Reexamining the President's Crime Commission

Abstract

In the ten years following the initial publication of the report of the Presi dent's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, we have seen significant changes in criminal justice. Though widely con sulted today, the report has become out of date. As a reference work, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society ( 1967) remains valuable, but it no longer reflects the dominant issues in American criminal justice. The single most important change over the past decade has been the decline in faith in the idea of rehabilitation. The report of the President's Crime Commission reflected the belief that alternative correctional programs could effectively attack the causes of crime; now, however, rehabilitation has become an unpopular goal. The debate today over deterrence and the growing interest in determinate sentencing are phenomena unforeseen by the commission's report. These changes in criminal justice are, in part, a result of the growing public frustration over the continued rise in the rate of violent crime. Another significant change-for which the President's Crime Commission is partially responsible—is the increased awareness of the criminal justice system as a system. The development of a federal justice agency and the emergence of a new academic discipline of criminal justice represent the new strategy of approaching criminal justice as a un ified system.