Criminal Justice in the United States, 1789–1939

This book traces the development of criminal law in America, from the start of the constitutional era to the rise of the New Deal order.

Elizabeth Dale (Author)

9781107401365, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 August 2011

194 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.25 kg

"...concise, engaging, and provocative synthesis..." -Ethan Zadoff, H-Law

This book chronicles the development of criminal law in America, from the beginning of the constitutional era (1789) through the rise of the New Deal order (1939). Elizabeth Dale discusses the changes in criminal law during that period, tracing shifts in policing, law, the courts and punishment. She also analyzes the role that popular justice - lynch mobs, vigilance committees, law-and-order societies and community shunning - played in the development of America's criminal justice system. This book explores the relation between changes in America's criminal justice system and its constitutional order.

1. Criminal justice and the nation, 1789–1860
2. Law and justice in the states, 1789–1839
3. Law vs justice in the states, 1840–65
4. States and nation, 1860–1900
5. Criminal justice, 1900–35
6. Rights and the turn to law, 1937–9.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], History of the Americas [HBJK]