The war on poverty which I started-is a war against crime and a war against disorder." (quoting LyndonJohnson, Oct. 16, 1964)); see also President Lyndon B.Johnson, Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union (Jan. 17, 1968) (federal government should "help the cities and the States in their war on crime to the full extent of its resources and its constitutional authority").

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

If there can be said to be an "American criminal code," the Model Penal Code is it. Nonetheless, there remains an enormous diversity among the fifty-two American penal codes, including some that have never adopted a modern code format or structure. Yet, even within the minority of states without a modern code, the Model Penal Code has great influence, as courts regularly rely upon it to fashion the law that the state's criminal code fails to provide. In this essay we provide a brief introduction to this historic document, its origins, and its content.