NCJ Number
95914
Editor(s)
P B McGuigan,
T L Donovan
Date Published
1984
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The efforts made by the Reagan Administration to combat crime are reviewed, and the President's anticrime legislation, S. 1762, is discussed.
Abstract
Examples of effective administration programs are detailed; attention is focused on the war on drugs, which for the first time, society is starting to win. Because of the President's get-tough policies, including the creation of 12 drug enforcement task forces, FBI-narcotics related investigations are generating more indictments and convictions than ever before. A similar trend in the battle against organized crime is reported. However, the case is made that the administration cannot eliminate crime without help; therefore, Congress is called on to support the President's 4l-part anticrime bill. Reforms provided by the bill are discussed. For example, it revises bail law to enable a judge to take such matters as dangerousness into account. Additionally, it contains labor racketeering amendments; provisions to combat the sexual exploitation of children; and criminal forfeiture provisions. Moreover, it reforms the insanity defense by placing the burden of proving mental disease or defect on the defendant. Other crime bills awaiting action in the Senate are discussed, including S. 1764, which deals with the problem of the exclusionary rule by implementing a reasonable good faith test. The need to arouse the public to put pressure on Congress to pass essential changes in the criminal law is identified, as is the primary purpose of the police, the courts, and the jails: to apprehend, to punish, and to deter criminals.