[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H226-H227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A PERSPECTIVE ON CRIME POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wanted to talk a little bit 
about an article that I read called U.S. Victory in the Crime War, 
written by Timothy Maier, and it was from ``The World and I'' magazine. 
It is a great article, and it just puts a perspective on some of the 
crime policy that we talk about.
  I live in an area that has a lot of crimes, a lot of sad stories. I 
was talking to the DA, Steve Kelly, the other day about a case that he 
had where a 68-year-old woman was raped while her husband was held at 
gun point by some teenage thugs. And Mr. Kelly is a very aggressive, 
very competent DA, and he was able to get a prosecution on that, but it 
was just a heartbreaking story.
  I remember another story in Savannah, Georgia, of a woman who was 
bathing her 2-year-old in the bathtub and somebody knocked on the door. 
And she looked out and decided not to answer it, and so the perpetrator 
went from the front door to the back door, kicked it in and raped this 
woman while she was bathing her 2-year-old.
  And those kinds of heartbreaking stories we all hear, and we all hear 
too often, but in the crime debate we often forget the victim.
  What I wanted to talk about is some of the things Mr. Maier had 
pointed out. The good news is that over the last 4 years violent crime, 
which includes aggravated assault, rape and murder, dropped 7 percent. 
Homicides fell 11 percent, about 7 people per 100,000 in population. 
Robberies were down 8 percent. Aggravated assaults dropped 6 percent. 
And rapes dropped 3 percent. Property crime, such as burglary and auto 
theft, also dropped. So there is a lot of good news.
  Now, the interesting part is who is claiming credit for this. And, of 
course, in Washington we want to point to our tough crime policy and 
the President wants to point to some of his policies, but Mr. Maier 
said that the real success lies in the State governments, since that is 
where so many of the violent crimes end up in court. He pointed out 
that the States that have truth in sentencing laws, such as Virginia, 
are leading the way in the reductions of crime. He pointed out that in 
Virginia that they have had a truth in sentencing law and their simple 
policy is we want to get the bad guys off the streets.
  Think about this, Madam Speaker. The hard working taxpayers in your 
district in New York should not be afraid to walk down the street at 
night. They paid for the street. They should not have to look over 
their shoulders. But the thugs who beat up old people and grab girls 
off the streets, they should be in jail. They should be afraid to walk 
down the streets, because we want to catch them and we want to lock 
them up and segregate them from decent society.
  And so what Mr. Maier has pointed out is States that have the truth 
in sentencing laws and building new prisons, and they are purging these 
people off the streets, getting rid of the bad apples, they are leading 
the way. So truth in sentencing was part of it.
  Now, another thing he looked at, another factor, was the COPS 
program. The President has said that because we have 100,000 new cops 
on the street it has made a new difference. But the reality is that 
there are not 100,000 new cops on the streets. And depending on who you 
are talking to, that number is actually as low as 20,000 and sometimes 
up to 57,000 people.
  One thing he did show, he said there are more than 17,000--he talked 
about Washington, DC. He said in Washington, D.C. there are more than 
17,000 police officers, including Federal police in Washington, but the 
city still averages 60,000 violent crimes a year. Here we are in the 
Nation's capital and one person out of eight is going to be a victim of 
a violent crime.
  So does the Cops on the Street program work? I would say we really do 
not know for sure, but I can say this: The communities that have been 
flexible with the money seem to have been the most successful.
  In Statesboro, Georgia, they have actually put a police satellite 
station in one of the housing projects that was in an area where there 
was high drug high crime, lots of problems. And right smack in the 
middle of it the police in Statesboro put in a satellite station. I 
went to visit it and they said immediately they ran out the bad apples. 
The children come up to the police officers now. Instead of being 
afraid of them, they come up and hug them. They tell them when somebody 
from out of the housing area is in the area that should not be.
  And the turnaround in that area has been tremendous. The commercial 
businesses, which had been closing down, are coming back and reopening. 
Church groups come to this area. It has been a great community success 
story in Statesboro, Georgia, and now they have done this in another 
housing project.
  So when the COPS grant money is used in the way that the local 
community needs it to be used, I think that it does have an impact.
  The third factor which Mr. Maier examined in terms of reducing crime 
was what about gun control. The President was quick to say, well, it is 
the Brady bill. The Brady bill is something that requires a background 
check on people before they can buy a gun. But Mr. Maier points out 
that in the time that it has existed, which I believe is 4 years now, 
that under the law there have only been seven prosecutions and of those 
seven, only three were sent to prison for illegally trying to obtain a 
handgun. So we have to say that really is not the main factor.
  Now, he does point out something else. What portion of violent crimes 
actually involve the handgun. The answer is about 10 percent. And this 
statistic suggests that controlling handguns is not the final factor. 
In fact, Mr. Maier pointed out from 1980 to 1992 the number of firearms 
increased by 18 percent. But during the same period of time, the 
portion of violent crimes committed without a firearm dropped 4 
percent. So the bottom line, according to Mr. Maier, is more guns on 
the street does not necessarily increase gun crime. And he shows a lot 
of examples.
  One thing that is very interesting also is that he points out that in 
terms of guns, or where a gun has been fired or displayed, which 
actually comes to about 2\1/2\ million times a year in self-defense, 
the number of police arrests for violent crimes has fallen. So that 
there has been a positive impact for those folks who own guns and who 
use it to defend themselves.
  The next factor that Mr. Maier looks at is juvenile crime. And one of 
the things that we are all concerned about is how much violent crime 
can be traced to young children. And young children can be anywhere 
from 13, 14 years old, in their mid-teens to their young 20s. But it is 
depressing to look at the stats on that.
  The FBI statistics show that while violent crime is declining, 
juvenile crime continues to increase. The number of juveniles charged 
with murder increased 104 percent nationwide from

