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Changing Criminal Patterns in Buenos Aires, 1890 to 1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Julia Kirk Blackwelder  and
Lyman L. Johnson
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Extract

Despite the recent development of a broad literature on urbanization in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin America, the topics of public order and crime have eluded careful study.1 The historiography of Argentine urbanization evokes questions about social control, but we know little more about changing patterns of crime and policing than did contemporary observers. Immigration, labor organization, class struggle, and political violence have all been the subjects of scholarly inquiries that suggest both high levels of disorder and the necessity of official responses.2

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , November 1982 , pp. 359 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

1 The historical literature on 19th and 20th century urbanization is too broad to survey in a footnote. Morse, Richard M. has produced a number of useful surveys including: ‘Recent Research on Latin American Urbanization: A Selective Survey with Commentary,’ Latin American Research Review 1 (Fall, 1965) pp. 35–74Google Scholar (hereafter cited 1),' LARR Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 1971) pp. 3–52,Google Scholar and (Part II), LARR Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 1971) pp. 10–75.Google Scholar In addition, a useful bibliographical tool is the somewhat dated Latin American Urban Research, Vol. 1 (Beverly Hills, 1971)Google Scholar compiled by Francine F. Rabinovitz and Felicity M. Trueblood. Perhaps the most useful publications have grown out of the Symposia on Latin American Urbanization held concurrently with the International Congress of Americanists. The most recent in this series is edited by Harody, Jorge E., Morse, Richard M., and Schaedel, Richard P., Ensayos histórico-social sobre la urbanización en América Latina (Buenos Aires, 1978).Google Scholar Useful general studies include Beyer, Glenn H. (ed.), The Urban Explosion in Latin America: A Continent in Process of Modernization (Ithaca, 1967);Google ScholarHardoy, Jorge E., Las ciudades en América Latina (Buenos Aires, 1972);Google Scholar and Leo, Schnore, ‘On the Spatial Structure of Cities in the Two Americas,’ in Philip, Hausen and Leo, Schnore, (eds.), The Study of Urbanization (New York, 1965), pp. 347–98. In this vast body of material there have been few substantive discussions of criminal patterns as a part of the urbanization process. Recent work presented as papers by Boris Fausto on São Paulo and Robert M. Levine on Pernambuco and Taubate suggests that scholarly interest is increasing and that published results will be soon forthcoming.Google Scholar

2 Scobie, James R., Buenos Aires, Plaza to Suburb, 1870–1910 (New York, 1974),Google Scholar is the most interesting and useful study of this period. Sargent, Charles S., The Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1870–1930 (Tempe, Arizona, 1974),Google Scholar is a valuable supplement to Scobie's work. David Rock, Politics in Argentina 1890–1930, The Rise and Fall of Radicalism, offers the best short summary of the politics of the period and is particularly helpful in illuminating the relationship between the union movement and the Radical Party. Gino Germani has published a large number of studies on immigrant assimilation and mass mobilization. Some of the most useful are: ‘The City as an Integrating Mechanism,’ in The Urban Explosion in Latin America, by Beyere, Glenn H. (ed.), (Ithaca, 1967);Google ScholarEl proceso de urbanización en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1959);Google ScholarPolítica y socicdad en una época de transición: De la sociedad tradicional a la sociedad de masas (Buenos Aires, 1962); La movilidad social en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1956),Google Scholar and ‘La movilidad social en la Argentina,’ in Movilidad social en la sociedad industrial, by Lipset, Seymour M. and Reinhard, Bendix, (eds.), (2nd ed., trans. Ricardo Malfé, Buenos Aires, 1969), pp. 317–66.Google Scholar An important recent contribution is Klein, Herbert S., ‘La intcgración de italianos en la Argentina y los Estados Unidos: Un análisis comparativo,’ Desarrollo Económico, vol. 21 No. 81, (Abril–Junio, 1981) pp. 3–28.Google ScholarSzuchman, Mark D., Mobility and Integration in Urban Argentina. Córdoba in the Liberal Era (Austin, 1980),Google Scholar offers a useful comparative case. Two excellent studies of the working class are: José, Panettieri, Los Trabajadores en tiempos de la immigracion masiva en Argentina 1870–1910 (La Plata, 1966);Google Scholar and Julio, Godio, Historia del movimiento obrero argentino (Buenos Aires, 1972).Google Scholar

3 Our analysis is based on statistics on arrests and crimes reported to the police as they appear in the Anuario Estadistico de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires for the years 1883 through 1914. The yearbooks reported arrests by age and ethnicity for crimes against persons, crimes against property, public drunkenness, and disorderly behavior. Disorder arrests included the carrying of concealed weapons. Separate tabulations were published for all crimes against persons or property that were reported to the police.

