ABSTRACT
After reading this chapter students should understand and be able to discuss:
The impact of World War II on the American criminal justice system
The strain of paranoia that drove McCarthyism and the communist hysteria and its roots in early American criminal justice
The decisions of the Warren Court and their ramifications for criminal justice in the following decades
How the FBI made the transition from chasing gangsters to communists
Prison conditions before and after World War II
The rising specter of organized crime and the response of federal law enforcement to it
The diminished use of the death penalty
Changing patterns of American violence and the hysteria over rising juvenile crime
W orld War II transformed American society more than any other conflict in its history. During the 1940s, the federal government became much more centralized and united the population as never before. Wartime industry not only ended the Great Depression but also began several decades of unrivaled prosperity. But old fears still lingered. Fear of communist subversion at home and rising juvenile crime and the battle for civil rights presented the criminal justice system with new challenges in the 1940s and 1950s.