Screen LibraryThe roots of violent crime in America : from the gilded age through the great depression /
"Barry Latzer's "The Roots of Violent Crime in America" is a sweeping, comprehensive, in-depth history of murder, assault, rape, and other crimes of violence in the United States. Latzer challenges much of the conventional thinking about violent crime by combining the theoretical...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
Louisiana State University Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Baton Rouge, Louisiana : |
| Publication Dates: | [2020] |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"Barry Latzer's "The Roots of Violent Crime in America" is a sweeping, comprehensive, in-depth history of murder, assault, rape, and other crimes of violence in the United States. Latzer challenges much of the conventional thinking about violent crime by combining the theoretical perspectives and methodological rigor of criminology with both a synthesis of historical scholarship and original research and analysis. In doing so, he provides a record of the rise and fall of violent crime in American history, especially from the late nineteenth century to the end of the Great Depression, and contests many of the shibboleths associated with that history. Many of Latzer's conclusions belie current thinking about crime in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For example, he suggests that urban poverty was not a significant cause of violent crime in the era. Indeed, in the late nineteenth century, when U.S. cities were expanding at a torrid pace and impoverished immigrants were flooding into city slums, violent crime rates and predatory attacks on strangers were relatively modest, especially when compared to what he deems the crime tsunami of the post-1960s era. Latzer goes on to show that rural areas were far more violent than large cities in the period, when the rural South and the thinly populated Far West had much higher levels of violent crime than the big cities of the East and Midwest. He contends that the weakness of government controls and the subculture of violence of southerners played significant roles in elevating rural violence. Latzer downplays racism and bigotry as causes of violent crime, pointing out that many social groups confronted massive levels of discrimination and abuse, yet only some engaged in violent crime at high levels. According to him, much depends on the cultural predispositions of the group in question. For instance, both African Americans and white southerners were particularly violent, though the mistreatment of blacks far |
| Carrier Form: | xiv, 400 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-391) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780807174296 0807174297 |
| Index Number: | HV6789 |
| CLC: | D771.288 |
| Call Number: | D771.288/L365 |