Why Revisionist Histories Are Necessary and Always Late: 50 Years After the President's Commission Task Force Report on Organized Crime

• In Event: IASOC Presents the Mark Haller Memorial Panel: A Look Back at the 1967 Organized Crime Task Force Report

Abstract

The President's Crime Commission, reporting in 1967, published a separate Task Force Report on Organized Crime. Its conclusions about the state of organized crime were based on a combination of political considerations, law enforcement perspectives, an informant's account, and very little actual research. This paper examines the 1967 report as a product of its times, highlights the many revisionist histories published since, and takes a larger view about the importance of revisionist perspectives to understand the motives and context behind important changes in criminal justice policy.

Author

• Jay Albanese, Virginia Commonwealth University