CRIME IN AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 154, 27 December 1935, Page 8

CRIME IN AMERICA

PROFESSOR'S VIEWS

POWER OF GANGSTERS

Prohibition, sensational newspaper reports, and certain classes of motion pictures have been the main contri- ] buting factors in the crime wave which has swept the United States of America for the past decade. This was the opinion expressed during an interview today by Professor Robert S. Stevens, professor of corporation law. at Cornell "University, Ithaca, New York, -who is at present visiting New Zealand, in the course of a world tour. . .■ | The United States, said Professor j Stevens, was on account of its size, and the number of States it comprised, a very difficult country in which to administer justice. Before Prohibition the position was serious enough, but when gangsters commenced to make fabulous incomes through riim-running the position became intolerable. The gang chiefs built up highly efficient organisations, which were not only in a position to fight the police on sometimes more than equal terms, but could influence the course of justice through applying some sort of pressure to any witness who might be able to give evidence against them. These witnesses were sometimes threatened with violence or death, and on other occasions they were told that vengeance would be taken on members of their families. These threats had often been carried out, aW under the circumstances it was not surprising that many witnesses in gangster cases could not be induced to tell their stories. Since Prohibition there had been a general decrease in crime' as many of the gangsters had lost their means of livelihood. ' Many had turned to racketeering, but- in ' Professor Stevens's opinion the power; of ' the gangsters would continue to decline. Newspaper publicity-, continued Professor Stevens, also had ah" important relationship with the amount of crime in the United States. All the daily newspapers, with three or four notable exceptions, concentrated on crime news and their front pages carried screaming headings featuring the latest murder or robbery. •. New. Zealand papers were quite different in this respect. They carried a large amount of domestic and foreign political news and one had to look for crime news in the less prominent'posi-; tions in the papers. As far : as the reporting of crime news was .concerned many criminals in-the United States were ■ convicted before trial owing to the intensive newspaper campaigns which usually preceded an arrest. There was, of course, such a thing as contempt of Court, but the Judges in most cases did not exercise, their powers sufficiently in that direction.. During his visit to New Zealand Professor Stevens intended to see something of the Courts of this country, but-owing, to the intervention of;the holidays he has been unable to carry out his plans in this direction. Professor Stevens, who is accompanied by his wife and son, has toured the South Island," visiting the Franz Josef Glacier and Mount Cook. The scenery greatly impressed him, and he greatly appreciated the hospitality, that had been extended to him. He leaves Wellington this afternoon for Waitomo, Rotorua, and Auckland. •••■••.