Slums breed crime
Housing poster: a photograph of brick tenements and a police van with officers and a man in a leather jacket, overlaid by a red shackled hand and the headline 'Slums Breed Crime'. The tell is a one-line causal claim set over an arrest scene, with no figures or source printed.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- United States Housing Authority; artist Beall
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
United States Housing Authority. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1757 (NAID 515429).
Text on the object
Slums Breed Crime UNITED STATES HOUSING AUTHORITY [on van:] [P]OLICE DEPARTMENT [signature:] BEALL [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1941
