Historic cities permanently marked criminals through bodily branding to advertise moral difference

Evidence

These images are part of what Berger and Luckman refer to as the ‘conceptual machinery that accounts for the deviant condition’, and as such, perform a basic function in justifying a particular view of the world: ‘… the deviant’s conduct threatens the societal reality as such, putting into question its taken-for-granted cognitive and normative … operating procedures.’ … The only way to make sense of vandalism is to assume that it does not make sense; any other definition would be threatening. — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics, 335 (#expands, via linked claim)

We shall discover that “what is going on” has undergone a historical change, and that this change is intimately linked to the matter of what clues are most reliable in the crucial task of identifying strangers. Chapter Two focuses on the preindustrial city. It argues that in this city, public spaces contained such a conglomeration of persons and activities that locational clues were of little value. Appearances, however, were fairly reliably hooked to identity. Chapter Four focuses on the modern city. It argues that in the modern city, the opposite is true. Here, public spaces “specialize” in certain persons and activities, while appearances can be highly deceiving. Each type of city, that is, has its characteristic type of order, which allows its citizens to make relatively accurate identifications of one another. The preindustrial city is characterized by the dominance of appearential ordering; the modern city, by the dominance of spatial ordering. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 11 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Preindustrial city streets displayed suffering and mutilation at levels incomprehensible to moderns; Cities bred specialized thieves and con men, not just honest commerce; Images of deviance serve to justify societal norms and values. — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics: the…, 335 (+6 more)

Related

• Preindustrial cities made criminals permanently identifiable through bodily branding and mutilation. (similarity 0.85)
• Preindustrial cities branded criminals so their status remained publicly legible (similarity 0.84)
• Cities historically shifted from appearance-based to location-based stranger identification (similarity 0.83)
• Preindustrial city streets displayed suffering and mutilation at levels incomprehensible to moderns (similarity 0.82)
• Cities bred specialized thieves and con men, not just honest commerce (similarity 0.81)
• Cheap mass-produced clothing enabled the modern city’s masked heterogeneity. (similarity 0.80)
• Preindustrial cities relied primarily on appearance with spatial segregation as a secondary cue (similarity 0.79)
• Preindustrial urban heterogeneity differed by being overtly displayed, not by existing (similarity 0.78)
• Urban history trends from appearance-based to location-based ordering (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Images of deviance serve to justify societal norms and values. #expands (0.65) — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics, 335
• Cities historically shifted from appearance-based to location-based stranger identification #contradicts (0.60) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 11
• Industrialization shifted urban stranger-identification from dress to location #contradicts (0.55)
• Preindustrial urbanites signaled their identity through visible costuming #exemplifies (0.50)