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Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement

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Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Research Collections in American Legal History General Editor: Kermit Hall Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement Part 2: Research Reports and General Subject Files Consulting Editor Samuel Walker Guide Compiled by Randolph Boehm A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement [microform]. microfilm reels : 35 mm. Accompanied by a printed guide, compiled by Randolph Boehm; entitled: A guide to the microfilm edition of Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. Contents: pt. 1. Records of the Committee on Official Lawlessness. pt. 2. Research reports and general subject files. ISBN 1-55655-667-5 1. Criminal justice, Administration of—United States— History—20th century. 2. Law enforcement—United States— History—20th century. 3. Police misconduct—United States— History—20th century. I. United States. Wickersham Commission. II. Title: Guide to the microfilm edition of Records of the Wickersham Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. [HV7419] 364.973—dc21 97-32041 CIP Copyright © 1999 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-667-5. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. v Scope and Content Note ....................................................................................................................... ix Source Note.............................................................................................................................................. xiii Reel Index Reels 1–9 Records of the Research Staff Library, Subject Files (NARA Entry 22) ................................ 1 Reels 10–11 Committee on Prohibition, Research Material (NARA Entry 51).......................................... 16 Principal Correspondents Index ......................................................................................................... 19 Subject Index........................................................................................................................................... 21 iii INTRODUCTION The material in the Records of the Reseach Staff Library, Subject Files, and Committee on Prohibition, Research Material of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, popularly known as the Wickersham Commission, represent a mixed bag for scholars. Much of the material consists of published articles and annual reports of agencies that are otherwise available. To the extent that they are collected here in one convenient location, this collection will facilitate research. The principal value of this collection, however, is in providing insights into the thinking that guided the commission’s work. The assembled materials represent subjects that commission members believed would be of value to them. Scholars can assess the final reports of the commission in two important respects. First, what materials were available in the fields of law, criminology, sociology, and social work that the commission did not collect? To what extent do such omissions provide insight into the social and ideological assumptions that the commission brought to its task? Second, to what extent do any of the final reports published by the commission reflect the research materials collected here? What materials appear to have been the most influential? Is there any evidence that the commission wilfully rejected the implications of materials that it collected and examined? While this collection will be of primary interest to scholars in the fields of criminal justice and legal history, there are materials of potential value to scholars working in other related fields. These materials include information on Prohibition and the role of alcohol in American society, juveniles and juvenile delinquency, women (particularly female police officers), immigration, race relations, and mental health. There are also scattered items by or about a number of prominent figures in American history, including President Herbert Hoover, future Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover. The materials in this collection provide potentially important source material on a number of specific topics, including those outlined below. The Work of the Wickersham Commission A number of items provide insight into the commission’s work in researching the various topics under consideration and producing its final reports. Reel 6, frame 0661, for example, presents a confidential progress report on the work of the v commission. Reel 7, frame 0347 contains material on the mission of the Wickersham Commission. Reel 7, frames 0590 and 0679 and Reel 9, frames 0536 and 0641 contain over 260 pages of commission minutes. Reel 9, frame 0111 reproduces minutes of a meeting on the special topic of crime and the foreign born. Reel 8, frame 0445 presents sixty-two pages of memos on the progress of the commission. Reel 9, frame 0487 presents a confidential preliminary report on Prohibition, the most controversial topic that the commission examined. Prohibition Enforcement The most contentious issue facing the commission was Prohibition enforcement. Many political commentators at the time believed, and many contemporary historians agree, that the commission’s final report on this issue was ambiguous and deeply compromised. The materials in this collection potentially provide insight into the nature of the debate within the commission. Relevant items are found at Reel 3, frame 0733; Reel 4 (numerous items); Reel 6, frames 0264 and 0703; Reel 7 (three items); Reel 8, frame 0752; Reel 9, frame 0487; Reel 10 (entire reel); and Reel 11 (entire reel). Criminal Statistics The commission’s work coincided with the development of the federal Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the first comprehensive set of national data on criminal activity and the system that continues in existence today. The UCR system was heavily criticized by leading criminologists at the time. The materials in this collection may provide insight into the debate over this major development in American crime policy. Reel 6, frame 0481 contains correspondence from a number of historically important figures: Sanford Bates, William O. Douglas, J. Edgar Hoover, Alfred Bettman, and others. Reel 6, frame 0520 contains a draft report on criminal statistics by Roscoe Pound of Harvard University Law School. Reel 9, frame 0736 contains a critique of federal criminal statistics. Reel 1, frame 0110 contains official documents on this topic. The Criminal Justice System Conventional wisdom today views the administration of criminal justice as a “system.” This paradigm, however, did not gain general acceptance until the 1960s with the work of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967). The first expert to understand the “systemic” nature of the administration of justice was Alfred Bettman. Material concerning Bettman’s views begins at Reel 3, frame 0520. J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau of Investigation Reel 3, frame 0330 contains 190 pages of material related to J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Bureau of Investigation (later the Federal Bureau of Investigation). vi These materials may provide insight into Hoover’s relationship with the Wickersham Commission, particularly with reference to his interests in protecting and expanding the bureaucratic turf of his agency. Other correspondence and memoranda from Hoover are scattered throughout this collection. Samuel Walker Professor, Department of Criminology University of Nebraska at Omaha vii SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE This edition of Records of the Wickersham Commission contains a miscellany of subject files that were placed by the commission staff in the organization’s central library. The materials cover a wide range of subjects and reflect the wide-ranging mission of the commission itself. The major focus is on the impact of Prohibition on the American system of criminal justice in the 1920s. The commission explored the operation of the entire American criminal justice system, however, including criminal procedures of the police, prosecutors, and courts; police training; prisons and penal programs; issues of federalism and interjurisdictional cooperation; the compilation and maintenance of crime statistics; and strategies for dealing with controlled substances. In addressing the many issues within its scope, the commission attempted to draw upon the work of leading social scientists. Its work marks one of the first sustained efforts to inform federal policy with what was then cutting-edge social scientific research. Many of the subject files include the results (in the form of drafts and memos) of contract research by leading social scientists for the commission. Some of the Wickersham Commission’s investigations were politically charged, including the issues of Prohibition, assessments of the “foreign born” in crime, attempts to identify economic and psychological “causes” of crime, and the problems of criminal conspiracies such as lynch mobs. The files include social scientific research on these topics as well as collections of news articles, editorials, and other expressions of popular opinion. The commission also looked abroad for
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