NCJ Number
129251
Date Published
1989
Length
313 pages
Annotation
This is the first study of the establishment and development of San Francisco's courts, police, and jails from the American conquest in 1846 through 1852.
Abstract
There is an abundance of literature on criminal justice in San Francisco during the Gold Rush years, but most of it focuses on the activities of the notorious Vigilance Committees of 1851 and 1856. This book focuses on what was happening in San Francisco's traditional criminal justice system which operated as a primary social-control institution. This new historical interpretation of the period concludes that the legends of unchecked violent crime in early San Francisco are exaggerated and that the institutions of justice were not as corrupt and inept as traditionally portrayed. The book documents the crime rate during this period. In examining how much predatory crime occurred in the Gold Rush city, the book reappraises the activities of the Vigilance Committee of 1851, concluding that allegations of unchecked crime were used by the vigilante group to justify taking city government out of the hands of the established authorities and politicians. The book shows that San Francisco's sudden increase in violent crime was not merely an outgrowth of the Gold Rush but also paralleled similar patterns and conditions in other mid-19th century cities across the country. As disparate groups with opposing value systems clashed in growing American cities, government institutions designed for an earlier, simpler time were incapable of managing the rapid change. Chapter notes, a 116-item bibliography, and a subject index (Publisher abstract modified)