)
Some Concluding Thoughts	191	(4)
Controlling the Young: The Emergence and Growth of the Juvenile Justice System	195	(38)
Pre-Nineteenth-Century Developments	196	(5)
The House of Refuge Movement	201	(7)
Conceptions of Delinquency: 1820-1860	204	(1)
The Fate of the Refuge Movement	205	(1)
Ex Parte Crouse	206	(2)
Mid-Nineteenth-Century Reforms	208	(6)
The Fate of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Reforms	213	(1)
The Child-Saving Movement and the Juvenile System	214	(2)
Conceptions of Delinquency: 1860-1920	216	(4)
The Fate of the Child-Saving Movement	218	(2)
Twentieth-Century Developments in Juvenile Justice	220	(2)
Still Controlling Minorities and the Poor: Current Juvenile Justice Practices	222	(5)
Giving up on Delinquent Youth: Transfer to Adult Court	227	(6)
Perpetuating Patriarchy: Keeping Women in Their Place	233	(34)
Women and the Law	234	(4)
Patriachy and Images of Women	234	(2)
Punishing and Controlling Women	236	(2)
The Ultimate Punishment: A History of Women's Prisons	238	(4)
The Emergence of Women's Reformatories	242	(1)
The Role of Racism	243	(1)
Controlling Women's Bodies and Sexuality	244	(2)
Young Women and the Juvenile Justice System	246	(11)
Keeping Girls in Their Place: The Development of Institutions for Girls	246	(1)
The Child-Saving Movement and the Juvenile Court	247	(4)
``The Best Place to Conquer Girls''	251	(2)
The Juvenile Court and the Double Standard of Juvenile Justice	253	(4)
Women and Criminal Justice Today	257	(4)
Sentencing Patterns, the War on Drugs, and Women	261	(5)
Women in Today's Prisons	262	(1)
A Profile of Women in Prison	262	(4)
Some Concluding Thoughts	266	(1)
A Look Ahead in the New Millennium: The Crime-Control Industry---Still Controlling the Dangerous Classes	267	(26)
The Crime-Control Industry	269	(3)
The Correctional-Industrial Complex:Cashing in on Crime	272	(3)
Privatization of Prisons: More Profits for Private Industry	275	(5)
Private Security: Crime Is Good for Business	280	(3)
Other Components of the Crime-Control Industry	283	(1)
The Social Context: Growing Inequality	283	(5)
Where Do We Go From Here?	288	(5)
References	293	(21)
Name Index	314	(4)
Subject Index	318