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The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (also known unofficially as the Wickersham Commission) was a committee established by the U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, on May 20, 1929. Former attorney general George W. Wickersham (1858–1936) chaired the 11-member group, which was charged with investigating the causes and costs of crime, Prohibition enforcement, policing, courts and antiquated criminal procedures, and prisons, parole and probation practices, among other topics in order to improve the American criminal justice system.[1]
During the 1928 presidential campaign Herbert Hoover supported the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which had introduced nationwide alcohol prohibition) but he recognized that evasion of the law was widespread and that prohibition had fueled the growth of organized crime.
- ^ Calder, James (2013-03-01). "Between Brain and State: Herbert C. Hoover, George W. Wickersham, and the Commission That Grounded Social Scientific Investigations of American Crime and Justice, 1929–1931 and Beyond". Marquette Law Review. 96 (4): 1035.