4 A useful and reliable summary of Latin American demographic materials is provided by Boyer, Richard E. and Davies, Keith A., Urbanization in 19th Century Latin America: Statistics and Sources (Los Angeles, 1973).Google Scholar

5 Miller, Zane L., The Urbanization of Modern America: A Brief History (New York, 1973), provides a useful summary of the United States case, See particularly pp. 71–5.Google Scholar

6 Gino Germani offers a helpful overview of this immigration process in, ‘Mass Immigration and Modernization in Argentina,’ in Irving, Louis Harowitz, (ed.), Masses in Latin America (New York, 1970), pp. 289–330.Google Scholar

7 See Mark, Jefferson, Peopling the Argentine Pampas (New York, 1930);Google Scholar and Alsina, Juan A., La immigración en el primer siglo de la independencia (Buenos Aires, 1910).Google Scholar

8 The best discussion of this topic is Scobie, James R., Revolution on the Pampas (Austin, Texas, 1964), passim.Google Scholar

9 Nicolás, Besio Moreno, Puerto del Río de la Plata, Capital de la Argentina. Estudio critico de su población 1536–1936 (Buenos Aires, 1939), pp. 261–304.Google Scholar

10 Germani, , ‘Movilidad social,’ p. 330.Google Scholar

11 Sargent, , Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, pp. 29–31.Google Scholar

12 Panettieri, , Los trabajadores, pp. 43–8;Google Scholar and Scobie, , Buenos Aires, pp. 146–52.Google Scholar

13 Sargent, , Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, pp. 32–2, 40–1, and 64–5.Google Scholar

14 Scobie, , Buenos Aires, pp. 160–96,Google Scholar summarizes the development of the streetcar system in the city. See also Sargent, , Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, pp. 66–8.Google Scholar

15 Among the contemporary works see: Norberto, Pinero, Problemas de criminalidad (Buenos Aires, 1888);Google ScholarEusebio, Gómez, El problema penal argentino (Buenos Aires, 1912);Google Scholar and Lancelotti, M. A., La criminalidad en Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1912).Google Scholar

16 Roberto, Levillier, ‘Crime,’ in the City of Buenos Aires, General Census of the Population, Buildings, Trades and Industries of the City of Buenos Aires, (Buenos Aires, 1910), III, p. 406.Google Scholar

17 Ramón, Cortés, Historia de la policia de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (2 tomos, Buenos Aires, 1936). The discussion of reorganization and reform, including the introduction of a police academy is found in tomo 2, pp. 234−54.Google Scholar

18 Rock, , Politics in Argentina, pp. 67–97Google Scholar for a general overview. See Panettieri, , Los trabajadores for a discussion of antiforeign legislation aimed at foreigners in the labor movement, pp. 154–6.Google Scholar

19 Panettieri, , Los trabajadores, pp. 122–3Google Scholar for strikes 1878−96; and Sergio, Bagu, Evolución historica de la estratificación social en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1969) p. 96 for strikes during 1907−14.Google Scholar

20 Lancelotti, M. A., La criminalidad, pp. 41–5.Google Scholar

21 José, Leon Pagano, Criminalidad Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1964), pp. 104–13.Google Scholar

22 Roger, Lane, ‘Crime and Criminal Statistics in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts,’ Journal of Social History (Winter, 1968), pp. 156–63;Google ScholarMonkkonen, Eric C., Police in Urban America, 1860–1920 (New York, 1981), pp. 23–4, 71–2, 129–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Germani, , ‘Mass Immigration and Modernization,’ p. 294;Google Scholar and Alsina, Juan A., La immigración, p. 22.Google Scholar

24 Scobie, , Buenos Aires, p. 265.Google Scholar

25 For a discussion of the rent strike, see Oscar, Yujnovsky, ‘Políticas de vivienda en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1880–1914.’ Desarrollo Econcómico, vol. 74, No. 54 (07, 09 1974) Pp. 344–6.Google Scholar

