Syndicate Women

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.

"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.", "Smith’s careful study is a welcome addition to the history of crime and criminal justice.", "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."  , "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."  , "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."  

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