Term Paper on "Role of Civil Sanctions in Crime Control Clarke's Crime Prevention Studies Series Ron"

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role of civil sanctions in crime control. The writer explores the way civil sanctions are already used in criminal cases and argues that taking it step further would benefit everyone involved by alleviating some of the nation's jail overcrowding issues and by providing financial relief to victims of criminals.

For the past several years Americans have been up in arms about the nation's current crime statistics. On any given night of the week one can find a news show that depicts the overcrowding of America's jails, the constant revolving door the court system seems to have with the same few defendants and the loss of hope that victims have that they will ever see justice served.

To be fair, criminal court judges are also at their wits end as they try to handle overfilled courtroom dockets, maintain a sense of order and keep track of how many times a defendant has already been in trouble before deciding what punishment to hand down. Recent history has witnessed Americans taking the law into their own hands, not with acts of vigilantism but with acts of civil summons. Across the nation victims and families of victims in criminal actions are filing civil suits against those who committed the crimes against them or their loved ones. The trial of OJ Simpson was one of the most well-known cases, in which the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson took the former pro-ball player to civil court and got a many million dollar ruling against him. In Nashville the case of attorney Perry March who killed his wife and then worked with his father to hide the body and escape prosecution for more than a decade has also been sued by his wife's family for the distress his actions caused the

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m. The idea of filing civil suits against criminal defendants is not a new one however, the civil action has nothing to do with the criminal proceedings. With the current overcrowding of America's jails and prisons, and crime including many more types of theft than ever before, the time has come to introduce civil sanctions as a valid method of crime prevention.

On one hand researchers suggest civil remedies are a cheap easy way to implement crime prevention into the justice system. Others feel civil remedies are a waste of time and do not work in all cases and instead criminal punishments are preferable to preventing crime. The fact remains the current method is not being called an overall success and the time has come to introduce further sanctions to try and reduce the crime rate. Using civil sanctions will send a strong message to those who commit crime as well as those thinking about committing a crime.

History

Throughout the history of the nation, criminals have found themselves locked into jails or prisons following their convictions. In addition they may be ordered to pay restitution to the parties that they injured during the commission of their crimes however the restitution did not take pain, suffering and emotional trauma into account. By its very nature restitution is set at whatever actual monetary damages could be proven. For example, if a burglar took $200 worth of crystal from the house he broke into and later pawned that crystal so that it could not be recovered the judge in the case against him may order him to not only serve jail time but also to pay the victims through the courts $200 to replace the valued crystal.

Restitution is not the same as a civil action of sanction. A civil action is filed in civil court and not criminal court and it allows for the request and ability to collect monetary damages beyond the cost of the item stolen, broken or lost. It allows the plaintiff to ask for punitive damages for pain, suffering, emotional damage and other items that are not usually part of a criminal restitution package.

While people have used the civil courts periodically to sue convicted criminals it is usually reserved for suing the most well-known or wealthy of convicts. In addition there have been several attempts throughout the years for criminal defendants to claim that if they are sued in civil court and charged in criminal court they are then victims of the double jeopardy law (Melenyzer, 1999, 32).

However, the Supreme Court decided in Hudson v. U.S. that sanctions imposed on bankers in a civil proceeding did not constitute "criminal punishment" triggering the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The Court also disavowed the method of analysis used since 1989 and reaffirmed the previously-established statutory construction test in U.S. v. Ward (Melenyzer, 1999, 32)."

Crime Control

America has been wrestling with the crime control question for years. With one of the highest incarceration rates worldwide, and nationally publicized jail overcrowding it is becoming evident that the current method of doing things to reduce or control crime is not working.

When the Supreme Court handed down that decision it did discuss the impact it would have when both civil and criminal courts would be able to "weld large sticks" for the same offensive criminal action (Melenyzer, 1999, 32)."

Justice Halper introduced the fact that coordinating prosecutions to be able to go after a defendant in civil and criminal court at the same time could be hard to manage. In addition said Halper it would cost the government more money to prosecute, instead of saving taxpayer dollars in the short-term (Melenyzer, 1999, 32).

He stated in his opinion:

problems come into being when the legislature has authorized both civil and criminal prosecutors to wield big sticks against the same offensive conduct. Because the legislature authorized either stick to be swung, executive branch prosecutors and agency enforcers of the law become the interpreters and implementers of congressional policy as to who should strike first and with which weapons.... It makes sense for each type of enforcer to try to understand why Congress authorized the other enforcement action, and to try to coordinate efforts, rather than to march myopically ahead with only half of the legislative mandate. Congress' primary goal, one assumes, was to effectively combat the evil for which punishment was authorized (Melenyzer, 1999, 32)"

Coordinated prosecution may be the best compromise available to address the double jeopardy issue as it pertains to civil sanctions (Melenyzer, 1999, 32). Such prosecutions protect the interests of the individual against the threat of successive and continuing punishments by the government, while addressing the public's need to adequately and fully punish a perpetrator for crimes against the public (Melenyzer, 1999, 32).

