Crime Control Policy

1
Crime Control Policy

• Obama and McCain What Does Each Candidate Say
  about Crime Control?

2
Barack Obama's Crime Control Policies An
Overview

• Some restrictions on certain types of guns
• Supports death penalty in more limited
  circumstances
• Ease some drug sentencing requirements
• Undecided on medical marijuana

3
JOHN McCain's Crime Control Policies An Overview

•   Do not restrict guns for law-abiding adults
• Keep death penalty as it is now used
• Tough drug sentencing except for first-time users
  
• No medical marijuana

4
Gun Control

• McCain and Obama agree on the basics for gun
  policy and crime, but their specific proposals
  look very different.
• On gun control, they agree that the Second
  Amendment provides a right for gun ownership.
• Obama has supported several restrictions on gun
  ownership, including bans on assault weapons and
  semiautomatics.
• Both McCain and Obama support closing the "gun
  show loophole" by requiring background checks for
  all sales at gun shows.
• McCain does not support any gun restrictions on
  gun ownership for law-abiding citizens

5
Gun Policy Debate

• On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that
  Washington, DC's ban on handgun possession was
  unconstitutional.
• The case, District of Columbia v. Heller, also
  marked the first time in US history that the
  Supreme Court had clarified the meaning of the
  "right to bear arms" language in the Second
  Amendment.
• DC had banned handgun possession even in the
  home, which the high court saw as an
  unconstitutional overreach of federal power

6
Guns and Politics

• The gun policy debate is generally cast with the
  Second Amendment right to bear arms on one side
  and the need to limit handgun violence, largely
  in inner cities, on the other.
• Beyond solely limiting ownership, regulations
  like background checks can be established,
  ostensibly as safeguards.

7
Death Penalty

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8
Some Facts About the Death Penalty

• The death penalty for capital crimes has always
  been allowed in America, with the exception of a
  brief moratorium imposed by the Supreme Court
  from 1972 until 1976.
• Since the reinstatement, there have been 1,099
  executions (through April 2008).
• The Innocence Project highlighted the fact that
  some individuals on death row did not commit
  murder.

9
Recent Supreme Court Decision

• The Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Kennedy
  (2008) that the death penalty could not be
  imposed on child rapists because it "is not a
  proportional punishment.
• They left capital punishment open for "offenses
  against the state" like treason, espionage, and
  terrorism.

10
Death and Politics

• McCain and Obama are again both supporters of the
  Death Penalty, but they differ in important ways.
• Obama wants to further restrict and regulate the
  punishment's use,
• McCain supports its current usage.
• McCain also supports applying the death penalty
  to drug kingpins, and has said that states should
  be allowed to apply the death penalty to crimes
  such as child rape, if they choose
• Obama has said he supports the death penalty in
  extremely limited circumstances -- for "heinous
  crimes" such as "mass murder" or "the rape and
  murder of a child.
• Obama does not believe that the death penalty
  deters crime, says it is applied unfairly, and
  that its usage should be further restricted.

11
Drug Policy

• The current federal drug policy began with former
  President Richard Nixon's declaration of the "war
  on drugs" in 1971.
• All of his successors have continued with his
  original plan, which has changed very little with
  time.
• Offenders can serve jail time, although
  first-timers rarely do. The US government
  estimated the cost of the war on drugs for 2005
  as roughly 45 billion, including approximately
  30.1 billion spent incarcerating drug law
  violators.
• Illicit drug use has remained roughly constant
  over the past 30 years.

12
Drug Policy Differences

• On drug policy, they agree that first-time drug
  users should not go to prison.
• Obama would reduce some other federal drug
  sentencing guidelines and McCain would not.
• Obama argues that drug dealing in inner-city
  communities should be addressed by increasing job
  opportunities, saying, "We can assume that with
  lawful work available for young men in the drug
  trade, crime in any community would drop."
• Neither candidate offers an assessment of
  interdiction efforts.
• They disagree on whether the government should
  pay for drug treatment.

13
Pot and Politics

• On marijuana
• McCain would not support legalization of even
  medicinal marijuana,
• Obama supports keeping marijuana illegal, but
  also wants to reduce criminal penalties for
  marijuana possession
• Obama says he is undecided on medical marijuana
  and that the issue needs to be studied more.

14
The Marijuana Debate

• Marijuana, a psychoactive drug, has been
  regulated in the US since the 1930s and is
  currently illegal.
• The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has
  consistently classified marijuana as illegal
  because it "intoxicates those who use it,
  injuring their health and the well-being of those
  around them."

15
One Side Keep it Criminal

• Statistics identify marijuana use as currently
  the leading cause of treatment need for those
  abusing illegal drugs.
• Marijuana is the second-leading reason for
  drug-induced emergency room visits and has
  surpassed alcohol in addictive risk for young
  people.
• Criminalization supporters also point to the
  risks of developing schizophrenia, depression,
  cognitive deficits and respiratory problems from
  marijuana use, as well as its potential as a
  "gateway drug.
• They contend that data from other countries like
  the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and the UK
  shows that legalization results in vastly
  increased consumption.

16
The Other Side Decriminalize

• Marijuana users are largely non-violent offenders
  who end up overcrowding the federal prison
  system, spending needed federal dollars that will
  not ultimately reduce drug use or traffic.
• Strict laws applied to marijuana use make the
  drug, which is easily grown, literally worth its
  weight in gold for traffickers from big cartels,
  increasing their profits and influence.
• Advocates compare marijuana use to alcohol
  consumption and compare today's drug policy to
  ineffective Prohibition laws in the early 20th
  century.

17
Police and Politics

• Both McCain and Obama support increases in the
  number of federal, state, and local police .
• Neither candidate has talked about specific
  police strategies, such as community policing,
  problem-oriented policing, broken windows and
  zero tolerance policing.
• Obama sponsored a bill in Illinois requiring
  videotaping of interrogations of people suspected
  of death penalty crimes, saying that this would
  help ensure that the death penalty is correctly
  applied.

18
Supreme Court and Politics

• The next President will likely appoint at least
  one new supreme Court Justice.
• Each candidate has raised this possibility but it
  has not been a major debate issue.

19
Prisons and Politics

• The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in
  the world though only 5 of the world's
  population lives in the U.S., it is home to 25
  of the world's prisoners,
• The Justice Department reported in February 2008
  that 7.2 million people are in prison, on parole,
  or on probation in the United States.
• 1 out of every 32 Americans is in the
  correctional system and 1 out of every 100 in
  prison, according to a 2008 Pew study.
• Recidivism (return to crime) rates average around
  50 within three years of release.

20
Prisons and Politics

• Neither candidate has made crime control a major
  platform issue.
• For first time drug users, McCain supports an
  Arizona program to give them treatment and a
  clean record. He wants this policy to be adopted
  nationwide, saying that "we have too many
  first-time drug offenders in prison .
• Obama argues that jobs and education, not prison,
  will reduce crime.