NCJ Number
138885
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1992) Pages: 1179-1196
Date Published
1992
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the U.S. Department of Justice's prosecutive guidelines for environmental violators, in which there is voluntary disclosure or voluntary compliance.
Abstract
The purposes of the guidelines are to encourage self- auditing, self-policing, and voluntary disclosure of environmental violations; provide Federal prosecutors greater latitude in the exercise of their prosecutorial discretion and ensure that prosecutorial discretion in environmental cases is exercised consistently throughout the Nation; and give the regulated community an understanding of how the Federal Government exercises its criminal prosecutorial discretion with respect to voluntary disclosure, cooperation, use of environmental audits, and other factors. Regardless of these intended purposes for the guidelines, their overall nature and certain of their provisions raise serious questions as to how they will be applied and whether the intended goals will be achieved. The guidelines have not been in effect sufficiently long to provide empirical evidence on how they are applied, but if they are not applied fairly, uniformly, and objectively so as to provide an incentive for voluntary disclosure of environmental offenses, the regulated community will view them as a sham. 46 footnotes