1941: Crime

Incidence of Crime.

During the first nine months of 1941, 651,271 crimes of murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft came to the attention of the police authorities in 2,109 cities of 64,267,531 population. This would mean a total of approximately 814,000 crimes known to the police during the year in these 2,109 cities, which contain about one-half of the population of this country. These figures indicate that crime is still one of our major industries, particularly since the eight crimes above named represent only a small part of the criminal law. Most of the crimes which came to the attention of the police during 1941 were crimes against property. This is evident from the fact that larceny, burglary and auto theft had rates of 681.8, 245.0 and 135.6 per 100,000 population during the first nine months of 1941, as compared to rates of 36.9, 7.2 and 4.2 for aggravated assault, rape and intentional homicide (murder and non-negligent manslaughter).

There were slight increases in the number of crimes against the person which came to the attention of the police in 1941, as against 1940. Crimes against property, however, with the exception of auto theft, showed a decrease. The most marked increase was in the crime of negligent manslaughter, which rose 15 per cent in 1941.

Of the 651,271 crimes coming to the attention of the police authorities during the first nine months of 1941, 374,157 or approximately 60 per cent were larcenies. Most of these larcenies, however, were not very serious in character. An analysis of 114,240 such larcenies committed in 58 cities indicated that in only 12,583 or 11 per cent was the value of the property stolen over $50. In 74,471 or in 65 per cent of the cases the value of the property stolen was between $5 and $50. In 27,186 or 24 per cent of the cases, the value of the property stolen was less than $5. In view of the current fear that with the advent of tire rationing there will be an epidemic of tire thefts, it is interesting to note that one-third of the larcenies involved either thefts of automobile accessories or thefts of personal property from automobiles.

During the first nine months of 1941, 479,701 fingerprint cards of persons arrested and charged with various crimes were forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of these cards, 44,347 or 9.2 per cent were those of women offenders. This indicates that the proportion of men to women arrested is nine to one.

As in prior years the 19-year age group predominated among persons arrested. This has been true for five of the nine years from 1932-40. Another indication of the extent of youth's participation in crime is had from the fact that 55.6 per cent of those charged with robbery, 63.1 per cent of those charged with burglary, 49.2 per cent of those charged with larceny, and 74.8 per cent of those charged with auto theft were under 25 years of age. More than half of all the crimes against property during the first nine months of 1941 were committed by persons under 25.

While most of the offenders whose fingerprints were received by the F.B.I. were white, negroes had a much higher arrest rate in proportion to population than whites. Of each 100,000 negroes in the general population, 1,410 were arrested and fingerprinted as against 485 native born whites and 159 foreign born whites.

Methods of Apprehension and Prosecution.

During the year 1941 some notable progress was made in the development of better methods of apprehension and prosecution of crime and in the treatment of convicted offenders. The Supreme Court of the United States, pursuant to a statute passed in 1940 giving it 'the duty to prescribe from time to time rules of pleading, practice and procedure ... in criminal cases,' appointed a distinguished advisory committee of lawyers and professors to assist the Court in this undertaking. The task of the committee will be to formulate a draft of the proposed rules for the consideration of the Court. On the civil side of the law a similar plan had been used and notable results achieved in improving the processes of civil justice. The prospective Federal rules of criminal procedure will have two primary benefits: (1) They will unify the fundamentals of the criminal process of the Federal courts of the Union and make for greater efficiency in their operation; (2) they will probably be more progressive in spirit than state rules on criminal procedure and hence will serve as an invitation and challenge to the various states to revise their procedural methods in criminal cases.

The State of Louisiana has gone even further than the Federal Government to revitalize its criminal legislation. Its attempt to work out new methods, techniques and concepts covers the whole of the criminal law and is not confined to mere questions of criminal procedure. A committee worked actively during 1941 to formulate a criminal code for Louisiana based on a careful analysis of existing statutes and legal materials as well as a thoroughgoing revision and revaluation of existing penal concepts.

In one troublesome field of criminal law administration, that concerning the arrest of offenders, a model act has been formulated which goes a long way toward providing a practical standard of police conduct without unduly sacrificing personal liberty. The act provides the police with a weapon which they have long needed, namely, a legal right to detain suspects for questioning without going through the formalities of arrest. It also gives the police officer a reasonable right to question and detain witnesses of crimes and automobile accidents. The model act would also modify the existing law and make an arrest lawful if a lawful cause of arrest existed at the time it was made even though the officer charged the wrong offense or gave a reason that did not justify the arrest.

Some progress was made during 1941 in the provision of individualized methods of treating offenders. An indeterminate sentence law for Federal offenders in which all sentences will be for the maximum terms fixed by law and definite terms of imprisonment will be fixed by an administrative board after suitable study, was advocated by the Attorney General and legislation is in prospect to carry out this recommendation.

