![]() Less is known, however, about the relationship between crime and punishment or the process through which suspects became prisoners during the interwar period. Historians have produced a rich literature on early twentieth-century violence, particularly on homicide, and the prison. crime and punishment between the two world wars. This essay explores the curious, counterintuitive connection of U.S. The relationship between crime and punishment is complex trends in the latter are often only loosely connected to the former. But the late twentieth-century law-and-order crusade and the ensuing birth of the carceral state are built on the social, legal, and political changes of an earlier, less familiar disjuncture between crime and punishment, when less crime produced more punishment, particularly for African Americans. To be sure, the recent increase in incarceration is more pronounced than its interwar counterpart. During the interwar period policy makers, political leaders, and law enforcers launched a massive, hydra-headed response to a crime wave that quickly crested, justifying more aggressive policing, spearheading a dramatic expansion in federal law enforcement, forging the rise of the federal prison system, producing a sharp increase in prison populations, and establishing the high-water mark for executions in the nation's history. This disjuncture, however, occurred not during the closing decades of the twentieth century rather, it unfolded between the end of World War I and the start of World War II. ![]() The mismatch between patterns of crime and punishment has commanded particular attention from historians, including many of the contributors to this special issue. Legislative reforms and law enforcement strategies that would have previously encountered fierce political opposition enjoyed popular support when cast as crucial weapons in a war on crime-and when implicitly framed in terms of protecting respectable white citizens from African American “predators.” At the same time, law and order became racialized, and conviction and incarceration rates for African Americans jumped disproportionately. While the rate of capital crime decreased, the rate of executions increased. Conviction rates soared and prison populations skyrocketed, even as crime levels plunged. They passed draconian laws, closed legal loopholes, initiated a massive prison-building program, limited the power of juries, and expanded federal law enforcement, all in a frantic “war on crime.” At both the local and the national levels, opportunistic politicians seized on the crime panic, manipulating fears of street crime to secure office and expand government power. Notwithstanding this plunge in serious crime, legislators embarked on a far-reaching law-and-order crusade. Like the earlier rise in crime, the drop in violence was most precipitous in the nation's major urban centers, although murder, assault, and robbery fell nearly everywhere. Rates of violent crime plummeted, falling to their lowest levels in decades. ![]() With few offenders apprehended, let alone convicted, the prison population remained small, and executions were rare, despite the explosion in crime.īut then both trends reversed. Feckless, corrupt policemen proved no match for a new breed of criminal, while gullible jurors, indifferent prosecutors, and clever defense attorneys who exploited legal technicalities rendered the criminal justice system toothless, leaving the public in peril. Unable to respond to the crisis, the American legal system appeared weak and ineffective. Violent crime surged, and rates of murder and robbery exploded, particularly in large cities, for a quarter century. ![]() Patterns of crime and punishment in the United States moved in opposite directions, disrupting social life, distorting political institutions, and roiling race relations. At first glance, this story seems familiar, if baffling.
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