Reading the wondrous Adventures of Augie March -- on which I have one or two reserves that I'll maybe put together later on -- I run into Bellow's definition of present day's police strip searches humiliations and ritual abuses. Of course back then it was only for supposed criminals, and now it's for everyone's hard luck (in the sense that you don't even have to be labeled as a criminal to be humiliated):

We had to empty our pockets; they were after knives and matches and such objects of harm. But for me that wasn't what it was for, but to have the bigger existence taking charge of your small things, and making you learn forfeits as a sign that you aren't any more your own man, in the street, with the contents of your pocket your own business: that was the purpose of it.
-- p. 174

on the other hand, right in the beginning of depression, when Augie had his adventures a lot of well meaning fellows bummed around and were given the label of "criminal" free of charge. Definitions can move just a little and involve so many--