Choose your weapon: Is civil forfeiture really necessary, or is it an undesirable shortcut to real law enforcement?

Abstract

Purpose

Civil forfeiture is an increasingly common way for governments to relieve criminal wrongdoers of the proceeds of their crimes and to restore the property to the victims of the offense. The question that is asked, however, is this: Is civil forfeiture an essential tool that is needed to fill a gap in the arsenal of weapons available to law enforcement or is it a prosecutorial shortcut that allows cases to be closed without obtaining the evidence needed to obtain a criminal conviction in cases that should be prosecuted criminally. The answer is that it is both. When properly used, civil forfeiture is an essential tool that provides a means of recovering property, but it is a tool that can also be used to save time and money even though the investment of those resources in bringing a criminal to justice would better serve the public interest. The aim of this paper is to show why this is so.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis of the use of civil forfeiture in the USA.

Findings

Civil forfeiture is an essential law enforcement tool.

Originality/value

While undeniably an essential law enforcement tool, civil forfeiture is sometimes used as a shortcut to conserve resources.

Citation

Cassella, S.D. (2018), "Choose your weapon: Is civil forfeiture really necessary, or is it an undesirable shortcut to real law enforcement?", Journal of Money Laundering Control, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 340-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-09-2017-0047