State supervised probation and parole systems were provided by the legislatures of three states, Florida, South Carolina and Wyoming. In Florida, for example, a parole commission of three will hereafter have the duty to investigate and supervise probation cases referred to it by the courts. Probation will be granted for all offenses except those punishable by death or life imprisonment. Where convicted offenders have been sent to institutions, it will be the duty of the parole commission to fix the time and the conditions of sentence and to supervise parolees.

Youth Correction Authority Act.

Our statistics indicated the importance of the youthful offender in the commission of crime. One of the most far-reaching proposals for dealing with youthful and adolescent offenders advanced in recent years is the Youth Correction Authority Act sponsored by the American Law Institute. Under this plan the judge in a criminal court will be stripped of most of his authority over the sentencing of youthful offenders. This will be placed in the hands of an expert board which is directed to determine the appropriate treatment of the offender after careful investigation. This board also determines the time when an offender will be released from any institution to which he may be sent. California was the first state to adopt the Youth Correction Authority plan. However the California statute departs from the model act in that it keeps in the Judge's hands the right to place defendants upon probation. Bills providing for the Youth Correction Authority came before the legislatures of other states besides California. This method of dealing with youthful offenders is expected to receive widespread attention in 1942.

Centennial of the Probation Movement.

In the development of progressive methods of dealing with criminals, the year 1941 was notable because it marked the centennial of the birth of the probation movement. This is generally credited to the work of John Augustus, a shoemaker of Boston who, on an August day in 1841, appeared in a Boston police court and had a drunk bailed into his custody who would otherwise have been sent to the House of Correction. Having achieved success with his first case. John Augustus came back for more alcoholics and later extended his informal rehabilitative work to other types of offenders. In ten years, 1,102 persons were released into the custody of Augustus, who attempted to reclaim them. While the probation idea did not originate with Augustus and probation had been used in Massachusetts courts before 1841, the extensive work of Augustus was a practical demonstration of the value of probation as a method for the rehabilitation of offenders outside of prison walls. The work begun by Augustus culminated in the first Massachusetts probation law of 1878. From Massachusetts the probation idea has spread throughout the country. See also JUVENILE DELINQUENCY; LYNCHINGS.

1940: Crime

Incidence of Crime.

The control of crime continued, during the year 1940, to be one of America's outstanding social problems. According to the Uniform Crime Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a tremendous number of crimes were committed during the past year. Approximately 802,000¹ crimes of murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft, came to the attention of the police authorities in 2,025 cities with a total population of 62,288,351. This represents only about half the country and would mean that at least 1,600,000 of these eight varieties of crime were committed throughout the country, if the ratio of crime to population is the same in the non-reporting area as in the reporting area.

1 This estimate is based on the 9 monthly figures of the F.B.I. for 1940.

Not all crimes are reported to the police or come to the attention of the police. Moreover the criminal codes contain many more varieties of crimes than the eight listed above. The sum total of crime actually committed in 1940, therefore, is far greater than is indicated by the above figures. Although the total amount of crime committed is very large, it cannot be said necessarily that crime is on the increase. Uniform Crime Reports note that pronounced increases in 1940 as against 1939 occurred only in manslaughter and larceny. Decreases over 1939 were noted in murders, robberies and rapes.

Characteristics of Criminals.

Male preponderance in crime continued in 1940 as in other years. Of the 459,167 arrest cards filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the first nine months of 1940, 91.6 per cent represent arrested males, whereas only 8.4 per cent were for females. A comparison of an average group of 1,000 males arrested with 1,000 females indicated, however, that the females were charged more frequently than males with murder, assault, use of narcotic drugs, and liquor violations. Males exceeded females in crimes against property.

Youth continued to be the principal characteristic of persons arrested. More persons aged 19 were arrested than those in any other age group: 28.9 per cent of those arrested for robbery, 44.9 per cent of those arrested for burglary, 32.3 per cent of those arrested for larceny, and 52.6 per cent of those arrested for auto theft were under 21. The arrest cards of the F.B.I. also showed that in proportion to population many more Negroes than whites were arrested in 1940.

That crime is largely the work of recidivist offenders — i.e., men with prior criminal records — is indicated by the fact that at least half of the persons represented by the arrest cards had been previously arrested and fingerprinted.

Outstanding Crimes.

De Tristan Kidnapping.

Crime may be the act of a single individual acting from purely personal motives. Crime, on the other hand, may be organized activity whereby gangs of mobsters seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the general public, and resort to violence and murder where necessary to achieve their ends. One of the most sensational of the former types of crime during 1940 was the kidnapping of Marc de Tristan who was snatched from his California home by a kidnapper who demanded $100,000 ransom. The child was recovered unharmed and the kidnapper, an illegally entered German alien, named Muehlenbroich, was sentenced to imprisonment for life for this crime.

