Crime Control: The Federal Response

Publication Date: January 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Justice

Type:

Abstract:

Crime control efforts at the federal level traditionally have been concerned with problems of national scope transcending state boundaries or with the maintenance of law and order in areas subject exclusively to federal jurisdiction. However, in recent years, Congress has expanded federal jurisdiction in the area of crime control to areas once considered to be primarily within state and local jurisdiction, for example, in juvenile justice and gun control. The Supreme Court has established some limits on the power of Congress to regulate certain activity through the commerce clause of the Constitution. In U.S. v. Lopez (514 U.S. 549, 1995) the court, striking down a provision of the Gun Free Schools Act of 1990, held that the possession of a gun in a local school zone is not an economic activity that might have a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

Congress has passed five omnibus crime control bills since 1984. The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-473) overhauled the federal sentencing system and revised bail and forfeiture procedures along with other federal practices. Anti-drug abuse statutes passed in 1986 (P.L. 99-570) and in 1988 (P.L. 100-690) included enhanced penalties for drug-related crimes and provisions for funding state and local drug enforcement. The Crime Control Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-647), authorized $900 million for the Federal Drug Control Grant Program, and codified a Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights in the federal justice system. The fifth omnibus crime control legislation in ten years, P.L. 103-322, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, was approved by the House and Senate in the closing days of the 103rd Congress.

Several bills were considered in the 106th Congress to address issues related to crime, juvenile justice, and school violence. The measure (P.L. 106-386, H.R. 3244) containing Aimee's Law and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act was signed into law on October 28, 2000. Two other measures that received congressional approval provided grants to assist States with combating computer crimes, signed into law (P. L. 106-572) on December 28, 2000, and with DNA analyses, signed into law (P. L. 106-546) on December 19, 2000. Congress did not reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, amended, under H.R. 1501.