NCJ Number
139186
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 18 Issue: 1-2 Dated: (September 1992) Pages: 91-104
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper examines events surrounding J. Edgar Hoover's authorization of FBI surveillance of two criminologists: Harry Elmer Barnes, the coauthor of "New Horizons in Criminology" (first edition, 1943), and Edwin H. Sutherland, author of "Criminology" (first edition, 1924), generally regarded as the dean of American criminology. The paper also reviews the FBI's dealings with Jack Shaw, a FBI agent who angered Hoover while he was studying at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice.
Abstract
Hoover used the FBI's intelligence resources to pursue his own vendettas against persons who threatened Hoover's policies, his personal image, and the image of the FBI. In 1936 Harry Barnes gave two public lectures in which he criticized the FBI's failure to address organized crime. This omission was contrasted with the FBI's obsession with a "second-rate" criminal like Dillinger. In response to such criticisms, Hoover placed Barnes' name on the Custodial Index file, a roster of allegedly dangerous and disloyal persons, who were to be interned in the event of a serious threat to the internal security of the United States. In the case of Edwin Sutherland, he favored parole and criticized Hoover for his opposition to it. Sutherland was denied access to publications of the Uniform Crime Reports and other FBI data as a result of his being placed on the FBI's "no-contact" list of persons who had been critical of the FBI. While a student at John Jay College, John Shaw wrote a letter to one of his professors, Abraham Blumberg, in which he mostly challenged, but in some cases agreed with Blumberg's criticism of Hoover. Through the FBI secretary who typed the letter, Hoover gained access to it and subsequently transferred Shaw to the Butte, Montana office and advised all agents studying at John Jay they must leave the school if the school did not fire Blumberg. 50 notes