The collection consists of correspondence, drafts and working papers for Clinard's doctoral dissertation, “Urbanization and Criminal Behavior,” drafts and working papers for his book, The Black Market, files of the Enforcement Division of the Office of Price Administration (OPA), and a few miscellaneous papers and shorthand notebooks.
Correspondence, 1939-1952, relates almost entirely to Clinard's dissertation and to his book, The Black Market. The letters are mostly communications between Clinard and university authorities, officers of the OPA, prison authorities and boards of parole, and publishers. They relate to his dissertation and examinations, gathering material and statistics, and case histories of criminals. A July 17, 1945 memorandum from George Moncharsh, Deputy Administrator of the OPA, directs all Division and Regional offices of OPA to extend full cooperation to Clinard in preparing a history of OPA.
There are two drafts of Clinard's dissertation on urbanization and criminal behavior, dated June, 1941 and December 1941. The working papers consist of notes, statistics, case histories of criminals, and personality inventories.
Clinard's book, The Black Market, is a study of white collar crime, according to a sub-title on a draft dated 1948. This draft seems to be complete, although it is not the one used for publication of the book. Other drafts in this collection seem to be revisions of parts of the book, of single chapters, or of parts of chapters, and show that the manuscript was revised many times before publication, with major deletions or additions. Except for the 1948 draft, they are not dated or otherwise identified. The order in which they were arranged when they arrived has been retained. Galley proofs of the book are also present.
The term “Working Papers” has been used to describe the next part of the collection because it contains materials used by Clinard in preparation of his book. Arranged in folders by topics, it consists of notes, articles and clippings, statistics and charts, and materials from the files of the Enforcement Division of OPA.
Files of the Enforcement Division of the Office of Price Administration, a United States government agency in World War II, come next. The original arrangement of the files could not be determined, but they have been arranged according to the offices of origin or destination of the memoranda, or by subject and date. Memorandum Reports to the General Counsel of the OPA, for example, have been filed under “Reports to General Counsel”, and those to regional offices under “Reports to Regional Administrator”.
The period covered by the OPA files is from 1942 to 1946. Most of the papers are dated. Certain groups of papers, notably the Policy File and Manuals, served a purpose of establishing operating procedures, which was changed from time to time. While the individual papers bear specific dates and titles, the group as a whole was effective in setting policy only until the next change. Therefore no dates have been given for these groups except the period 1942-1946.
Some material from the OPA Enforcement Files may be found in Clinard's book working papers. Books and pamphlets from the Enforcement Files are in the State Historical Society Library. Three boxes of books and pamphlets which the library could not use are with the collection.
