Both historical and comparative analyses indicate that the United States experiences too much criminal violence. Aggregate rates of violent crime doubled in the 1960's and 1970's. Paradoxically, increased prosperity, increased concern about crime, and apparently increased rates of crime were all occurring simultaneously. The Katzenbach Commission produced 200 recommendations in its report, 'The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society.' It laid the political and administrative foundations for the Federal Government's larger involvement in crime control by recommending the creation of LEAA. LEAA had three goals: encouraging State and municipal planning, providing grants to improve law enforcement, and encouraging research and development. Despite early problems, LEAA succeeded in producing comprehensive planning, centralized information-gathering systems, and numerous programs for improving criminal justice efforts. Although LEAA was dissolved in 1981, over 70 percent of LEAA-funded programs were continued by the States in some form. The Reagan administration's recent Task Force on Violent Crime suggests that commissions will continue to be formed, even though they do not always have major impacts. The work of the earlier commissions has raised the level of knowledge about crime control and produced many improvements in criminal justice, although they have not produced as much as originally hoped. Notes and 43 references are included.