[[Page H227]]

1970 to 1992. Since 1980, juvenile gang killings have increased 371 
percent, and the rate of recidivism for juveniles runs as high as 75 
percent. In fact, the FBI shows that before someone goes to jail as a 
juvenile, he usually commits 15 different offenses that have gone by 
unpunished.

  One of the big problems is that the age group of the drug pushers who 
are in their mid-20s go out and recruit the very, very young kids for 
the most dangerous, the most risky part of their business, and they 
consider these kids both expendable and impressionable. You can get 
them to do things that older and smarter folks would not want to do. So 
when there is a turf war, usually the casualties are your 16 and 17-
year-olds.
  The next question, the final thing I want to touch base on, Mr. Maier 
says are we actually winning the drug war. And a lot of people will 
point out the fact that we are grabbing more marijuana and drugs as 
they come into our country. Although it would depend on what statistic 
you look at, we are probably grabbing as little as 15 percent of what 
is actually coming into our country from south of the border. And one 
of the things that has happened, because there has been a de-escalation 
in terms of prosecutions, that the drug dealers are actually more set 
in, and their territories are somewhat established because they are not 
gunning it out any more.
  This is a real interesting article on crime. I think that what Mr. 
Maier does is raise some things that we in public policy need to 
consider. I believe that this Congress should continue to go in the 
direction that it has: Full sentencing of 10 years means 10 years. If 
someone is in jail they need to have a work program. No more sitting 
around watching TV, lifting weights and playing basketball. It means 
also the work that they do should be meaningful. It should be skill 
building, so that when they get out they can utilize that into a paying 
job.
  I think also there should be an education program. I believe that a 
lot of these people who are in jail are intelligent but, somewhere 
along the line, they dropped out of school. They had a problem. They 
need to have that second chance while they are in jail, tied in with 
good behavior or whatever, but give them that opportunity.
  Finally, I do think there needs to be spiritual rehabilitation, 
because I think that is the beginning of real rehabilitation for anyone 
behind bars. I believe that taking these steps, sending out the message 
that we are serious, that a person cannot just be caught selling drugs 
and get their hand slapped any more, I think if we continue on this 
path, that our crime rates will continue the downward trend.

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