1. American Criminal Justice
No criminal justice system: A distinctively American lack of centralized policy coordination

2. What developments and changes will effect crimes reported in press?

3. The Big Picture
The Narrative: State governments attempted to wrest power from local officials and communities and make criminal justice more formal – and the federal government took an increasing interest in criminal justice, creating federal crimes, taking on increased policing and a role as guarantor of civil liberties and civil rights. The result was parallel and overlapping processes operating at local, state and federal levels.
: State government vs. Popular Justice
: Progressive Reform & Social Responsibility for Crime
1920-WW2: Crime Control
WW2-1970s: The Liberal Moment
1970s to the present: The Severity Revolution

4. Crime Goes National New Federal Crimes against Morality:
Mann Act (1910)
Harrison Act (1914)
National Prohibition (1920)
National study of criminal justice: the Wickersham Commission & the ‘third degree’
fed argument that local administration of criminal justice (legal process not legal definitions) must answer to national constitutional standards
Not until 1950s/60s that protections of Bill of Rights extended to accused in state courts
New Federal Crimes and Enforcement (1930s)
Kidnapping, fugitive felons, interstate theft
FBI to enforce: the most professional law enforcement
Model Penal Code (1960s): a national criminal law, not nationally adopted

5. Mann Act

6. Crime Goes National New Federal Crimes against Morality:
Mann Act (1910)
Harrison Act (1914)
National Prohibition (1920)
National study of criminal justice: the Wickersham Commission & the ‘third degree’
fed argument that local administration of criminal justice (legal process not legal definitions) must answer to national constitutional standards
Not until 1950s/60s that protections of Bill of Rights extended to accused in state courts
New Federal Crimes and Enforcement (1930s)
Kidnapping, fugitive felons, interstate theft
FBI to enforce: the most professional law enforcement
Model Penal Code (1960s): a national criminal law, not nationally adopted

7. prohibition 2

8. Crime Goes National New Federal Crimes against Morality:
Mann Act (1910)
Harrison Act (1914)
National Prohibition (1920)
National study of criminal justice: the Wickersham Commission & the ‘third degree’
fed argument that local administration of criminal justice (legal process not legal definitions) must answer to national constitutional standards
Not until 1950s/60s that protections of Bill of Rights extended to accused in state courts
New Federal Crimes and Enforcement (1930s)
Kidnapping, fugitive felons, interstate theft
FBI to enforce: the most professional law enforcement
Model Penal Code (1960s): a national criminal law, not nationally adopted

9. Third Degree
Four plain clothes members of the Metropolitan Police Force of Washington D.C. were suspended in connection with the alleged “Third Degree” treatment received by James Harkers, house breaking suspect

10. Crime Goes National New Federal Crimes against Morality:
Mann Act (1910)
Harrison Act (1914)
National Prohibition (1920)
National study of criminal justice: the Wickersham Commission & the ‘third degree’
fed argument that local administration of criminal justice (legal process not legal definitions) must answer to national constitutional standards
Not until 1950s/60s that protections of Bill of Rights extended to accused in state courts
New Federal Crimes and Enforcement (1930s)
Kidnapping, fugitive felons, interstate theft
FBI to enforce: the most professional law enforcement
Model Penal Code (1960s): a national criminal law, not nationally adopted

11. Formalizing & Professionalizing Criminal Justice
‘Modern’ criminal courts:
Felony Courts
Greater focus on logic of the law
Greater role for police & medical examiner (not neighbors & politicians)
From local & personal evidence to expert witnesses
Lower Courts
Judges with legal training replace JPs, but few lawyers
Chaotic environment
Going to court brought legal system into lives
Centralized, bureaucratic structures, organized like businesses
Specialized Courts: the Chicago Morals Court
Incorporated psychiatry, medicine & social work into everyday practice

12. Municipal Court, Chicago

13. Formalizing & Professionalizing Criminal Justice
‘Modern’ criminal courts:
Felony Courts
Greater focus on logic of the law
Greater role for police & medical examiner (not neighbors & politicians)
From local & personal evidence to expert witnesses
Lower Courts
Judges with legal training replace JPs, but few lawyers
Chaotic environment
Going to court brought legal system into lives
Centralized, bureaucratic structures, organized like businesses
Specialized Courts: the Chicago Morals Court
Incorporated psychiatry, medicine & social work into everyday practice

14. Formalizing & Professionalizing Criminal Justice
Judges
Spread of merit plans (33 states at present)
Still elected
Partisan and non-Partisan elections
Prosecutors
Head of office elected; staff appointed
Staff are political appointments – not lawyers into 1930s
Lack of expertise = role for private groups

15. Formalizing & Professionalizing Criminal Justice
Sidelining the Jury:
Plea bargaining: in hands of professionals
Bench trials
The persistence of jury nullification: gambling
Modernizing the Police
Into cars, on the radio, off the streets – and out of contact with population
More training: college cops
Militarized
Result: bureaucratic, isolated, inward looking, defensive

16. Popular justice? End of lynching Rioting
Establishment of death penalty
African- American campaigns
Rejected by southern elites
Rioting
Reactions to crime
Shifts to reactions to policing