The hegemonic narrative and the social construction of deviance: the case of the Black Hand

摘要

This essay examines Black Hand crime in the city of Chicago from 1892 to 1931. The Black Hand was a crude method of crime in which Italian immigrants and others were extorted for money. This research argues that much of what we know about Black Hand crime is a media construction. The method of analysis used to conduct this investigation involved the content analysis of 280 newspaper accounts of Black Hand crime. This essay also examines the institutional legacy of the Black Hand phenomenon and argues that the inappropriate linking of Black Hand crime to the Sicilian Mafia led to the development of the alien conspiracy theory, forever linking organized crime in American society to the Italian immigrant. This essay concludes that the media play an important role in defining the societal construction of crime. The findings also support the social constructionist argument that definitions of deviance are subjectively determined.