Criminologist Online

Perhaps as early as 1932, former Berkeley police officer and then San Jose State College Professor William A. Wiltberger began to bring together a group of individuals on a sporadic basis to informally discuss contemporary law enforcement issues. It appears that the bulk of those involved in these discussions had either taken classes from August Vollmer at the University of California, Berkeley and/or had been police officers in Berkeley when Vollmer served as Chief. The group called themselves the “V-men,” recognizing Vollmer as their intellectual leader. It is unclear, however, as to what direct role Vollmer had with respect to these early discussion groups. In 1939, Professor Wiltberger formally organized the group as the National Association of College Police School Administrators with himself as the President and his former student, Willard E. Schmidt, as Vice President and Secretary. In December of 1941, anticipating his eminent departure into the military, Wiltberger looked for someone else to take charge of the discussion group and the organization in general. August Vollmer agreed to step in.

On December 30, 1941, August Vollmer invited seven men to his home in Berkeley. William Wiltberger and Willard Schmidt were both present. The meeting began at 10:15 am, and did not conclude until after midnight. At this meeting, Wiltberger’s organization was re-named the National Association of College Police Training Officials. August Vollmer (then 65 years old) was named President-Emeritus and Orlando W. Wilson (one of Vollmer’s former students) was named President. Willard Schmidt was named First Vice President, and William Wiltberger was named Third Vice President. William Wiltberger was called to active military duty shortly after this meeting was held. He survived the war, but there is no evidence of any activity on his part within the National Association of College Police Training Officials after this December 30-31, 1941 meeting. This is likely due to the fact that the new organization, reflecting Vollmer’s perspective, took on more of an academic orientation, contrary to Wilberger’s vision. August Vollmer remained active in the organization at least until 1949 when he served as the Annual Meeting Program Chair (at age 73). Orlando W. Wilson served as President until 1950. Schmidt remained active in the organization at least up until 1952 when he again served as Vice President and as Annual Meeting Program Chair.

With the advent of World War II, growth and development of this new organization was quite slow. As post-War events settled, a meeting was held at the Durant Hotel in Berkeley, California in 1946. There were roughly 40 members of the Society at the time. At this meeting, the name of the organization was changed to the Society for the Advancement of Criminology, and a Society Constitution was adopted. The next meeting of the Society took place in December of 1949 at the University of California, Berkeley. Among other matters, the need for a newsletter was discussed, and as best as we can tell, three newsletters were produced and distributed by John Kenney over the next three years (1950 – 1952).

In 1952, the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Sciences was designated as the official vehicle for Society news and articles.  After a year, it was determined that the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Sciences was not a suitable medium for distributing Society news. Consequently, the Board decided in April of 1953 to publish a newsletter, in-house. The Secretary/Treasurer, Lowell W. Bradford, took on this task. With some surprising speed, Volume 1:1 appeared in print the very next month, May 1953. We believe the Bulletins were published out of his home in San Jose, California. Seven Bulletins were published by Mr. Bradford in 1953 and 1954. The Publications Committee then took on the task of preparing the Bulletins, and a number were published over the course of the next four years. They were produced on a sporadic basis, however, and the number of Bulletins published during this time has been lost to history.

This was a time of growth and development for the Society. There were a number of stops and starts as the organization and its early leaders sought to carve out policies and practices and purposes. The Executive Board of the Society for the Advancement of Criminology met on March 30, 1957 at the President's Conference Room in the Administration Building of the University of Southern California with several far reaching items on the agenda. Among other items, the Board decided to change the name of the Society at this meeting.   Three options were proposed:

            American Society of Criminology
            American Criminological Association
            American Criminological Society

In the following months, the membership as a whole (64 persons at the time; half of which resided in California) voted on the name change, and on a new Constitution. In November of 1957 it was announced that the new Constitution passed, and that by a vote of 7 (American Criminological Society), to 10 (American Criminological Association), to 18 (American Society of Criminology), the name of the organization had been changed. This newly named organization was officially incorporated in the State of California on August 7, 1958.

There was also much discussion at the March 1957 Board Meeting regarding the need for a journal and a newsletter. The Society was small in numbers, and not financially grounded. Nonetheless, the Society tried to move forward with a newsletter and sought to standardized a publication schedule. The Publication Committee, chaired at the time by C. Robert Gutherie, was tasked to produce 10 newsletters per year, and to contribute material for the SAC News section of the Journal of Criminal Law, Police Science and Administration, and Police. Good intentions took the effort only so far, and the Publication Committee only managed to produce three newsletters in 1957 and two in 1958. In 1959, Howard R. Leary was named the Newsletter Editor, and he did produce three issues that year. There are no surviving records as to who was responsible for newsletter production from December 1959 until early 1963.

In early 1963, backed with a $500 Certificate of Deposit (the beginnings of the organization's financial solvency; up to this point much of the financial short-falls were personally covered by Donal E. J. MacNamara), the Society resolved to publish a newsletter on a regular basis. In May of 1963, Vol 1:1 of Criminologica: Newsletter of the American Society of Criminology appeared in print, with Charles Newman serving as the Editor.

With the publication of the May 1966 issue, the newsletter Criminologica, became Criminologica: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Criminology, with Simon Dinitz serving as Editor. Criminologica: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Criminology was self-published by the Society from May 1966 through the February 1970 issue. At this point, the name of the journal was changed to Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and was jointly published by the Society and Sage Publications from May 1970 through the November 1984 issue.

As best as we can tell, no separate Society newsletter was published for the ten-year period from February 1966 until June 1976. During this time, Society news and notes from the discipline were often included in the journal. By the Spring of 1976, it was clear that a separate publication for news and notes was needed. Consequently, the Society established The Criminologist: Official Newsletter of the American Society of Criminology, and designated Alvin Cohn and Joseph Scott as Co-Editors. They published Vol 1:1 in June 1976. The Society has published The Criminologist regularly since that time.