NCJ Number
160210
Editor(s)
M J Seng,
T M Frost
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This is a summary of a symposium in which a Federal judge, a Federal prosecutor, and special agents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration presented their views of crime in the 1990's.
Abstract
Although each of the presenters deals with crime and its effects at different points in the criminal justice process, all four made similar predictions about crime and law enforcement in the coming decade. Each identified drugs as the central and most critical problem for law enforcement in the 1990's, and each was pessimistic about resolving the drug problem even by the end of the 1990's. They believed that law enforcement has not and will not solve the drug problem through interdiction and that the policy emphasis must shift to demand reduction. They also agreed that the Federal efforts against white-collar crime and official corruption would see large-scale expansion in the 1990's; they argued that the greed and disregard for ethical and lawful behavior by some prominent members of the private and public sectors uncovered in the 1980's must be stopped. All four speakers maintained that the single most significant development in law enforcement in the 1980's would continue into the 1990's, i.e., interagency cooperation among law enforcement agencies at all levels. Previously, cooperation and coordination among Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies, although receiving vocal support, rarely emerged in practice; however, the intercity, interstate, and international dimensions of the drug trade in the 1980's have compelled such cooperation. Consequently, law enforcement will become more unified in the coming decade. All speakers expressed the view that the criminal justice system is limited in its ability to curtail criminal behavior. They believed that the basic answer to crime is the development and modification of behavior to reflect internalized ethical values that serve rather than undermine constructive social interaction. Questions for discussion and suggested student applications of the chapter material