Fifty years ago, crime was not regarded by the average ur- ban American as a chronic threat to his family and his property.
The wanton disorder in U.S. cities during the last half of the
19th century had steadily declined. Immigrants, impoverished
but more or less peaceable, had occupied once-dangerous hell-
holes, places like Buffalo's Canal Street or Manhattan's notori-
ous Five Points. There were still areas, of course, in both town
and country, that had a deservedly evil reputation. H...