Crime waves, culture wars and societal transformations

This paper argues that during key periods of social change in American history attempts to reform deviants and the debate over how to do it plays an important role the redefinition of values and norms and the achievement of a new consensus as to those values and norms in society. The current period (1968-present) is identified as one such period. The paper compares the current period with two other periods in American history, the antebellum period (1820–1860) and the Progressive Period (1890–1920). During both periods there was a wide spread sense of growing social disorder-fear of the dangerous classes in urban areas; a sense that cities were being overrun by immigrants; a general feeling that crime, dependant poverty, and delinquency were out of control. The wide spread sense of social breakdown during both periods was a response to fundamental changes going on at a societal level and resulted in significant social transformations. Basic changes in institutions of social control play a significant role in these social transformations during both these earlier periods. The paper argues that the current period (1968-present) is strikingly similar to the previous two, both in terms of the wide spread popular fear of social breakdown and in terms of the fundamental social changes taking place in society. The paper concludes with an exploration of the role reforms in institutions of social control broadly conceived might play in the general social transformations now occrring in American society.