Murder, Inc.

The second variety of crime — crime as organized activity — may be seen in the exposure in Kings County (Brooklyn, N. Y.) of the criminal organization which received the newspaper title of Murder, Inc. For years, lax and ineffective law enforcement on the part of the district attorney's office in Kings County had permitted organized gangsters to prey upon business men, laborers, and other members of the public in a variety of criminal ways. An investigation of law enforcement by the city administration, the appointment of a special prosecutor and the election of a new district attorney resulted in a drive against organized crime in Kings County. One of the by-products of this drive was the prosecution of the gangsters composing Murder, Inc., and the disclosure that one of their side-lines was murder on a contract basis. The members of this gang were used by 'big shots' in the criminal rackets to 'rub out' inconvenient witnesses, obstreperous businessmen and dangerous rivals. Although the leaders of the gang received large sums of money for the murders, the actual murderers were paid as low as $10 to $20 for each. A number of murder convictions have already resulted from the above disclosures.

Labor Racketeering.

One of the fields in which organized gangsterism gave the most trouble in 1940 was that of labor relations. Men with criminal records have seized control of a number of labor unions and are using the unions to further their criminal purposes. One of these gentry was George Scalise, president of the Building Service Employees International Union. He was found guilty of stealing the union's funds and was sentenced to serve from 10 to 20 years in prison. Scalise had a racketeering background and a criminal record which included a 4½ year term in Atlanta Penitentiary for violating the Mann White Slave Act.

Hopson Frauds.

The violation of the criminal law on a wide scale is not the exclusive prerogative of the professional criminal. It may also be resorted to by so-called respectable businessmen. This is evidenced by the activities of Howard C. Hopson who was charged with looting the Associated Gas and Electric Utility System of nearly $20,000,000 and causing its bankruptcy. Hopson was convicted on all seventeen counts of an indictment for mail fraud by a jury in the Federal Court and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Violation of Anti-Trust Laws.

Crime as an incident of respectable business activity is also encountered in the energetic work of the Anti-Trust Division of the Federal Department of Justice in prosecuting various combines, combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade. In its investigation of the building industry, for example, it secured the indictment of some five hundred defendants including 394 trade associations, corporations and their officials, and 106 unions and their officials for such crimes as violation of the Anti-Trust laws, conspiracy, unlawful diversion of funds, and perjury.

Political Corruption.

There were a number of graphic illustrations of the weakness of law enforcement and peno-correctional machinery in combating crime in 1940. Detroit, for example, furnished a clear cut example of the fact that organized crime cannot flourish without some measure of official connivance. A Grand Jury investigation in Detroit disclosed the fact that an estimated $2,000,000 was being paid by the gambling and vice interests of the city to members of the Police Department and to other public officials. As a result of the disclosures, 145 persons including the sheriff, prosecutor and former mayor of Detroit and one out of four officials in the Police Department over the grade of patrolman were indicted and bound over for trial.

In Arkansas the largest prison break in the history of the state occurred when thirty-six convicts fled from a state farm. Most of these convicts were retaken after leaving behind them a trail of kidnapping, auto theft and violence.

In Massachusetts, a commission investigating pardons and parolees reported that it had reached the inescapable conclusion 'that money was the moving cause in obtaining some pardons between 1931 and 1938.' The commission also scored the disregard of procedural requirements and the failure to investigate properly applications for pardons by the officials charged with granting them.

Legislation to Improve Law Enforcement.

Much was done in 1940 to improve the administration of justice and the penal and correctional system. For example, Congress passed a law permitting Federal criminal procedure before verdict to be prescribed by rule of the Supreme Court instead of by Congress itself as formerly. This statute makes possible a clear and simple Federal procedural code based on the best statutory and common law provisions and the best practice of the state and Federal courts. It puts revisions in the field of criminal procedure in the hands of the courts administering the law.

Progress was also made in breaking down state barriers in crime control through the work of the Interstate Crime Commission and other agencies. A handbook of the Commission issued in 1940 showed that 31 states had adopted the legislation recommended by the Commission permitting fresh pursuit by police officers across state lines, 30 states had adopted the simplified extradition procedure, 37 the simplified procedure for securing the attendance of out-of-state witness, 32 had passed legislation for mutual assistance in the supervision of probationers and parolees, 41 for the control of narcotic drugs, and 9 States had adopted uniform legislation for the control of firearms.

Youth Correction Authority Act.

