Premium
“The Whole Extent of the Evil”: Origin of Crime Statistics in the United States, 1880–1930
Author(s) -
GHATAK SARAN
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00329.x
Subject(s) - polity , state (computer science) , decentralization , power (physics) , political science , crime statistics , political economy , economic history , law , history , sociology , politics , computer science , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics
This article traces the origin and the development of crime statistics in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Due to the federal nature of the polity and decentralization of state power, the historical process of “governmentalization” of the state in the US differed markedly from other Western European nations. The path to the establishment of a national archive of crime statistics in the US was especially tortuous, and its trajectory was shaped by strategic alliances as well as conflicts between various institutional actors involved in the process.