NCJ Number
166419
Date Published
1997
Length
408 pages
Annotation
This book provides a historical overview of the history of murder in America and American culture's response to it.
Abstract
The chapters examine murder in various periods of American history. They include the pre-colonial British background; the Colonial era (1607-1776); the American Revolution and the early Republic (1776-1829); the Antebellum decades and the Civil War, (1829-1865); the Civil War to World War I (1865-1917); World War I to World War II (1917-1941); World War II to the Vietnam War (1941-1963); the Sixties (1963-1974); and contemporary America (1974 to the present). Two sets of questions are examined throughout the historic periods addressed. Both of them require that the story of homicide be set firmly inside the wider history of America, with its different regions and peoples. The first set of questions examines how and how well the justice system has worked in dealing with homicide and other capital crimes; who has run the system historically and for what ends; how efficiently it has detected murder and how fairly it has dealt with murder suspects; how legal theory compares with actual practice; and the kinds of killings that have been most harshly punished, tolerated, and even applauded. The other set of questions concerns the social or historical conditions that drive the number of homicides up or down. Issues considered in this set of questions include the factors of geographic change, migration from rural to urban areas, changes in family and justice institutions, media content, economic change, gun ownership, the frontier experience, Indian fighting, slavery, social class, and regional or racial differences and conflicts. Chapter references and a subject index