In the police record book there are a few categories that caught our attention. We believe that you might be interested in these too.
We were primarily interested because of two reasons:
a. Their unfamiliarity to contemporary readers.
b. Many contemporary readers would not consider these as “crime” today.
So we searched around and found these:
| Offense | Description of Offense | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Common night walker | Category referring to sex workers; indicates criminalization of sex work in mid-19th century Boston. If convicted, offenders served six months in a “house of correction”, “house of industry” or a “workhouse.” | 1860 General Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; p.821 |
| Idle and dissolute | Associated with begging and “persons who neglect all lawful business and habitually misspend their time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses, or tippling shops.” | Same source; p. 818 |
| Houses of ill fame | Referred to people who owned or administered brothels. Keeping a house of ill fame was punishable by imprisonment for a maximum of two years. | Same source; p. 818 |
| Lascivious cohabitation | Primarily referred to couples who lived together but were unmarried. Listed as ‘lewd and lascivious cohabitation’ in statutes, where ‘lewdness’ might refer to homosexuality in the 19th century. Punishable by up to three years in state prison, up to two years in jail, or a fine of up to three hundred dollars. | Same source; p. 818 |
Other interesting categories
There are other categories that we found to be interesting, but were unable to research more about. We believe that you might want to research more about these, starting with google searches and then digging up some archives. Choose your adventure!
Here are a few (and there are many more in the dataset):
- Common Sellers
- Female in male attire (sometimes appears as ‘women in men’s clothing’)
- Keeping noisy and disorderly houses (sometimes appears as ‘keeping noisy houses’)
- Indecent exposure
- Dance Hall Exhibitions
- Saturday evening law
- Sunday Law Violation
- Lewdness
- Vagabonds
- Bigamy
- Stubborn and truant children (sometimes appears as ‘stubborn children’ or just ‘truants’)