The 40th Anniversary of the Crime Report
by Thomas E. Feucht, Ph.D., and Edwin Zedlewski, Ph.D.
About the Authors
Dr. Feucht is the deputy director for research and evaluation and
Dr. Zedlewski is the associate deputy director for research and
evaluation at the National Institute of Justice.
Editors Note: More than four decades ago, the
President of the United States established the Commission
on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice to examine
public safety in the United States. An overarching
question guided its work: What should be the role of the
Federal Government in fighting crime and enhancing public
safety? That question remains as important today as it was then.
The Commissions answers form the history, character, and
mission of todays National Institute of Justice and its sister
bureaus in the Office of Justice Programs.[1]
On the 40th anniversary of the Commissions seminal report,
The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society,[2]
the Journal asked two of the National Institute of Justices
(NIJ) most senior researchers to commemorate the
leadership and vision of the Presidents Crime Commission
and to celebrate the accomplishments of NIJs State and local
criminal justice and research partners.
The 1960s were a tumultuous decade.
The United States faced increasing
social unrest at home, as it fought a
war overseas. Lyndon Johnson, who had
risen to office following the assassination
of John F. Kennedy, was confronted with
significant challenges as he began his
1964 presidential campaign. Johnson
brought to his campaignand ultimately
to his presidencya vision of America that
would help meet those challenges. Believing
that the Nation could become a Great
Society,[3]
he outlined his commitment to
fight poverty, improve education, and end
racial inequality.
The Presidents ambitious agenda envisioned
that the Federal Government would address
a broad spectrum of social problems. For all
its breadth, however, Johnsons plan paid little
attention to the issue of crime. His failure to
include any new significant Federal role in
fighting crime was not surprising. Early in the
1964 campaign, Johnson had declared that
crime was a local problem and that the
Federal Government did not have the
powernor should it haveto deal with it.
His opponent, Barry Goldwater, raised
the issue repeatedly during the campaign.
Goldwater decried the Nations crime
problem and challenged what he characterized
as Johnsons disregard for public safety.
Although Johnson was elected in a landslide,
his position on the issue of crime
would soon recognize that crime really
was a national problem, and the Federal
Government needed to provide new
leadership to combat it.
The Blueprints to Banish Crime
As interest in the debate grew, it became
clear that the Nation lacked even the most
basic information about crime and crime
trends. It was nearly impossible to say just
how bad crime really was because there
were no reliable, comparable data on crime
across jurisdictions.[4]
A lack of operational data on the police, courts,
and other justice agencies made it impossible
to measure what was being done to fight crime.
Soon after his inauguration, Johnson acknowledged
the need for a Federal response to crime and public
safety. In a March 1965 address to Congressthe
first by a president on the issue of crimeJohnson
called for legislation to create an Office of
Law Enforcement Assistance.[5]
He also established the Presidents Commission on Law
Enforcement and Administration of Justice, charging the
members to draw up the blueprints that we need ... to
banish crime.[6]
The taskbreathtaking in scopereflected
not only the can do attitude of Johnsons
Great Society, but also a growing confidence
in the ability of science and technology to
solve problems. The Nation was already
improving public health, harnessing atomic
energy, and putting a man on the moon.
Why not unleash that same creative power
to eliminate crime?
With Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach
at the helm, the 19-member Commission
greeted the assignment with enthusiasm
and energy. It created task forces and
committees around major crime issues,
such as juvenile delinquency, policing,
courts, corrections, organized crime, and
drugs. It collected data and analyzed statistics
on an unprecedented scale. It created
the first crime victimization survey, the
first composite picture of State correctional
populations, and the first conceptualizationin
the form of a schematic diagramof
the criminal justice system process. (See related story,
Al
Blumstein: 40 Years of Contributions to Criminal Justice.)
Never before had anyone examined police,
prosecution, defense, the courts, and corrections
in a single frame of reference.
Only 18 months after receiving Johnsons
mandate, the Commission issued its report,
The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society.
(See sidebar, The Presidents
Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice.)
The Past Informs the Future
The Commission was extraordinarily
prescient about technology. Its recommendations
included separate radio bands for
police communication, automated fingerprint
systems, and investments in computing
and information systemsthis, at the very
advent of the computer age.
The overarching need for research was also
acknowledged: The Commission has found
and discussed throughout this report many
needs of law enforcement and the administration
of criminal justice. But what it has
found to be the greatest need is the need
to know.[7]
One of the Commissions recommendations
was that Congress create a new
office in the Justice Department devoted
to assisting State and local law enforcement
departments. The Law Enforcement
Assistance Administration, and within it
the National Institute of Law Enforcement
and Criminal Justiceknown today as the
Office of Justice Programs and the National
Institute of Justice, respectivelycontinue
to deliver Federal support to what remains
a locally determined and managed justice
system. These agencies demonstrate the
unique Federal role in fighting crimenot
by usurping the rights or responsibilities
of local jurisdictions, but by leveraging the
power of the Federal Government to add
value to the efforts of local criminal justice
and law enforcement agencies across
the Nation.
