Criminal Justice Timeline

Leading Issues Timelines 2011 Compiled by ProQuest staff. Copyright 2011 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Criminal Justice Timeline 1629 The Massachusetts Bay Colony creates the General Court to enforce the law. It is established as the first court in North America. 1693 The first uniformed police officer is employed by New York City. 1789 The U.S. federal court system is created by the Judiciary Act. 1790 Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail is converted into a penitentiary by Pennsylvania Quakers. 1820 The Auburn style of imprisonment is inaugurated in New York. This system is based on the enforcement of silence. Inmates worked in silence and were housed in individual cells but ate in common eating area. 1829 British Prime Minister Robert Peel forms the first modern police force, the London Metropolitan Police Force. 1836 The first vigilance committee in Los Angeles is formed. 1844 1849 New York combines day and night forces to form the New York City Police Department.

1849 The San Francisco special police force is formed in response to the widespread lawlessness that resulted from the gold rush. 1851 California makes robbery and grand larceny punishable by imprisonment or death. The first state prison opens in California. It is a ship named Waban. 1890 The National Prison Association issues the Declaration of Principles prompting reforms in the penal system. 1891 The Whittier State school opens in California, establishing the state's modern system of juvenile corrections. 1905 The California State Bureau of Criminal Identification is created to maintain records of wanted persons and inmates. 1908 June 29: Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte orders the creation of a special agent force in the Department of Justice. The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), known today as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is established. 1909 California law requires that counties maintain separate juvenile detention facilities. 1910 June: Congress passes the White Slave Traffic Act, also known as the Mann Act. The new law significantly increased the BOI's jurisdiction over interstate crime. 1909 The United Kingdom establishes the Secret Service Bureau, known today as the Security Service or the MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5). 1916 August Vollmer establishes the first formal academic law enforcement program in the

August Vollmer establishes the first formal academic law enforcement program in the U.S. at the University of California-Berkeley. 1919 Oct. 28: Congress passes the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act, also known as the Dyer Act. This act authorizes the Bureau to investigate auto thefts that cross state lines. Prior to the passage of this act, jurisdictional boundaries between states hampered the ability of law enforcement officials to thwart interstate auto theft rings. 1920 Prohibition begins after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits liquor in the United States. Canada establishes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 1923 The International Criminal Police Organization is founded in Austria. In 1989, Interpol was moved to its current location in Lyon, France. 1924 J. Edgar Hoover is appointed to direct the BOI. Among his priorities is a plan to to increase professionalism among agents, which includes the requirement of college dregrees for agents entering the Bureau. Congress authorizes "the exchange of identification records" among agencies. The BOI sets up an Identification Division and establishes fingerprint files in Washington by consolidating fingerprint collections from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. 1930 The FBI implements the Uniform Crime Report to survey crime. 1931 The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement finds that Prohibition cannot be enforced and instead incereases the prevalence of police corruption. 1932 June 22: Congress passes the Federal Kidnaping Act in response to the Lindbergh kidnapping case and other high profile kidnappings. The act gives the BOI authority to investigate kidnappings across state borders. 1933

1933 The 21st Amendment to the Constitution repeals Prohibition. 1935 The DOI officially becomes the FBI. 1950 March 14: The FBI initiates the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Program to draw national attention to dangerous criminals who have avoided capture. 1950-51 Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) holds a series of hearings on the role of organized crime in America. They were the first congressional hearings to be televised. 1951 March 15: Germany establishes the Federal Criminal Police Office. 1962 1963 August 7: President John F. Kennedy signs the National Security Action Memorandum 177, which enhances the U.S. government's foreign police-training program. In Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that all defendants accused of crimes have the right to legal representation at the expense of the state. Nov. 22: President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the FBI to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. Prior to that assignment, the FBI had no statutory authority to investigate presidential assassinations and the conflict between federal, state, and local authorities created confusion in the investigation of the case. April 1: India establishes the Central Bureau of Investigation. 1966 In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court rules that all persons accused of a crime must be informed of their constitutional rights, including the right against self-incrimination and the right to an attorney. 1967 The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice issues its report, "The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society," which finds that police officers are too isolated from the communities they serve.