A realization that adolescent offenders, boys under 21, were responsible for a large part of our crime and that new methods of control were necessary actuated the American Law Institute at its annual meeting in adopting a model Youth Correction Authority Act. This Act will be recommended to the states. It does not disturb existing methods of criminal prosecution but deals with the treatment of youthful offenders after conviction. The Act provides for a three-man board or Authority of requisite ability, experience and knowledge which will be called upon to decide the sentences and treatment of adolescent offenders. Judges under the Act will no longer be able to sentence adolescent offenders to imprisonment but will be required to commit them to the Authority. The latter will determine the terms and conditions of treatment after expert study of the offender. Under the Act the Authority will have at its disposal for purposes of treatment a relatively indeterminate sentence and release under supervision for those deemed capable of adjustment without confinement in an institution. (See also JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.)

Behavior of Paroled Men.

Some idea of the value of effective peno-correctional method in controlling crime is had from a report of the New York State Board of Parole which studied the post-parole behavior over a five-year period of parolees released from the New York State institutions since 1934. The findings of the investigation showed that only 9.4 per cent of these parolees were convicted of new felonies and 8.1 per cent were convicted of misdemeanors. An additional 18.3 per cent were returned to the institution during the parole period to complete their sentences because of violation of parole or for other reasons. Thus 64 per cent of those released on parole in New York State according to this study made good on parole. See also LYNCHINGS.

1939: Crime

Incidence of Crime.

The American people can not yet afford to relax their vigilance in the struggle against crime. Approximately 1,500,000 crimes of murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft came to the attention of the police in 1939. This criminality was essentially predatory in character since crimes against property accounted for 95.7 per cent of the total, whereas crimes against the person represented only 4.3 per cent of the total.

It is gratifying to note that there has been a downward tendency in crimes of violence. In 67 cities of over 100,000 population, fewer murders, manslaughters and aggravated assaults came to the attention of the police in 1939 than in any year since 1931. The number of robberies reported also shows a significant decline, being the second lowest in 1939 than in any year since 1931. Of the other crimes against property, only auto theft showed any decline. This dropped from a total of 64,143 reported in 1931 to 28,004 reported in 1939. Burglaries, which dropped from 50,921 in 1931 to 43,740 in 1936, climbed to 48,872 in 1931. Of two crimes, only larceny and rape, can it be said that crime is increasing. Larceny increased from 112,776 in 1931 to 130,978 in 1939; rape from 905 in 1931 to 1,343 in 1939.

Of the persons arrested for various crimes whose fingerprint cards were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 92.5 per cent were men and only 7.5 per cent were women. Masculine criminality exceeded feminine in all crimes except commercialized vice.

Crime is essentially a youthful occupation. More persons aged nineteen were arrested for all types of crime than persons in any other age group. About one-half of the persons arrested for burglary and auto theft, and one-third of those arrested for larceny and robbery were under twenty-one.

In proportion to population, many more Negroes were arrested in 1939 than whites and many more native-born whites than foreign-born whites. Of each 100,000 Negroes fifteen years of age or over, 1,187 were arrested in 1939 as compared with 462 native-born whites and 154 foreign born whites. Recidivist offenders accounted for a considerable portion of the crimes of 1939. Almost one-half of the persons arrested in 1939 already had fingerprint cards on file in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Outstanding Crimes.

Miami, Florida.

The year 1939 produced a number of spectacular crimes which were the work of the professional criminal fraternity. Of this character was the Blackstone Hotel hold-up in Miami on Feb. 15, in which five thugs carrying sub-machine guns and pistols bound and gagged employees and guests of the hotel and escaped with jewelry valued at $150,000 and $50,000 in cash.

New York City.

Some spectacular successes against criminals were also recorded in 1939. Outstanding was the surrender to Federal authorities of Louis (Lepke) Buchhalter, who had been the object of an intensive manhunt and who was described by New York's District Attorney Dewey as the 'worst industrial racketeer in America' and the 'most dangerous criminal in the United States.' With his partner Jacob (Gurrah) Shapiro, Lepke headed a gang which was estimated to have taken a toll of $2,000,000 a year for several years from the smuggling of narcotics and from racketeering activities in connection with half a dozen major New York industries. Lepke was tried in the Federal Court on charges of conspiracy to violate the narcotics laws, and was found guilty. Lepke is wanted by District Attorney Dewey to answer charges arising from his racketeering activities.