The Presidents Crime Commission thrust
ordinary street crime irreversibly into
policy discussions and provided the framework
for the Federal Government to take
new responsibility for fighting crime and
enhancing public safety in neighborhoods
and communities across the country. No
one was under the illusion that crime
could easily be banished. In fact, when
Johnson accepted the Challenge of Crime
report in 1967, he cautioned that the war
on crime would take generations to wage.
Nevertheless, the Commission, with its
diligent analysis and farsighted recommendations,
laid the groundwork for a coherent
national policy to combat crime that has
stood the test of time.
Happy 40th, Commissioners.
NCJ 218261
Sidebar
THE PRESIDENTS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
The Commissioners
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Chairman
Genevieve Blatt
Charles D. Breitel
Kingman Brewster
Garrett H. Byrne
Thomas J. Cahill
Otis Chandler
Leon Jaworski
Thomas C. Lynch
Ross L. Malone
James B. Parsons
Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
William P. Rogers
Robert G. Storey
Julia D. Stuart
Robert F. Wagner
Herbert Wechsler
Whitney M. Young, Jr.
Luther W. Youngdahl
The Staff
Executive Director
James Vorenberg
Deputy Director
Henry S. Ruth, Jr.
Associate Directors
Gene S. Muehleisen
Elmer K. Nelson, Jr.
Lloyd E. Ohlin
Arthur Rosett
Assistant Directors
David B. Burnham
Bruce J. Terris
Samuel G. Chapman (Police)
Howard Ohmart (Corrections)
Vincent OLeary (Corrections)
Charles H. Rogovin (Organized Crime)
Director of Science and Technology
Alfred Blumstein
Staff Members
William Caldwell
Weston R. Campbell, Jr.
Gerald M. Caplan
Roland Chilton
Joseph G.J. Connolly
Virginia N. Crawford
Elizabeth Bartholet DuBois
Paul B. Duruz
Robert L. Emrich
Floyd Feeney
Victor Gioscia
Sheldon Krantz
Anthony Lapham
John L. McCausland
Sheila Ann Mulvihill
Albert W. Overby, Jr.
Nick Pappas
John F. Quinn
Robert Rice
Gordon D. Rowe
Susan Freeman Schapiro
Gerald Stern
Keith Stubblefield
Thelma C. Stevens
Martin Timin
G. Joseph Vining
Richardson White, Jr.
Return to text
Notes
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[1] |
Since 1984, the Office of Justice Programs
(OJP) has provided Federal leadership in
developing the Nations capacity to prevent
and control crime, improve the criminal
and juvenile justice systems, increase
knowledge about crime and related issues,
and assist crime victims. OJPs bureaus and
offices are the National Institute of Justice;
the Office of the Assistant Attorney General;
the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau
of Justice Statistics; the Community Capacity
Development Office; the
Office for Victims of Crime; the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). |
[2] |
The Challenge
of Crime in a Free Society,
which was accompanied by nine task force
reports, was 308 pages long and contained
202 recommendations to control crime and
improve criminal justice in America. In addition
to chapters dealing with the major crime
issues, the report discussed such issues as
the role of science and technology, crime
research, and the problem of drunkenness,
and outlined a national strategy for action on
individual, local, State, and Federal levels. The
Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement
and Administration of Justice, The Challenge
of Crime in a Free Society, Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office, February 1967,
available at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/42.pdf. |
[3] |
Lyndon B. Johnson first discussed his goals
for the Great Society in a speech at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor on May 22, 1964 (Public
Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon
B. Johnson, 1963-64, Volume I, entry 357, pp. 704-707,
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1965, available
at www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/640522.asp).
Once elected, he initiated a set of domestic
programs that focused on a variety of issues,
including education, health care, civil rights,
and poverty. |
[4] |
The Uniform Crime Reports, or UCR, had been
collected since 1930, first by the International
Association of the Chiefs of Police, then later
by the U.S. Department of Justice, through
the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The UCR
provided the only national crime trend data at
the time of the Crime Commission. Even into
the 1990s, the UCR data contained gaps in
jurisdictions reporting, missing data, and likely
errors in reporting. |
[5] |
This became the Law Enforcement Assistance
Act, which led to the establishment of the Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration, the
forerunner of the Office of Justice Programs,
the U.S. Department of Justice agency within
which the National Institute of Justice resides. |
[6] |
Woolley, J., and
G. Peters, The American Presidency Project,
Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted),
Gerhard Peters (database), available at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27242. |
[7] |
The Challenge
of Crime in a Free Society, 273. |