1968 Congress passes the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Steets Act. 1969 The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration is formed to help police forces obtain the latest in technology and enforcement methods. The National Institute of Justice is formed as the research, development, and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. 1970 President Richard Nixon unveils the " war on drugs," a federal effort to fight drug use and trafficking. Oct. 15: Congress approves the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which contains a section known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. The RICO Act was particularly effective at convicting members of organized crime enterprises. 1972 The National Crime Victimization Survey begins. This survey measures crime committed against specific victims and includes crimes that were not reported to police. 1987 Sept. 13: Fawaz Younis becomes the first suspected foreign terrorist arrested for a crime against Americans on foreign soil. In March 1989, Younis is sentenced by a U.S. District Court to 30 years for the hijacking of a Jordanian plane carrying two Americans. 1989 The first drug court in the U.S. is established in Miami. 1992 July: The FBI Laboratory unveils DRUGFIRE, a database that stores and links specific, unique markings left on bullets and shell casings after a gun is fired. Facts on recovered spent ammunition are stored in DRUGFIRE and used to link crimes committed with the same gun. 1994 New Jersey Legislature enacts Megan's Law, which requires community notification when a sex offender is scheduled to be released. California passes a three-strikes law requiring third-time violent felony offenders to serve

California passes a three-strikes law requiring third-time violent felony offenders to serve 25-years-to-live sentences in prison. President Bill Clinton signs the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which provides $30 billion for prison construction and law enforcement and crime prevention programs, and the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. 1995 April 3: Russia establishes the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. 1996 President Clinton signs the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which adds new federal crimes to the list of those punishable by death. 1998 The FBI unveils the DNA Index System (DNS), a database created by federal, state, and local crime laboratories for the purpose of easily and reliably identifying suspects using DNA. 2001 President George W. Bush signs the USA Patriot Act, a controversial anti-terrorism law that allows law enforcement agencies to employ court-approved wiretaps on suspected terrorists, share criminal investigative information with counterterrorism investigators and other government officials, and work with other government agencies with the aim of securing U.S. borders and attacking international money laundering. 2002 The total U.S. prison population exceeds 2 million for the first time. 2009 June 18: The Supreme Court rules that prisoners do not have a constitutional right to request DNA testing after their conviction. 2010 Feb. 24: The Supreme Court rules that investigators may resume questioning a suspect who invokes his Miranda right to a lawyer after the suspect has been out of police custody for 14 days. The 7-2 decision scales back a 1981 Supreme Court decision intended to protect suspects from police badgering to talk and to safeguard the rights established in the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona ruling. June 14: The U.S. Supreme Court makes it easier for some death row inmates to overcome a one-year statute of limitations for filing a federal appeal of their capital sentence. The high court rules 7 to 2 that under certain extraordinary circumstances courts should allow an appeal to be filed even after the one-year deadline has expired.

courts should allow an appeal to be filed even after the one-year deadline has expired. The decision comes in the case of Florida death row inmate Albert Holland, who lost his right to file a federal appeal of his death sentence when his lawyer missed the one-year deadline established under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). June 14: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that judges can order restitution payments in criminal cases even after a 90-day deadline has expired, as long as the judge made clear that restitution would be a part of the sentence. July: Protests erupt in Oakland, California, after a white transit cop facing homicide charges in the fatal shooting of a black man is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter instead by a jury which did not include any black people. The case rekindles debate on the impact of the under-representation of minorities on juries. Aug.: President Barack Obama signs a bill that will reduce the disparity in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine convictions. Aug.: The Bureau of Justice Statistics releases a report that reveals that at least 88,500 adults were sexually abused in U.S. prisons and jails in the past year. 2011 Jan. 24: The Supreme Court reverses a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision and rules that state prisoners have no constitutional right to be paroled. Feb. 28: The Supreme Court rules in Michigan v. Bryant that statements made to authorities during an emergency can be introduced later as evidence in a criminal trial--even if the person who made the statements dies prior to the trial. March 7: The Supreme Court rules in Skinner v. Switzer that a death row inmate can try to gain access to DNA evidence that might prove his innocence. Citation: You can copy and paste this information into your own documents. ProQuest Staff. "Criminal Justice Timeline." Leading Issues Timelines. 28 Apr 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 18 Nov 2011. Accessed on 11/18/2011 from SIRS Issues Researcher via SIRS Knowledge Source <http://www.sirs.com> SIRS Issues Researcher Educators' Resources RSS Feeds Privacy Accessibility License Contact Copyright 2011 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved.