Environmental Crime: Issues Related to Justice's Criminal Prosecution of
Environmental Offenses (Testimony, 11/03/93, GAO/T-GGD-94-33).

Between 1988 and 1992, the U.S. Attorneys offices (USAO) handled the
majority of investigations and prosecutions for environmental crimes.
Those offices brought an increasing number cases under the Clean Water
Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Justice's
Environmental Crimes Section (ECS) has led relatively few prosecutions
since 1988, never rising above 14.5 percent of cases filed in any given
year.  Available data for the first half of 1993, however, suggest that
these trends may be changing.  In particular, the proportion of cases
involving shared responsibility between USAO and ECS may be on the
upswing.  Overall, USAO and ECS attorneys joined forces in cases against
630 defendants between October 1987 and May 1993, achieving an overall
conviction rate of more than 90 percent.  Probation and fines were the
most common single sentence imposed, although more than one-third of all
defendants ended up in jail.  Federal courts imposed fines on all but 13
sentenced corporations.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-33
     TITLE:  Environmental Crime: Issues Related to Justice's Criminal 
             Prosecution of Environmental Offenses
      DATE:  11/03/93
   SUBJECT:  Crimes or offenses
             Environmental case law
             Investigations by federal agencies
             Environmental legislation
             Environmental monitoring
             Statistical data
             Criminal procedure
             Law enforcement agencies
             Law enforcement personnel
             Law enforcement
IDENTIFIER:  Superfund Program
             Exxon Valdez
             
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