NCJ Number
200500
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the different types of Federal asset forfeiture law.
Abstract
Forfeiture laws provide the Federal Government with the authority to seize property used to facilitate drug trafficking or property that represents the proceeds of drug trafficking. Methods of asset seizure and forfeiture include nonjudicial proceedings, judicial civil proceedings, and judicial criminal proceedings. More than 6,000 Federal administrative and judicial drug forfeiture cases are described and analyzed to construct a profile of the Federal Government’s use of this policy. The interest is in the types of seized assets, their economic values, the manner in which they are proceeded against, and the disposition of the proceeding. The specific methodological approach employed in this research is exploratory in nature. The results indicate that with the exception of Southern California, there was little variation in terms of the percentages of the types of seized assets, even given the districts’ distinctly different locations and level of drug activity. The concentration across districts was on monetary instruments and conveyances, with real property seizures accounting for a very low number of seizures for all districts. During this time period, the program did not appear to be tailored to address the unique nature of each region. The high frequency of monetary instrument seizures, the second most valuable of all five types, is in accordance with the program’s objectives. Data also reveal that while there was a decline in the number of seizures from 1991 to 1992, there was an increase in the amount deposited to the Federal Assets Forfeiture Fund. Research should be done on both police and prosecutor decisionmaking in selecting assets for seizure. More research should focus on the influence of asset sharing on State and local police departments cooperating with Federal authorities in property seizures. 6 tables, 34 references