Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"With extensive archival analysis, attention to details and richness of data, the book provides a picturesque, entertaining yet rigorous picture of the unique illicit society of underground Chicago in the first 30 years of the 20th Century. . . . I highly recommend this book, which opens many historical, sociological, criminological, and organisational questions on gender inequalities and their structural contexts." * Global Crime *
"Smith’s careful study is a welcome addition to the history of crime and criminal justice." * Law & Society Review *
"This well-presented and well-researched work puts faces to significant women of the era, and shows how the dynamics of the relationships between men and women influenced the roles that women could access in illicit vice in Chicago."
* Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *
"It is beautifully written, appropriate for a broad audience of novices and experts, and challenges long-assumed relationships between gender, legal and social change, and crime."
* Journal of Social Structure *
"
Syndicate Women is a highly readable and entertaining study of a fascinating empirical puzzle with theoretical implications for its historical context as well as today. It showcases theories and techniques, as well as combinations of multiple theories and mixed methods in a way that is complementary rather than gratuitous, while contributing to important debates about the nature and study of criminality. Ultimately, the book offers lessons not only about female criminality, but about criminality in general."
* Theoretical Criminology *
"In short,
Syndicate Women stands out for its rich and engaging blend of historiographical and network-analytic techniques applied to a topic of both scholarly and general interest. The book will especially be of interest to readers who wish to know more about the application of network techniques to historical data, Prohibition-era criminal historiography, and the gender dynamics of organized crime."
* Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews *
"Smith’s careful study is a welcome addition to the history of crime and criminal justice."
* Law and Society *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Gender and organized crime.
2. Mapping Chicago’s organized crime and illicit economies.
3. Chicago, crime, and the progressive era.
4. Syndicate women, 1900–1919.
5. Chicago, crime, and prohibition.
6. Syndicate women, 1920–1933.
7. The case for syndicate women.
Notes
References
Index