Historically civil punishment has been withheld when criminal action is taken, however, in light of the current state of affairs in America's criminal justice system turning to civil sanctions as method to control crime may be effective in certain cases.

When

It is important to distinguish between the horrific and violent crimes that would warrant prison terms for those convicted of them and the crimes in which a civil sanction may work to deter the offender from ever re-offending and others from following in the same footsteps.

There are many types of crimes that do not fall under violence but do have victims just the same.

Crimes including embezzlement, Internet crime, burglary, and other crimes in which there generally is no violence may be viable candidates for imposing civil sanctions instead of criminal sanctions for the purpose of crime control.

Few experts would argue about having violent felons locked away where they cannot harm again, however, the question of what to do with non-violent criminals has reared its head many times in recent years.

Usually, in a criminal case, the arrest might make the local newspaper, then the hearing or trial is held and the person who is convicted gets sent off to prison.

Very few people, other than the convict's family ever think twice about the convict or what he or she did to get put in prison.

In the news shows the only criminals that are portrayed for the most part are those who committed horrifically violent crimes and can be sensationalized. When someone commits white collar crimes, or crimes of theft from stores or homes the public rarely hears about the impact those crimes have on not only the victim but the defendant who gets sent off to jail.

Using civil sanctions to reduce and control crime in those situations may be the perfect answer to America's dilemma.

One of the issues that consistently comes up in the case of criminal cases with civil sanctions is the exclusionary rule (Crandley, 2001).

In 1958 there was a landmark decision made with regard to the exclusionary rule in Plymouth Sedan vs Pennsylvania (Crandley, 2001).

In that case "the Court applied the exclusionary rule to civil forfeiture. One Plymouth Sedan remains the only Supreme Court case to apply the rule outside the criminal trial context. Under the analysis employed in Scott, however, the application of the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture hearings is in serious… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Role of Civil Sanctions in Crime Control Clarke's Crime Prevention Studies Series Ron" Assignment:

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1. Begin by reading several articles or chapters in a few books to 1) get a feel for what has been written on the topic and 2) begin to collect references using the snowball technique (i.e., see what articles and books are being cited in the articles/chapters you are reading.)

2. This research paper must be argumentative. The main topic is civil remedies as a way to prevent crime, the opposing argument is that criminal punishment is a preferable means of crime prevention.

The tesis should follow this argument. "On one hand researchers suggest civil remedies are a cheap easy way to implement crime prevention into the justice system. Others feel civil remedies are a waste of time and do not work in all cases and instead criminal punishments are preferable to preventing crime."

3. The paper should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is obvious! The beginning should include a discussion of what your thesis is about. The statement(s) of the thesis should be made in a way consistent with the rest of the paper -- you must back up what you claim in the thesis by evidence. The presentation of the evidence is what constitutes the middle part of the paper. Evidence may include a review of empirical studies (surveys, tables, data analysis), or the evidence may be citing the relevant literature as to the proper interpretation of a sociological theorist (or even text quotes of the theorist). The end spells out the implications of the evidence that you have discussed in the middle section of the paper.

4. Don*****t try to write a *****conclusive beginning***** before you write the middle and end of the paper. Usually the beginning of the paper is the LAST thing you write (re-write). I find that the rule of *****start in the middle***** works well -- you can*****t develop a thesis without knowing your material, and you will not know the material until you start a systematic review of it, which you probably will do at the same time as you are writing the middle of the paper. Remember to re-write your paper. Virtually no one writes a paper in one draft.

5. It is vitally important that you begin your research paper with the right *****snowball,***** else the references you accumulate will be all wrong! The readings for the course (including the textbook or books) are the best place to start, but any general criminology textbook is also useful.

6. All research must be from academic sources (no online sources).

7. Cite the author(s) and year of the publication in your text for any idea that deserves crediting. For example, see below (the comma is optional, but if you use it once use it everytime):

In some research it is found that poverty is a cause of crime (Jones, 2002).

Cite the author(s), year and page(s) for any direct quote or fact. For example, page 155 is referred to below:

One of the more famous facts in the field of criminology is that 6% of the people cause 50% of the crime (Wolfgang, 1972:155).

Multiple authors should be handled as follows. If you have a reference with three or more authors, name the first and use *****et al.***** for the rest (stands for *****et alia*****; Latin for *****and others*****). For example:

Some research has found that age is the strongest correlate of crime (Jones, et al., 2006).

*****

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