26 Scobie, , Buenos Aires, p. 266,Google Scholar provides a table measuring daily wages in constant gold pesos. The wage in 1871 of 1.20 gold pesos fell to. 30–.50 in 1892 and only reached 1.00 in 1907. Scobie, , p. 155,Google Scholar notes that housing costs in Buenos Aires were higher than in Paris. Panettieri, , Los trabajadores, pp. 67–82,Google Scholar offers a detailed examination of the declining purchasing power of the laboring classes during this period. Adolfo, Dorfman, Historia de la industria argentina (Buenos Aires, 1942), p. 148, also argues that there was a decline in real wages in the 1880s and 1890s.Google Scholar

27 Louis, Chevalier, Laboring and Dangerous Classes in Paris during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (trans. Frank Jellinek, New York, 1973);Google ScholarMonkkonen, , op cit., pp. 20–5, 49–5, 87–8.Google Scholar

28 See, for example, Departmento Nacional de Trabajo, Boletin (Buenos Aires, 11 21, 1912), Numero 21, which compares housing and food costs among the world's largest cities.Google Scholar

29 Roberto, Levillier, ‘Crime,’ p. 394.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 404. Levillier noted that ‘… in the year 1908, 133 offenders, previously convicted, entered the Penitentiary, of whom 97 were young men of 18 to 30 years of age.’

31 Censo General de Población, Edificación, Comercio é Industrias de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1887, II (Buenos Aires, 1889), pp. 37–42; 1909, I (Buenos Aires, 1910), pp. 35–50.Google ScholarLancelotti, M.A, La criminalidad, p. 24, suggests that at least one third of all crimes were committed by young people under 20 years of age.Google Scholar

32 Lancelotti, , La criminalidad, p. 56.Google Scholar

33 Roberto, Levillier, ‘Crime,’ pp. 402–4, is a good short description of the Marcos Paz Reform Colony with its strong emphasis on farm labor.Google Scholar

34 For the impact of transportation development see Sargent, , Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, pp. 64–74.Google ScholarScobie, , Buenos Aires, devoted a chapter, ‘Streetcar and Neighborhood,’ (pp. 160–207) to the interaction of streetcar and railroad lines and spatial expansion of the city.Google Scholar

35 Scobie, , Buenos Aires, pp. 122–3 and 353–4. Bagu, Estratificación social en la Argentina, pp. 42–6 offers an excellent short summary of changes in the mortality rate which fell from 22.9 for the period 1886–90 to 11.4 for 1916–20.Google Scholar

36 For a discussion of strike activity during this period see Julio, Godio, Movimiento obrero argentino, pp. 122–31 and Panettieri, Los trabajadores, pp. 122–3 and 156–7.Google ScholarRock, , Politics in Argentina, p. 82, notes that states of siege were imposed 5 times, 1901–10, in response to strikes.Google Scholar

37 Lancelotti, , La criminalidad, pp. 28–2. In the period 1902–12, he sees a dramatic increase in violent crime.Google Scholar

38 Ramón, Cortés Conde, Historia de la policia, II, pp. 240 and 266.Google Scholar

39 Lancelotti, , La criminalidad, p. 12.Google Scholar

40 The professionalization of the criminal class was put forward by Lancelotti, ibid., quoting police reports. He estimates a permanent criminal class of 25,000 or more. As evidence for this, Lancelotti noted that 4,768 of the 9,233 individuals arrested between 1892 and 1899 were second or third offenders. For information on the professionalization of crime in the United States see Roger, Lane, Policing the City: Boston, 1822–1885, (New York, 1977), pp. 142–9.Google Scholar

41 Yujnovsky, , ‘Políticas de vivienda,’ p. 365;Google Scholar and Scobie, , Buenos Aires, p. 260,Google Scholar Table 1, Ethnic composition of the Federal District by Census Districts, 1909. Sargent discusses class segregation in Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, pp. 79–83.Google Scholar

42 One sign of this process was the declining proportion of population living in conventillos. Sargent, , Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, p. 33;Google Scholar and Panettieri, , Los trabajadores, p. 43.Google Scholar

43 Scobie, , Buenos Aires, pp. 129–35.Google Scholar