ABSTRACT
After reading this chapter students should understand and be able to discuss:
How American law enforcement was influenced by British traditions
The impact of religion on early American criminal justice
Which amendments in the Bill of Rights had ramifications for the fledgling criminal justice system
Why law enforcement and criminal justice figured so little in the discussion of the founding fathers
The impact of American reform movements on the development of the penitentiary
How an absence of law enforcement and local government led to a strain of vigilantism and extralegal justice in America
Traditions of violence in American history and their impact on criminal justice institutions in different regions of America
Historian Richard Maxwell Brown has suggested that “violence has accompanied virtually every stage and aspect of our national existence.” 1 America was created by violence, and violence has remained part of the nation’s legacy to this day. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, violence was a frequent visitor to colonial America. Relations between the colonists were often more antagonistic than their relations with Great Britain. Conflicts broke out over colonial boundaries, and tensions sometimes escalated between westerners and easterners over concerns such as representation, taxation, Indian 103policy, and the delayed establishment of government institutions in frontier areas. In 1764, a group of Scotch-Irish frontier settlers from western Pennsylvania known as the Paxton Boys descended on Philadelphia, threatening to overthrow the government. The Quaker-dominated provincial assembly capitulated to their demands for better protection against Indian raids for their homes in Paxton and greater representation in the provincial assembly.