NCJ Number
133646
Journal
Crime, Law, and Social Change Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (September 1991) Pages: 135-154
Date Published
1991
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The first governmental attempt to study organized crime occurred in 1929 under the auspices of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (the Wickersham Commission); it was followed by a second study, begun in 1965, by the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Observance. The two studies had very different entry points: the 1929 study examined events called organized crime, while the later study focused on people called organized crime.
Abstract
The Wickersham Commission originated in an attempt to analyze law enforcement and observance of Prohibition laws, but was soon expanded to include the entire machinery of law enforcement and the administration of justice. The Commission also studied the cost of crime in America. The Commission was formed in 1965 to take up the issue of organized crime. This author concludes that the observer who looks first at events and then at the persons associated with them tends to be more scientific and rational in his analysis, while the observer who defines a universe by the people it contains is more prone to conclusions based on ideology than on logic. 54 notes