Who Are the Criminals?: The Politics of Crime Policy from the Age of Roosevelt to the Age of Reagan

314 Pages·2010·0.71 MB·English

by  John Hagan

WHO ARE THE CRIMINALS?
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WHO ARE THE CRIMINALS?
The Politics of Crime Policy
from the Age of Roosevelt to the Age of Reagan
John Hagan
Princeton University Press • Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hagan, John, 1946–
Who are the criminals? : the politics of crime policy from the age of
Roosevelt to the age of Reagan / John Hagan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14838-0 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Crime—Government policy —
United States. 2. Crime—United States. 3. Criminal justice, Administration
of —United States. I. Title.
HV6789.H24 2010
364.97309(cid:1)045—dc22 2010018663
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Palatino
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
To the extended Hagan family,
with love and appreciation
When the capital development of a country
becomes a by- product of the activities of a casino,
the job is likely to be ill- done.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1936
You can’t go forward if you don’t know where you’ve been.
—Hank Williams, 1952
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Prologue
Washington Crime Stories 1
Chapter 1
The President’s Secret Crime Report 10
Chapter 2
Street Crimes and Suite Misdemeanors 31
Chapter 3
Explaining Crime in the Age of Roosevelt 69
Chapter 4
Explaining Crime in the Age of Reagan 101
Chapter 5
Framing the Fears of the Streets 137
Chapter 6
Framing the Freeing of the Suites 168
Chapter 7
Crime Wars, War Crimes, and State Crimes 213
Epilogue
The Age of Obama? 257
Acknowledgments 269
References 271
Index 293
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
2.1 Immigration Flows and Homicide Trends 35
2.2 Statistical Approach to the Defi nitions of Crime
and Disrepute 43
2.3 Kinds of Crime and Disrepute 46
2.4 Homicide Rates in English Counties and Cities,
1200–1970 59
2.5 Imprisonment in the United States, 1925–2002 61
2.6 Arrests Rates for Drug Offenses among
Juveniles, by Race, 1965–1991 62
2.7 Trends in Index Crime Rate and Imprisonment 63
2.8 Use of Handguns in Murder by Three Age
Groups 64
2.9 High School Seniors Reporting Drug Use 66
3.1 Model of the Social Reality of Crime 94
6.1 Explaining Credit Derivatives 185
7.1 Effects of Separate and/or Combined Forces
with Settlement Density on Hearing of Racial
Epithets 242
7.2 Ethnic Backgrounds of Victims of Forcible Rape 246
7.3 Distribution of Torture, Forcible Rape, and
Sexual Assaults by Period, 1968–2003 247
7.4 Affi liations of Perpetrators of Forcible Rape 248
Tables
2.1 Estimates of European and American Murder
Rates 60
7.1 Analysis of State Rape in Darfur and
Pre- invasion Iraq 228