Working Paper Example

September 8, 2000

Reading: Walker, Popular Justice, 47-79
 

Key Ideas:

1. Municipal governments in eastern cities created full-time police departments in response to wave of riots between 1830s and 1850s
 
        first created in Boston 1838, New York 1845

        loosely modeled on London "bobbies" created in 1829

2. 19th-century police officers on the beat were almost completely unsupervised, more responsive to the demands of neighborhood residents whom they encountered than they were to the police administration, and very often willing to accept money in exchange for ignoring or even protecting illegal businesses

3. Like the police, 19th-century criminal courts also operated with very limited structure or oversight. Prior to the Civil War, private prosecutions allowed city residents to use the law to settle their own disputes. Following the Civil War, routine prosecutions often settled quickly & informally by low-level courts that proved surprisingly willing to dismiss cases or accept plea bargains.
 

Source of evidence:

Most evidence synthesized from secondary sources -- historiansí accounts of origins of police. The most frequently used sources include:

        various works by Mark Haller and by Samuel Walker
        Von Hoffman, "An Officer of the Neighborhood" (officerís diary)
        Steinberg, Transformation of Criminal Justice (private prosecutions)
        Friedman & Percival, Roots of Justice (Oakland courts)

[NOTE: Unlike Popular Justice, most of the readings you will be asked to write about will be based on primary sources ó documents, institutional records, writings from the time. I expect good working papers to explain the nature of the primary sources.]
 

Questions / Comments:

Walker argues that cities created police in response to problem of urban riots between 1830s and 1850s, yet the police proved surprisingly unable to curb riots. How come? If they couldnít curb riots, what were problems were they well-suited to address? Why?

What function did police serve in nineteenth-century cities? What does the nature of the police tell us about public authority in nineteenth-century cities?