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Police Reform & the Big House
Although the Progressive movement slows with the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, women finally win the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment two years later. The Great Depression begins in 1929, prompting President Franklin Roosevelt to propose a "New Deal" for America. The legislation he introduces — such as the social security act and the minimum wage law — establish the government's role in providing welfare services while maintaining a vigorous commitment to capitalism. The organized labor movement becomes more powerful. America enters the Jazz Age; for the first time, a black art form lures whites out of their segregated neighborhoods to take part. In 1941, the U.S. enters World War II, on its way to becoming the most powerful nation on the globe. During this period, commonly referred to as the Reform Era of Policing, the first crime laboratory, the polygraph, the patrol car, and other profound changes are introduced. Technology and science play an ever-increasing role in criminal justice. In 1924, Nevada becomes the first state to use cyanide gas to execute an offender. The next year, science — the teaching of evolution in public schools — is challenged by religion in a Tennessee court in State v. John Scopes, or the "Monkey Trial." Prohibition paves the way for organized crime syndicates and the consequent expansion of the federal criminal justice system. |