The purpose of this 1970 act was to eliminate organized crime "by establishing new penal prohibitions and by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime." As the title suggests, lawmakers sought to provide enhanced and novel legal tools for law enforcement. Because the level of violence and crime had continued to rise in post–World War II America, there were many who criticized existing laws related to personal safety and the security of property. McCarthyism, the Kefauver Hearings, civil rights demonstrations, Vietnam War protests, and liberal court rulings gave Americans a sense that state and local governments could no longer enforce laws against sophisticated criminals. Congress, therefore, expanded the federal government's role in preventing crime and punishing criminals by passing a series of laws.
In a response to concerns about increased street and gang crime, Congress passed the Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act of 1961, which earmarked $10 million annually to fund community crime-control efforts and to train local officials to work with juvenile delinquents and gangs. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, passed seven years later, authorized over $100 million, with $50 million to assist law enforcement agencies in riot control and fighting organized crime. The bill also outlawed interstate trade in handguns, raised the minimum age for handgun purchases to twenty-one, and established a national gun licensing system. The Gun Control Act of 1968 extended these restrictions to cover rifles, shotguns, and ammunition.
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, signed into law by Richard Nixon, was the major statute that gave the federal government new and sweeping ways to combat organized crime. Title I grants greater powers to grand juries and permits detention of unmanageable witnesses by authorizing special grand juries to sit for up to thirty-six months while investigating organized criminal activity. Title II weakened the witness immunity laws. Title III gives courts the ability to detain uncooperative witnesses for up to eighteen months. Title IV allows witnesses to be tried for perjury, based solely on contradictions in their testimony. Title V authorizes the Attorney General to form a witness protection program for cooperative federal and state witnesses and their families. Title VIII makes it a federal crime to protect an illegal gambling business by obstructing state law or to use income from organized criminal activity to run a business engaged in interstate commerce. Title IX—known as The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO—has been called the most sweeping criminal statute ever passed by Congress. This section covers twenty-four types of federal crimes and eight state felonies. It provides for a $20,000 fine, twenty years in prison, asset forfeiture, and civil damage suites. Title XI, modeled after the Gun Control Act of 1968, includes sections known as the Explosives Control Act and establishes certain types of bombing and arson as federal crimes and contains provisions for strict industry regulation.
Because of its comprehensiveness, the Organized Crime Control Act laid the foundation for additional legislation passed during the latter quarter of the twentieth century. Efforts toward reducing criminal activity have included a number of far-reaching programs, such as community action networks, larger police forces, tougher sentencing, limits on gun ownership, and new definitions of criminal activity. Congress built on the original law by passing the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 and a major anticrime package in 1984. Congress continued with legislation such as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993 and the Omnibus Crime Control Act and Safe Streets Act of 1994. These acts ban nineteen types of assault weapons, allow judges to waive minimum sentences for nonviolent, first-time drug offenders, and expand the number of federal capital crimes. Congress approved additional penalties for "hate crimes," federal offenses against victims based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, and instituted the "three strikes and you're out" policy that mandated life imprisonment for criminals convicted of three violent felonies.
Bibliography
Blakey, G. Robert. "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO)." The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress 3, 1659 (1995).
Brookings Institute. "Government's Fifty Greatest Endeavors: Reduce Crime." Available from http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/gs/cps/50ge/endeavors/crime.htm.
Friedman, Joel M. et al. "Fighting Organized Crime: Special Responses to a Special Problem (Symposium-perspectives on organized crime)." Rutgers Law Journal 16, no. 439 (1985).
Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
