NCJ Number
223069
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Dated: May/June 2008 Pages: 182-189
Date Published
May 2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study sought to assess the relative importance of criminal justice pioneers in the development of American criminal justice systems.
Abstract
The results were threefold: (1) most of the designated pioneers were born between 1901 and 1950 where a significant number contributed in the area of law enforcement; (2) all women pioneers were White and outnumbered African-American pioneers by more than a 2:1 ratio; and (3) men were 10 times more likely than women to be regarded as pioneers. Historical explorations into the origins, development, and evolution of the American criminal justice systems have engaged the interest and imagination of numerous scholars. However, few scholars have attempted to identify, document, and characterize the contributions of American criminal justice pioneers. This study, consisting of 44 biographies contained in the book “Criminal Justice Pioneers in U.S. History” (Jones, 2005), provides a closer examination of the biographies of prominent pioneers, based on their contributions to the development and evolution of criminal justice as a discipline and as a practice. The study had three objectives: (1) to assess the relative numbers of selected pioneers in terms of their race and gender, (2) to identify historical eras that produced most of these pioneering figures, and (3) to assess the relative importance of each pioneer in terms of space devoted to each biography. Tables, appendix and references