Spectacular crimes in 1939 were not confined to professional 'gorillas' like Lepke. The socially, politically and financially great and powerful, the 'lords of creation,' also contributed some outstanding instances of social demoralization. Chief among these were Judge Martin T. Manton, who, until his resignation, was the senior Federal justice of the Southern District of New York and the tenth ranking justice of the United States. Judge Manton was convicted of conspiring in the sale of justice, of dispensing favorable judicial decisions in return for substantial cash payments. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined $10,000; and his conviction and sentence were upheld by a specially convened Appellate Court. Judge Manton was not the only member of the judiciary who stood before the bar of justice in 1939. Magistrate Rudich of New York City was dismissed by the Appellate Division and later disbarred on the basis of charges that he accepted cash payments in return for approval of fake bail bonds.

Judge Martin of the Kings County Court was acquitted of charges of having received a bribe from an abortionist tried by him. The effort to remove him was also unsuccessful, since the New York Senate, the removal body, voted 28-19 to keep him in office.

But judges are not the only ones occasionally faithless to their trust. Even university presidents are not above making a dishonest dollar. This is illustrated by the adventures of Joseph M. Smith, former president of Louisiana State University. In June, Smith resigned his presidency and fled to Canada. He was returned to Louisiana when investigation revealed that he had indulged in widespread speculation with university funds and securities. He pleaded guilty to various Federal and state charges of forgery, using the mails to defraud and income tax evasion. He received a minimum sentence of 10½ years' imprisonment. Several political figures were also involved.

One of the outstanding members of the financial fraternity who came before the criminal courts in 1939 was Stephen Paine, a member of the well known brokerage firm of Paine, Webber & Co. Paine was found guilty in the Federal Court, along with three codefendants, of conspiracy and using the mails to defraud three investment trusts of $1,000,000.

When judges, university presidents and bankers cannot resist the lure of dishonest dollars, it is not surprising that public officials and outstanding politicians also profit from their positions by illegal means. In New York, District Attorney Dewey brought to a successful conclusion the prosecution of 'Jimmy' Hines, the powerful Democratic district leader, which had been begun in 1938. On his second trial Hines was convicted of conspiracy and contriving a lottery. The jury believed the contention of the prosecution that Hines was a politician who had made crime safe for the racketeers controlling the policy game in New York.

Kansas City, Mo.

In Kansas City, Mo., Thomas J. Pendergast used his influence for a different purpose, namely, to secure the release of money of insurance companies impounded by a Federal Court. But a $315,000 payment to him in return for his influence was not reported in his income tax statement. This omission cost him a sentence of 1 year and 3 months in a Federal prison and a $10,000 fine. See also KANSAS CITY POLITICAL MACHINE.

Waterbury, Conn.

In Waterbury, Conn., the crimes of Mayor T. Frank Hayes and his twenty-one co-conspirators were much less subtle and far more serious. They were convicted of looting the city treasury. It was alleged that they had defrauded the city of over $1,000,000 between the years 1930 and 1937. Mayor Hayes was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison.

Un-American Activities.

The leaders of two outstanding anti-American organizations, the German-American Bund and the Communist Party, have followed the precedents set by the above public figures and have also apparently not hesitated to violate the laws when it suited their purposes. Earl R. Browder, the general secretary of the Communist Party and its candidate for President in 1936, was indicted by a Federal grand jury for using false statements in connection with applications for passports obtained by him.

Fritz Kuhn, the leader of the German-American Bund, was found guilty in the Court of General Sessions of grand larceny and forgery arising out of his misuse of organization funds. Kuhn was sentenced to 2½-5 years in Sing Sing Prison.

Outstanding Developments in Crime Control.

At the request of the President of the United States, a National Parole Conference was held in Washington on April 17 and 18 as 'a means of presenting the facts about parole, reaching agreement as to desirable standards and procedures in its administration and pointing the way to closer cooperation between the Federal Government and the governments of the several states.' Delegates from all over the country attended this congress. The major achievement of the congress was the drafting of a set of parole principles which, if realized by the various states, would do much to eliminate the current dissatisfaction with parole. These principles call for impartial, non-political, professionally competent parole boards, endowed with a broad authority and discretion in the determination of the time and conditions of a prisoner's release and operating on the basis of complete and reliable information concerning the personality of the prisoner. The principles stress the close relationship between parole and programs of training and treatment within the institution in which the prisoner is confined and the duties of the community to which he is released. The principles also underline the need for careful supervision of paroled offenders by qualified workers 'trained and experienced in the task of guiding social readjustment.'

Youth Justice Authority.

For many years it has been realized that one of the major problems of crime was presented by the adolescent offender. The criminality of the 16-20 year age group was higher than that of any other comparable group of the population. Crime careers also have a tendency to become definitely crystalized in the 'teen' years.

