United States. A criminalized act is when a deviant act becomes criminal and law is written, with defined 
sanctions, that can be enforced by the criminal justice system. 
2 
Jaywalking 
In the 1920s, auto groups aggressively fought to redefine who owned the city street. As cars began to spread to 
the streets of America, the number of pedestrians killed by cars skyrocketed. At this time, the public was outraged 
that elderly and children were dying in what was viewed as ‘pleasure cars’ because, at this time, our society was 
structured very differently and did not rely on vehicles. Judges often ruled that the car was to blame in most 
pedestrian deaths and drivers were charged with manslaughter, regardless of the circumstances. In 1923, 42,000 
Cincinnati residents signed a petition for a ballot initiative that would require all cars to have a governor limiting 
them to 25 miles per hour, which upset auto dealers and sprang them into action to send letters out to vote against 
the measure. 
 
Vote No 
It was at this point that automakers, dealers, and others worked to redefine the street so that pedestrians, not 
cars, would be restricted. Today, these law changes can be seen in our expectations for pedestrians to only cross at 
crosswalks. 
2. Farmer, L. (2016). Making the modern criminal law: Criminalization and civil order. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System
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