Варалице, џепароши и проститутке: дискурс колаборационистичке штампе о "лакшим" облицима криминала у градовима окупиране Србије 1941. године

English title: Scammers, Pickpockets, and Prostitutes: Collaborationist Press Discourse on Minor Forms of Crime in the Cities of Occupied Serbia in 1941 

This article analyzes the discourse of collaborationist newspapers in occupied Serbia in 1941, focusing on representations of so-called “light” forms of urban crime: fraud, pickpocketing, prostitution, gambling, mendicancy, juvenile delinquency and other forms of everyday deviance. The main sources are the daily newspapers Novo vreme and Obnova, which shaped public perceptions of crime in a context of military occupation, social disruption and political repression.

The article shows that reports on “light” crime were not merely marginal items of urban chronicle. They had a significant social and political function. Such reports contributed to the construction of the occupied city as a space of danger, disorder and moral decline, while at the same time presenting authority as a necessary guarantor of order. In this way, crime reporting became part of broader strategies of normalizing occupation and legitimizing collaborationist rule.

The article distinguishes different ways in which the press treated various forms of crime. In the case of pickpockets, newspapers often produced moral panic, emphasizing invisible danger in urban space, especially in public transport and crowds. In the case of juvenile delinquency, the press sometimes promoted prevention, socialization and reintegration into society. Prostitution and sexual immorality were not always presented as the most dangerous metaphor of social collapse, while mendicancy and Roma could be framed through racial and social stigmatization.

The analysis shows that criminal motives were most often explained through greed, self-interest and moral corruption, while deeper social causes — occupation, poverty, fear, shortages and the collapse of everyday security — were only partly recognized. Even when social and environmental conditions were acknowledged, the proposed solution was usually the radicalization of repressive measures, strengthening of authority, swift punishment and disciplining of the population.

The article is therefore not only a contribution to the history of crime in occupied Serbia, but also a study of how the press shaped public fear, moral boundaries, representations of order and the legitimacy of political authority. It demonstrates that seemingly “minor” topics — pickpockets, scammers, prostitutes, gamblers, beggars and juvenile offenders — were an important part of the media, moral and political order of occupation.