Since the usual age limit in most juvenile court laws is 16, no special provision is generally made for offenders in the 16-20 age group, who are treated as adult criminals. This was found to be unsatisfactory by the American Law Institute, which appointed a distinguished committee to devise new means of dealing with the adolescent offender. This Committee drafted a project for a Youth Justice Authority providing for an expert board of three persons to whom courts can send convicted offenders between the ages of 16 and 20. The Authority is given the right to keep the persons committed to its care until the age of 25 in institutions specially designed for their study, treatment and rehabilitation. The Authority is also authorized to use probation and parole methods for the offenders committed to its care.

This project of the American Law Institute is still in the formative stage of discussion, but if adopted as it is written at the present time, will undoubtedly revolutionize methods of dealing with adolescent offenders. See also JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

1938: Crime

In 1938, as in previous years, crime was one of the country's major occupations. This is evident from the Uniform Crime Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They indicate that over half a million major crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft) were committed and came to the attention of the police in 1,804 cities with a total population of approximately 62,000,000 during the first nine months of 1938. On this basis, the estimated crime total for the country as a whole, for the entire year of 1938, for only eight major offenses, is one and a half million crimes.

As in previous years, the great bulk of the crimes committed were crimes against property. According to the Uniform Crime Reports, 95.6 per cent of the crimes reported during the first nine months of 1938 were 'committed for the purpose of obtaining property. The remaining 4.4 per cent consisted of homicides, rapes and other felonious assaults.' Some conception of what the latter crimes mean in terms of human life is had from the fact that 2,403 crimes reported for the first nine months were murder and non-negligent manslaughter. On this basis, for the entire country and for the year as a whole, it may be estimated that approximately 6,600 homicides were committed. In other words, 6,600 people met their death through intentional criminal violence.

Large as these crime figures are, it cannot be stated that crime is increasing. Indeed, the evidence points to a downward trend in all of the eight major crimes noted above, with the exception of rape and larceny. This is indicated by data collected from 60 large cities with a total population of over 18,000,000 for the eight years 1931-8 inclusive. These data show that 1931 was the peak year in negligent manslaughter, robberies, and auto thefts. 1933 leads the other years in murders, aggravated assaults and burglary. Only in rape and larceny is 1938 supreme.

The fingerprint records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that crime during 1938 was essentially a masculine occupation. Approximately 14 men were arrested for every woman. There were more male arrests in every crime except commercialized vice.

Of all persons arrested during 1938, whose fingerprints were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 19 per cent were under 21 years of age. These youthful offenders concentrated largely on crimes against property. Although they represented but 19 per cent of the total persons arrested for all crimes, they constituted 31.5 per cent of the persons arrested for crimes against property. Burglary, and breaking and entering were the special favorites of youthful offenders under 21. They constituted 43.6 per cent of all persons arrested for these offenses.

Many of the persons arrested during the year had prior criminal records. On the 432,527 who were arrested and whose fingerprints were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the first nine months of 1938, 197,540 or 45 per cent had prior fingerprint cards on file in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These cards indicated that 120,639, or 27.9 per cent of those arrested had been convicted previously of one or more crimes.

Kidnapping.

The year 1938, like other years, had its allotment of spectacular crimes. Two kidnappings had the same tragic consequences as the Lindbergh case. In one, Peter Levine, a boy of 12 living in New Rochelle, New York was kidnapped on February 24. A ransom of $30,000 was asked for. Despite assurances that the ransom would be paid, the body of the boy was found three months after the kidnapping, when washed ashore from Long Island Sound. As in the Lindbergh case, the difficulties of contacting the actual kidnappers and saving the life of the boy were immeasurably increased by the many criminals who tried to turn the kidnapping to their own advantage. Seven different individuals were indicted and convicted of sending fake ransom notes and attempting to extort money from the parents of the Levine boy. At the end of the year, however, the actual kidnappers and murderers of the boy remained unpunished.

James Bailey Cash, Jr., aged 5 years, was also kidnapped in Princeton, Fla., on May 28, 1938. A ransom of $10,000 was paid, but the child was not returned. On June 9 his body was found one half mile west of his home in Princeton in a clump of underbrush. Unlike the Levine kidnapping the Cash kidnapping was cleared up shortly after the body was found. The kidnapper was one Franklin Pierce McCall, a farm worker and former occupant of an apartment in the Cash home. McCall pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and was sentenced to death.

Sex Crimes.

That murder is frequently resorted to as a solution for problems of sex, is illustrated by two murder cases which made the headlines in 1938. In the Littlefield murder case, the state charged that Francis Carroll killed Dr. Littlefield and his wife because the doctor had learned of Carroll's illicit sex relations with his (Carroll's) daughter and had threatened to send him to prison. One Paul Dwyer had previously pleaded guilty to the murder of the Littlefields. He had been found in an automobile which contained the bodies of Dr. and Mrs. Littlefield.

