NCJ Number
144780
Date Published
1993
Length
325 pages
Annotation
This book examines elements of what the author contends was the decisive period in the development of comprehensive Federal crime control, the presidency of Herbert Hoover from 1929 through 1933.
Abstract
The author argues that during these years, three factors combined to produce a break with the past for Federal crime control. The first was the proliferating burden on the judicial system, a burden caused mostly by the enforcement of Prohibition. The second was the emergence of new perspectives in law, sociology, and criminology, as well as the rise of academically trained social scientists eager to apply their knowledge to reform of the legal system. The third catalyst was the election of a president committed to reform and receptive to the approaches of the activist social scientists. In examining this interplay of circumstances, theory, and political leadership, this book examines not only the sensational crime-control events of Hoover's term -- the Al Capone trial and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping -- but also Federal prison reform, the reorganization of the Federal court system, and the inner working of the Wickersham Commission, which undertook a comprehensive assessment of the Federal criminal justice system. The book portrays Hoover as a progressive president who believed in social amelioration through the application of scientific expertise to public policy. Chapter notes, a 621-item bibliography, and a subject index