Criminology

The Wickersham commission of 1929 to 1931 was initially referred to as The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. It was the first ever federal review of law enforcement in the United States. Its main responsibility was to evaluate prohibition since it was operating under the 18th amendment and the Volstead act.  The commission had other minor responsibilities which included evaluating the causes and costs of crime, operating federal courts, and handling official corruption cases.

The commission was composed of eleven members whose responsibility was to identify the causes of criminal activities and to give possible solutions which would be used in formulation of a proper public policy. The main area of operation of the commission was on the extensive abuse of national alcohol ban.  The commission reported the prevalent avoidance of prohibition and the several counterproductive impacts it was having on the American community. Instead of recommending for the repeal of the ban as it was expected it would do, the commission recommended that much more hostile and widespread law enforcement should be applied if compliance is to be achieved. The commission was also involved in investigation of the tactics used by the police to get information from the suspects. It concluded that the police was using excessive force therefore abusing the power they had.

The commission was formed in 1929 by President Herbert Hoover as a result of public cry over crime. Its formation was accelerated by Chicago gang wars which occurred on 14th of February and was later named as Valentines Day massacre. Although the commission wanted to operate on a wide area, president Hoover was interested in improving the apparently inefficient enforcement of prohibition. The efforts to improve the law enforcement did not yield any fruits, abuse of power by law enforcement officers increased, and the whole problem was affecting republicans politically.  

The commission was popularly known as Wickersham commission after the name of its chairperson who was called George W. Wickersham. He was a popular lawyer in New York, and also served as attorney general under the administration of President Taft. The commission worked in collaboration with many of the nations prominent experts on criminal justice who both served in the commission as members and staff. Majority of the commissioners appointed by president Hoover had previously served with the state investigations. Some of the members of the commission included Roscoe Pound who was the then dean of the Harvard law school, Newton D. Backer who served as the secretary of war under Woodrow Wilson, and Ada Comstock who was the then president of Radcliffe College.

The commission served from 1929 to 1930 and handed their report in 1931. The final report of the commission had several volumes with each volume tackling a different subject, but the much needed report was on prohibition enforcement. The final report was described as confused. The members failed to reach an agreement whether prohibition was practical or how best to deal with the extensive abuse of the law.

When the president was presenting the report he realized that the commission failed to recommend the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment as a way of prohibiting the intrinsic abuses of the liquor traffic. While reading the report, Hoover disregarded some of the commissions findings like the finding that drinking had increased since 1920 and that prohibition was leading to corruption of legal and political system. The findings of the commissions were in accordance with the arguments which were made by anti prohibition forces like Association Against Prohibition Amendment.  

The confusion of the report was further revealed by comments from individual members of the commission. It was noted that the conclusion of the report was doctored so as to favor political ambitions of some individuals. The manipulation on the report was done specifically to avoid shame to the Hoover administration. Majority of the commission members felt that the current laws could not be implemented, nine of the members noted that the public was not in support of the law while six wanted instant change. Other members advocated for the repeal of the eighteenth amendment. Keeping prohibition was only supported by one member. A study was also done on the alcohol consumption and it showed that a government operated alcohol monopoly was one of the ways of controlling consumption of alcohol since the system had succeeded in Sweden. The suggestion was supported by other six committee members and the chairperson of the commission where they accepted that some modification of the eighteenth Amendment should be done to allow the government to regulate intoxication of beverages.

As it was expected, both republicans and democrats used the portion of the report that they felt best supported their arguments. Although the indication provided in the report allowed an official consent to of the stand taken by the republicans. The opposition was left in the state contention that the same government trying to implement prohibition, and one under the power of the ruling party had issued a report indicating how prohibition was flopping.  

The report on lawlessness in law enforcement as was cited in Wickersham report resulted in a major impact on formation of public policy. Since it was the first report ever citing abuse of power by the law enforcement officers, it supported the opinion of the public and mobilized reform efforts. At the level of the community, the report reinforced the efforts of new generation of police chief that were pro reforms. At the national level, the report helped to nurture a new wave of opinion on the need for legal control over police misdemeanors. The effort on control of misconduct of the police was first seen in important Supreme Court decisions commanding constitutional standards on the law enforcement officials.

Other reports were on prosecution which revealed the increase in plea bargaining and the reduction of the jury trial. This volume proved that sociological factors were directly affecting the criminal activity. Although the report recommended the continued application of prohibition law, the government realized that it had failed and adopted other methods of controlling consumption of alcohol which later worked.

In conclusion, the eleven member commission popularly known as Wickersham had the interest of the country at heart by the time of its formation although their reports were later on interfered with so as to suit political needs of the current administration. The commission helped to shed more light on the misconduct of the law enforcement officers starting from the judges to the local police officers. It also revealed acts of corruption in criminal justice system. Although some of its recommendations were ignored, it resulted in major reforms in the criminal justice system and in formulation of public policy.