Evening star., 1933-09-10
WASHINGTON SEEN IDEAL
SITE FOR CRIME INSTITUTE
National Capital Now Has Most Adequate
Equipment Available for
Such Research.

Justice" The authors believe that an
institute in the United States should
be devoted merely to research, with en-
phasis upon the construction of q
rational science of criminal law Of
which the authors deny the existence.
AS to the sum of their conclusions
many social scientists will disagree, but
no one can possibly deny their thesis
that 1T is desirable at this time to es-
tablish an institute of criminal justice
in this country"
While it is unquestionably true that
research should occupy first place in
the attention of the projected ins.i-
tute, education should not be set aside,
for trained staff of penologists and
criminologists should supplant the in
rsuficiently trained officials of today
Inasmuch as the research competence
OF the institute must extend to the
most diversified phases of human re-
lationshipS and cover such fields as
crime causation and crime prevention.
the anthropological, sociological and
psychological aspects OF crime, penology,
police administration and criminal law
and scientific crime detection, 1t is evi-
dent that it cannot work in vacuum.
To do practical work In these sub
jects adequately it must have the raw
hand SO that it can base its deductions
on realities and not on academic gen.
eralities. To that end the members Of
the institute must work in close CO.
operation with the police, must have
prisons and reformatories as their lab
oratories and should be in continual in
tercourse with the medical staff of an
insane asylum for criminal psychology
can often best be studied through path
illogical cases.
At the same time the institute should
be located in a city with large library
to which members of the staff could re-
pair for their research tasks, and should
be adjacent to law and medical schools
so that student assistants can be drawn
from these schools.
To my mind there IS but one loca-
ton that adequately meets the above
specifications and that is Washington,
the Federal Capital. In Washington,
in addition to the metropolitan police
force. are located the headquarters of
the Federal enforcing agencies. The
Bureau of Investigation has already
established and developed the division
of identification. the national crime
laboratory. the crime statistics collec-
ton service. a national clearing house
for fugitives- wanted information and an
apparatus would give the institute op-
portunity to study at first hand almost
every conceivable type Of criminality.
It Is doubtful if a similar heterogeneity
of criminaliStic equipment could be pro-
vided in any other American city. Not
far away are the District prisons-Oc-
coquan and Lorton. Across the river
in Anacostia is st. Elizabeth's. the most
widely known insane asylum in the
United States. In the Capital City are
several class A medical and law schools,
which could supply all the student as
sistantS that were needed. Then again
If particularly delicate experiments had
to be performed the Bureau Of Stand
ards. with its elaborate equipment and
trained force, would be at the disposal
of the institute.
Equipment Here Now.
AS regards library the Library of
Congress and particularly the Law
Library, could provide all the material
necessary for academic research. Also
the staff of the Library of Congress,
accustomed as it is to rendering serv-
ice to all Government agencies. could
assist the members of the institute in
extent than the staffs of other large
libraries.
At the present moment the collection
on criminal law and criminology of the
Library of Congress are good. If an in
stitute of criminolOgy were established
in Washington, this would provide the
Library of Congress with additional in
centive to make them eminent, al
though for this task a philanthropic
foundation may have to be called on
for support. But as chairs and en-
dowments have been granted to GER
tain fields as, e. g., the Guggenheim
aviation and further contributed gen.
erous sum for the purchase of material
in this field-there is no reason to sup
pose that similar endowment may
not be made by public-spirited organ
ization. With a criminologist. holding
chair in criminology, in charge, there
would be no reason why the criminO-
logical collection of the Library of Con-
gress could not be quickly put into
condition to meet the demands of the
most exacting researcher.
While most Of the academic work
will undoubtedly be done in the field
Of criminology proper, there will be
many times when the members of the
institute will have to consult medical
library in order to resolve intricate
problems of forensic medicine. And III
Washington is located the outstanding
medical library in the world, that of
the surgeon general of the United
States Army.
Much of the fog of ignorance that
hides scientific approach to criminol-
ogy is due to the fact that the labors
of many workers in this field, hidden
in forgotten books, have been lost sight
of and each succeeding worker has had
to build anew. 1t is in remedying this
fruitless duplication that the Library
of Congress can do its share. If the
worlds literature on criminology is COL
lected in one place, is catalogued and
is rendered easily accessible, no re-
searcher need retrace the ground so
painfully won by another, but can de-
vote all his time to charting seas as
yet uncharted.
With such an ideal set-up for an
institute of criminology and criminal
justice in Washington, it is hoped that
this opportunity will not be overlooked
in the plans of the administration in
its war on crime.