The American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology was organized in 1909 at the National Conference on Criminal Law and Criminology. John H. Wigmore, dean of the Northwestern University School of Law proposed the conference as an event sponsored under the auspices of Northwestern. Attracting a roster of participants from a variety of academic and professional fields, the broad aim of the conference and the resulting institute was the improvement of criminal justice.
The organization was successful in its novel efforts to introduce scientific methods and incorporate the contributions of medicine and the social sciences into the study and practice of criminal justice. From its earliest days the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology supported a program of meetings, surveys, reports and a pioneering and influential periodical, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.
From the guide to the Records of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1909-1934, n.d., (Northwestern University Archives)
