Criminology and Criminal Justice

Dorothea Dix's papers consist of correspondence from Miss Dix to various people, as well as some correspondence in which Miss Dix was concerned, but not directly involved. Dix was an advocate for social welfare, particularly supporting the establishment and maintenance of mental hospitals for the mentally ill, disabled, or poor. She was instrumental in the proposed legislation of the "Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane." During the Civil War, Dix was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses. Much of the correspondence concerns Dix's efforts to bring lifeboats and other help to Sable Island in Nova Scotia, an area known for shipwrecks and where many with mental illnesses were sent, sometimes against their will. These papers are part of the historic psychiatry material in the Menninger Archives.

Almost all FBI records are part of a case file in the CRS. Records relating to each specific Federal crime are assigned to a numerical classification relating to that subject and other administrative materials are assigned to numerical classifications established for those types of records. For example, records resulting from investigations relating to the May Act, which was intended to prevent prostitution in restricted zones surrounding military bases, were assigned to Classification 18, and Classification 63 covers "Miscellaneous-Nonsubversive" matters. Within each classification, the records are further divided into cases, each designated by a number. For example, Case File 18-20 would indicate the twentieth case file in Classification 18 (May Act). Within each case file, every document carries a unique serial number.

Including The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, the records of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government War Records Interagency Working Group, J. Edgar Hoover Official and Confidential Files, and more, this is a fascinating window onto where we have been as a country with respect to law enforcement.