The connection between criminal activity and the use of drugs and alcohol has long been an issue in American society. Even before federal laws were passed in 1914 to control narcotics and other drugs, observers claimed that drug use and criminal activity were strongly linked. Drugs and alcohol are thought to encourage criminal behavior in several ways. Their use can reduce inhibitions, stimulate a…
According to Lynn Bauer of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001 (May 2004), the total amount spent on corrections at the federal, state, and local levels rose from about $8.9 billion in 1982 to $57 billion in 2001, an increase of roughly 540%. During the same time period, total expenditures for police protection also increased …
Crimes committed by hate groups or offenders and those committed by terrorist groups are often very similar, both in method and in effect. For example, a person acting from a motive of religious bias might use an incendiary device (one that causes fire, such as a Molotov cocktail) to burn down a mosque, church, or synagogue. A terrorist group might use the same type of device to burn down a govern…
Public views of punishment for crimes have changed over the centuries. History has its clement and its stormy seasons, and during times of war, famine, and disorder, gains made in peace and plenty are sometimes lost. Yet generally over time most societies have moved from the extraction of personal or family justice—vengeful acts such as blood feuds or the practice of "an eye for an e…
American Bar Association 321 North Clark St. Chicago, IL 60610 (312) 988-5000 E-mail: askaba@abanet.org URL: http://www.abanet.org American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project 915 15th St. NW, Suite 620 7th Floor Washington, DC 20005 (202) 393-4930 FAX: (202) 393-4931 http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/PrisonsMain.cfm American Correctional Association 4380 Forbes Blvd. Lanham, MD 20706-4…
Corrections institutions are organized in tiers by level of government and, at each level (federal, state, and local), specific types of institutions provide corrections functions based on the relative severity of the offenses committed. The most restrictive form of corrections is incarceration in a prison. Both the federal and the state governments operate their own prison systems; within the fed…
After a crime has been committed, the justice system of the United States goes into action. The system has three major components that work together: A Gallup Poll found that although a majority of Americans still favored the death penalty in 2001, the percentage of those supporting the death penalty was 67 percent, down from a high of 75 percent in 1997. In 2003 a Gallup Poll found that 60 percen…
In 1871 a Virginia court, in Ruffin v. Commonwealth (62, Va. 790, 1871), commented that a prisoner "has, as a consequence of his crime, not only forfeited his liberty, but all his personal rights except those which the law in its humanity accords to him. He is for the time being the slave of the state." Eighty years later, in Stroud v. Swope (187 F. 2d. 850, 9th Circuit, 1951), a fed…
In Prisoners in 2003 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2004), Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck reported that the prison population increased 2.1% between 2002 and 2003, although at a lower rate than the average annual growth rate of 3.4% since 1995. According to Harrison and Beck, the number of individuals under state jurisdiction grew by 20,370 (1.6%) between 2002 and 200…
Most of the correctional population of the United States—those under the supervision of correctional authorities—are walking about freely. They are people on probation or people on parole. According to Lauren E. Glaze and Seri Palla in Probation and Parole in the United States, 2003 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, July 2004), 4,024,087 people were on probation, 774,588…
The various agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice are the major sources of crime and justice data in America. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) compiles statistics on virtually every area of crime and reports that data in a number of publications. The annual BJS Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, prepared by the Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, State University of New …
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is a major source of data and information concerning crime, sentencing, and inmates. Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 (2002) summarizes information on inmates in the nation's jails and prisons. Other valuable BJS publications include: Capital Punishment, 2003 (2004); Compendium of Federal Justice Sta…
Sentencing policies have changed since the 1970s. Prison populations began increasing in 1973 from a rate of ninety-six prisoners per 100,000 adult residents in the United States to an estimated 482 per 100,000 in 2003. (See Table 4.3 in Chapter 4.) Between 1925 and 1973 the ninety-six per 100,000 rate was one of the lowest, matched, for instance, by the rate in 1928. The average imprisonment rate…
In 2002 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) estimated that one Crime Index offense was committed every 2.7 seconds in the United States. Property crimes were committed more frequently (one every 3.0 seconds) than violent crimes (one every 22.1 seconds), down from one every 19 seconds in 1996. The Crime Clock does not imply these crimes were committed with …