In the Gedeon murder case, sex and an unbalanced mind combined to produce three murders. In the Spring of 1937, Robert Erwin, a sculptor and former inmate of an insane asylum, killed Veronica Gedeon, a professional model, her mother, Mary Gedeon, and a roomer, Frank Burns. Erwin's motive, according to the police, was to avenge himself on the Gedeons for interfering with his romance with the sister of Veronica. The killing of Burns was purely fortuitous. Erwin was brought to trial in 1938, after having pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In the course of the trial, however, the not guilty plea was withdrawn and Erwin pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree. He was sentenced to a total of 139 years' imprisonment.

Nazi Espionage.

A repercussion of Nazi Germany's world-wide offensive against the democratic countries was had in the Germany spy trials. Eighteen persons were indicted last June for conspiracy to disclose American military secrets to Germany. Only four of the eighteen, Guenther Gustave Rumrich, former Sergeant in the United States Army, Otto Hermann Voss, an aircraft mechanic, Erich Glaser, a private at Mitchell Field, and Johanna Hofmann, a hair dresser of the German liner. Europa, were brought to trial. The rest of the conspirators fled from the country. Rumrich had been arrested in an attempt to steal passport blanks. He implicated several German-Americans in a plot to steal army aircraft designs and military secrets. At the trial he told of attempts to persuade service men to enter the German spy service and to send abroad the Z-Code used for communication between army airplanes and landing fields. He also testified to schemes for obtaining plans of new aircraft carriers by means of a forged letter on imitation White House stationery, and to attempts to obtain passport blanks for sending German agents into Russia to obtain secret mobilization plans. All of the above defendants were found guilty.

Musica Case.

Big business and high finance produced the most sensational crimes against property during the year 1938. The weirdest and most improbable crime was the Coster case. F. Donald Coster was president of the McKesson & Robbins Company, an $86,000,000 drug concern. Until shortly before his suicide, he was a respected member of the business fraternity. The cloak of respectability, however, shielded a very shady past. F. Donald Coster was in fact Philip Musica, who had been convicted of bribing customs officials in 1909, in connection with the importation of cheese and again in 1913 for defrauding a number of business concerns of over half a million dollars in the notorious 'human hair' scandal. He was also indicted for subornation of perjury in 1920 in connection with the famous 'chicken murder' of Barnett Baff. As Coster, in the 1920's, he was suspected of carrying on bootleg operations in connection with the hair tonic concern of Girard & Company, which was later merged with McKesson & Robbins.

As president of the McKesson & Robbins Company. Musica ran true to his previous character. He placed his brothers (two of whom had been implicated in previous scandals with him) in positions of trust in the company under assumed names. He then siphoned away the assets of the crude drug department of the McKesson & Robbins Company so that assets carried on the books for $18,000,000 were found to be non-existent. Coster's three brothers have pleaded guilty to Federal indictments for conspiracy to falsify financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They have also been indicted by the New York County Grand Jury for larceny of moneys of the McKesson & Robbins Company and forgery of Dun & Bradstreet credit reports.

The crimes of Coster in connection with the McKesson & Robbins Company were those of a confirmed swindler who pursued his criminal activities despite the fact that he had attained a position of eminence in the business world.

Whitney Case.

A similar explanation cannot be offered for the derelictions of Richard Whitney. The latter, a respected financial magnate and socialite, a former president of the New York Stock Exchange and president of one of the strongest and most conservative stock exchange houses, resorted to the misappropriation of securities of his friends and customers in order to raise money for his financial ventures. 'With full knowledge of the consequences,' states the report of District Attorney Dewey, 'he embarked upon a deliberate course of criminal conduct covering a period of six years, involving larcenies, frauds and misrepresentations and the falsification of books and financial statements. . . . By reason of the position held by the defendant, his conduct has amounted to a betrayal of a public trust.'

Richard Whitney was indicted for grand larceny, for the misappropriation of securities of the estate of George R. Sheldon, of which he was a co-trustee, and of the misappropriation of the securities of the New York Yacht Club, of which he was Treasurer. The sum involved in these two larcenies was $210,000. Whitney pleaded guilty to both indictments and was sentenced to serve from five to ten years in Sing Sing Prison.

Hines Trial.

One of the most spectacular events of the year in the field of organized crime was the Hines Trial. James J. Hines, the defendant, was one of the most powerful leaders of Tammany Hall. He was accused of 'contriving, proposing or drawing lotteries' and of entering into a conspiracy with 'Dutch Schultz' and 'Dixie' Davis. George Weinberg, and other notorious characters, to violate the lottery laws. According to the prosecution, Hines' part in the conspiracy was to provide official protection for the 'policy racket' or the 'numbers game,' which has flourished in Harlem and other sections of New York during the past few years. Hines was charged with influencing Magistrates Capshaw and Erwin to throw out policy cases in which the other conspirators had an interest, and to influence former District Attorney Dodge to 'go easy' on policy prosecutions. In return for his efforts, Hines was alleged to have received a cut in the proceeds of the policy racket.

