Syndicate Women - by Chris M Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

"Syndicate Women uncovers a unique historical puzzle: women composed a substantial part of Chicago organized crime in the early 1900s before Prohibition, but during Prohibition, when criminal opportunities increased for men and women, women were largely excluded from organized crime. The US prohibition of the production, transportation, and sale of intoxicating beverages, from 1920 to 1933, dramatically altered the criminal landscape. During Prohibition, Chicago organized crime tripled in size, became a more centralized organization, spread geographically, surged in profits, and left women behind. Syndicate Women solves this puzzle by interrogating relational theories, historical data, and criminal networks"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In Syndicate Women, sociologist Chris M. Smith uncovers a unique historical puzzle: women composed a substantial part of Chicago organized crime in the early 1900s, but during Prohibition (1920-1933), when criminal opportunities increased and crime was most profitable, women were largely excluded. During the Prohibition era, the markets for organized crime became less territorial and less specialized, and criminal organizations were restructured to require relationships with crime bosses. These processes began with, and reproduced, gender inequality. The book places organized crime within a gender-based theoretical framework while assessing patterns of relationships that have implications for non-criminal and more general societal issues around gender. As a work of criminology that draws on both historical methods and contemporary social network analysis, Syndicate Women centers the women who have been erased from analyses of gender and crime and breathes new life into our understanding of the gender gap.

From the Back Cover

"Syndicate Women is a masterful piece of sociological detective work that brings to life the all-but-forgotten lives of the women entrepreneurs of Chicago's gangster era. Smith builds an innovative theoretical argument supported by an unprecedented array of historical and network data. Move over, Al Capone--scholars will no longer be able to ignore the women who help create and sustain organized crime."--Andrew V. Papachristos, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University

"Rich in historical detail, Syndicate Women brings to life the criminal activity of women--and men--of the Chicago underworld. Crime bosses have a part in this narrative, but it is the less prestigious positions--saloonkeeper and barmaid, brothel operator and worker--that Smith vividly captures. Using state-of-the-art network analysis, Smith shows how women offenders became increasingly marginalized as the Chicago syndicate prospered. A must-read for anyone theorizing or studying gender and crime." --Bill McCarthy, coauthor of Mean Streets: Youth Homelessness and Crime

"Smith provides rich description to set the scenes and eras and also draws from rigorous empirical analyses to make her analytic points." --Vanessa Panfil, author of The Gang's All Queer: The Lives of Gay Gang Members

"Smith's research offers a framework that can be smoothly transposed beyond the Chicago crime scene to multiple other settings that are shaped by similar gender-related and power-struggle dynamics." --Carlo Morselli, author of Crime and Networks

Review Quotes

"Smith's careful study is a welcome addition to the history of crime and criminal justice."
-- "Law and Society"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

About the Author

Chris M. Smith is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto.