There is much crime in America, more than ever is reported, far more than ever is solved, far too much for the health of the With these disquieting words, the National Crime Commission opens its 340-page report, the most comprehensive study of crime and criminal justice undertaken in the nation's history. The report released this week draws upon two years of research, three national conferences and five national surveys. Commission task forces and their contractors cruised with policemen, sat in courts and even staked out, on occasion. Their conclusions follow. More than $4 billion are consumed each year in the nation's criminal justice system-its police, criminal courts, jails. A minor fraction of that goes to research and evaluation. There is probably no subject of comparable concern to which the nation is devoting so many resources and so much effort and concern with so little knowledge of what it is doing, the report charges. Courts are clogged with petty offenders who should be handled elsewhere since their only crimes are against themselves. Police could have been equipped 30 or 40 years ago, so unsophisticated are their instruments for controlling Jails and prisons remain in the last century. Overlying everything, the limited resources and crippling work load, is inertia. There is in the criminal justice system a reluctance to face hard facts, a resistance to innovation, a suspicion of outsiders, a fear of . . . objective appraisal. Even when agreement exists, changes are slow in coming. Of an estimated 5 million arrests each year, a third are for drunkenness, though most people in and out of the system have known for years that the criminal process is an irrational means of dealing with drunks, says the Commission. To the question of how much crime and what kinds, only tentative answers are available, mainly because data collection is grossly inefficient. The national crime rate, supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is based on reports from local police departments. For a number of reasons, including the fact that crime figures reflect on their efficiency, police do not report all crimes. Nor do victims report all crimes. The Commission took a sample of 10,000 households and estimates that people are victimized five to ten times as often as the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports indicate. Even at that, the UCR shows crimes increasing faster than the population, though not in homicides. Murder has actually decreased while property crimes are up. Crimes against property far outnumber crimes against the person. In 1965, only 13 percent of the serious seven Index crimes-murder, rape, assault, burglary, robbery, theft of more than $50 and car theft-were crimes of violence; 87 percent were thefts: money, cars and goods. Slightly less than one million serious crimes were committed in the country that yearaccording to probably low FBI figures. The most important insight into this grim rate is the Commission's revelation that young people are the most crime-prone group in the nation. More 1 5-year-olds are arrested for Index primarily theft, than any other age group, and 16-year-olds run a close second. As for crimes of violence, people 18 to 24 lead. Considering that the 15 to 24 age group is the fastest growing in the nation and will be for another 15 years, the outlook is bleak. America's hope for reducing crime is to reduce delinquency and youth crimes, the Commission states. Young people are sorely discontented everywhere, but that discontent is more often expressed criminally in the slums. Thus, says the Commission, on poverty and unemployment is warring on A civil rights act is an act against Money for schools is money against crime. But for juvenile courts, the Commission has more specific recommendations. Originally intended to help rather than punish troubled children, the juvenile court system took broad jurisdiction, extending far past criminal acts to truancy, incorrigibility and minor types of misbehavior. In over half a century, these courts have not fulfilled their promise. Indeed, they have failed so far that, as the Supreme Court noted last year, children may be getting the worst of both worlds, neither the protection accorded adults nor the promised care. Few juvenile courts have regular psychiatric assistance. Half the judges have no college degree and a fifth no college