The chief significance of the Hines case is that it presented the unusual spectacle of one of the 'higherups' in a racket being compelled to stand trial. For years it has been accepted as axiomatic that certain types of organized criminal activity, such as commercialized vice, gambling, illicit liquor traffic, etc., cannot flourish without official protection. Yet one rarely saw corrupt politicians or officials being brought to book for these crimes. Occasionally, it is truce, a policeman might be indicted or even convicted for accepting graft from houses of prostitution, gambling houses or speakeasies. But criminal prosecution rarely reached higher than the individual policeman. In the Hines case, however, the prosecution touched what was alleged to be the very source of the official protection, namely, the politician from whom judges, prosecutors and policemen took orders.

The trial had a very unsatisfactory outcome. A question by District Attorney Dewey which was put to a witness, tending to implicate Hines in other crimes than the ones with which he was charged, was considered so prejudicial by Justice Pecora, that he granted a mistrial. The case was to be retried early in 1939

Law Enforcement Methods.

In the field of criminal law and criminal law enforcement, three tendencies were principally in evidence in 1938:

(1) Centralized leadership in the improvement of the agencies of law enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies throughout this country have been organized traditionally on a local basis; the city, county or judicial district serving as the basis of jurisdiction. Each agency was more or less independent of every other. Thus, tremendous disparities of organization and efficiency could exist in the same state, and even in the same county, between law-enforcement agencies engaged in similar tasks. This situation is highly undesirable as it benefits only the criminal.

Centralized leadership has therefore been felt to be necessary to bring law-enforcement agencies up to minimum standards of efficiency. An example of this type of leadership is the Federal Aid Bill now before Congress, which has the support of the American Prison Association. The Bill provides for an appropriation of $10,000,000 'for the purpose of assisting the several states and other political sub-divisions to provide adequate housing and constructive educational employment and treatment facilities for those who have been convicted of crime, or who are held for trial or as witnesses,' and $2,500,000 'for the purpose of assisting the several states and their political subdivisions to establish and maintain, in accordance with adequate and scientific standards, properly safeguarded systems for the supervision of offenders released (1) by probation, (2) by parole, (3) by any form of conditional release.' Through this Act the Federal Government can take the initiative in securing for the country as a whole, modern scientific methods of prison treatment as well as sound systems of dealing with probationers and paroles.

(2) The desire to simplify and modernize codes of criminal procedure and the processes of criminal justice.

The impetus in this field is provided by the Model Code of Criminal Procedure which was adopted by the American Law Institute in 1931. Practically every legislative commission or bar association engaged in a re-examination of the law on criminal procedure takes the Model Code as a starting point for its work. Its provisions have been adopted in whole or in part in many states in the last few years, and the influence of the Code was still in evidence during 1938. In New York, for example, a commission on the administration of justice prepared a comprehensive revision of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The original Code was prepared in 1850, but was not adopted until 1881. The Code has not been revised since that date, although hundreds of amendments and amendments to amendments have been adopted.

The Commission on the Administration of Justice made a thorough study of the Model Code and based many of its recommendations for the codification of New York criminal procedure on provisions of the Model Code. The work of the commission will be presented to the next session of the New York Legislature.

(3) The growing realization that progress dealing with crime lies in the direction of preventive methods rather than repressive methods.

This is illustrated by the steps which the various states have taken to improve and extend juvenile delinquency laws and the treatment of juvenile and adult offenders as well as the progress which has been made in the direction of improving systems of probation and parole. Some states are going even further and are attempting to set up machinery for dealing with basic factors in delinquency. For example, the establishment of a bureau of crime prevention was recommended by the Prison Association of New York, and this proposal will come before the New York Legislature. The function of this bureau will be (1) to stimulate state departments to develop their facilities and methods to control the factors entering into delinquency and crime; (2) to visit, study and evaluate conditions in communities throughout the state and advise local agencies as to the organization and development of needed programs; (3) collate, interpret and publicize statistics and reports relating to the problem of juvenile delinquency and crime; (4) as need arises, to prepare and sponsor legislation bearing upon crime prevention; (5) develop a plan of crime prevention which would serve as a guide to various communities; (6) to evaluate the work that is being done by crime prevention organizations throughout the state.

It is to be hoped that the New York Legislature will approve the recommendations of the Prison Association. Such an organization, if intelligently administered, could do much to strike at the fundamental roots of crime.