[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        THE CONFERENCE ON THE CRIME BILL AND ASSORTED STATISTICS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Payne of Virginia). Under a previous 
order of the House, the following Member is recognized for 5 minutes, 
Mr. Taylor of North Carolina.
  Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, since we have in this 
Congress passed a crime bill which now is in conference between the 
House and the Senate, and while the House and Senate are thinking of 
that crime bill and the public is thinking of that crime bill, we ought 
to review some of the statistics. I am going to go through some that 
were written in the National Review just this month.
  Actual punishment for crimes in this country: burglary 6 to 7 days; 
robbery, 2 months; aggravated assault, 8 to 9 days; car theft, 2 to 3 
days; rape, 6 months; murder, 2 years.
  62 percent of all criminals sentenced to probation. Most crimes 
committed by criminals, most criminals will serve no more than 40 
percent of their sentences, at most. 90 percent of persons charged with 
serious crimes are allowed to plead those crimes to lesser charges.
  The likelihood of a serious crime leading to imprisonment fell by 80 
percent from 1962 up through today. Of the 2,500 people on death row, 
most will die of old age. We have executed for murder only 2 percent of 
the people in the United States on death row, and that 2 percent is in 
relationship to 20,000 homicides committed each year.
  In other words, there is only 32 executions each year for 20,000 
homicides committed each year.
  Per 1,000 serious crimes, there were 90 people in prison in 1960, per 
100,000 serious crimes; today there are only 30 in prison for 1,000 
serious crimes.
  We have in conference, unfortunately, a so-called crime bill that 
will abolish the death penalty, according to the National District 
Attorneys Association; they called the quota measure involved in the 
bill ``a vote to end the death penalty,'' in the United States.
  That bill will take away hundreds of weapons, not just the weapons 
people ordinarily think of, the 19 designated as assault weapons, but 
the Treasury Secretary already has identified some 185 weapons that 
have been called assault weapons under the terminology of the bill. And 
many more will be added to the list.
  My son's shotgun, with which he hunts turkeys, meets the criteria for 
an assault weapon, and it is a standard weapon that is used in the 
hunting of birds.
  We will release with the so-called crime bill some 16,000 Federal 
drug pushers from prison. We will spend some $8 billion on job training 
programs, and that will be all right. But it will be our 151st job 
training program. As described by many, it is called ``fighting crime 
through social work speeches,'' in the sense that the programs that we 
will be spending the $8 billion on will include efforts to increase the 
self-esteem of wayward youth, in part through cultural programs, arts, 
crafts, health, education, and service programs.
  All this is in the crime bill. While it sits in conference, it would 
be well for us to remember the statistics I have just read and perhaps 
to see if we in this country can attack the real sources of crime and 
not pass a show bill, that will give some indication that we are 
serious about crime, when this legislation provides nothing serious and 
little hope for the victims of crime in this country.

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