NCJ Number
93436
Date Published
1981
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Data on 311 female criminals operating in New York City's Lower East Side during the Progressive Era (1912 to 1917) show that these women, as participants in organized crime, were successful and upwardly mobile.
Abstract
The women were career criminals or were connected to bands, rings, syndicates, and combinations formed to conduct or aid illegal enterprises. The data come from reports of the Bureau of Social Morals, which was part of a Jewish association called the Kehillah. Both the Bureau and the Kehillah were part of the Jewish community's response to accusations of Jewish criminality. The Bureau studied the six police precincts of the Lower East Side from 1912 to 1917. The data on female criminals refute Progressive reformers' notions of female offenders. Detailed information is given on five distinct groups of female criminals: those involved solely in prostitution (prostitutes); those who achieved a management position, usually in a vice operation or displayed spcial business skills (entrepreneurs); those who engaged exclusively in stealing (thieves); a small group who were both prostitutes and thieves (whorethieves); and those who worked a combination of vice, gambling, and drug dealing (narcs). Of the 311 women, 149 were prostitutes, 78 entrepreneurs, 56 thieves, 4 whorethieves, and 24 were narcs. The data are analyzed to show differences and similarities of the various groups according to such variables as age and recruitment patterns. The paper suggests new parameters for female roles in organized crime during the Progressive Era in which willfulness, independence, and assertiveness are central to an understanding of women in crime. Tables and 15 notes are included.