Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities

History Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law Enforcement and Corrections

Homicide And History, Edward L. Ayers Jan 1992

Homicide And History, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Violence seems more threatening today than in the relatively recent past. For centuries, crime was kept out of sight. The "criminal classes" were segregated from the rest of society. Newspapers, police, and courts paid relatively little attention to crimes among the poor. Today, things are different: television news thrives on scenes of flashing lights, distraught parents, and bloody sidewalks. Police continually patrol parts of town they used to ignore. Modern transportation permits members of the "dangerous classes" to range more widely than before. As a result, the general population is far more aware of violence now than in the past.


Prisons, Edward L. Ayers Jan 1989

Prisons, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

American penitentiaries developed in two distinct phases, and southern states participated in both. Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Georgia built prisons before 1820, and between 1829 and 1842 new or newly reorganized institutions were established in Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama. Only the Carolinas and Florida resisted the penitentiary before the Civil War.