NCJ Number
132023
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 14 Issue: 1-2 Dated: (Spring-Winter 1990) Pages: 123-132
Date Published
1990
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The Federal Witness Security Program is a relatively new strategy in the law enforcement effort against organized crime in the United States. It was established in response to the previous inability of Federal prosecutors to protect important government witnesses in organized crime trials who were threatened by the powerful and violent networks against which they were testifying.
Abstract
The program protects witnesses who are willing to testify, often in exchange for the elimination of charges against themselves, by relocating them and their families under completely new identities. The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for operating the program, has perfected and routinized this process of social death and social rebirth. Nevertheless, this process has resulted in dysfunction in several major areas: with victims of crimes committed by protected witnesses in their new areas of relocation, with natural parents who have had their visitation or custody rights involuntarily terminated by the relocation, and by creditors who could not collect debts and legal obligations from relocated witnesses. 5 notes and 12 references (Author abstract modified)