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An Intellectual and Political History of Crime, Poverty and Public Safety: Public Housing in late 20th Century Chicago

Thesis advisor: Michael Glass / This thesis explores intellectual debates over the relationship between crime and poverty with a focus on Chicago's public housing projects as a case study. During the late twentieth century, Americans' understanding of crime and poverty underwent a fundamental shift from the ideas of the "sociological reformers" to the "tough on crime consensus." Influenced by emerging criminological research, politicians and policymakers altered their crime control and public safety strategies. Once believing that crime could be prevented by eradicating poverty and investing in social programs, in the early 1970s, their focus shifted to retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Chicago, however, had a different - yet hightly important - trajectory in regards to public safety. Using its public housing projects as testing grounds for crime control and practices, the city largely defined what it meant to be "tough on crime" in the late twentieth century. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: Scholar of the College.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_109986
Date January 2024
CreatorsYustin, Nicholas Michael
PublisherBoston College
Source SetsBoston College
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, thesis
Formatelectronic, application/pdf
RightsCopyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.

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