This article examines the history of federal criminal jurisdiction and criminal enforcement, and reviews federal caseload statistics. The federal criminal caseload grew dramatically between 1980 and the mid-1990s, but this increase tells only part of the story. The federal criminal caseload has fluctuated widely over the past two decades, and the number of criminal cases today is about the same as it was in the early 1970s. Although criminal cases now account for only one-fifth of the federal caseload, they take a large and disproportionate share of federal judicial resources. In more than one-third of federal judicial districts, criminal cases now compose more than half of the trial docket. The increased allocation of judicial resources to criminal cases reflects not only changes in the kinds of criminal cases being prosecuted but factors including more time-consuming sentencing procedures and a higher conviction rate.
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References
1.
1. Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee, 2 Apr. 1990, pp. 4, 35.
2.
2. Rory K. Little, “Myths and Principles of Federalization,”Hastings Law Journal, 46:1029, 1038-1045 (1995).
3.
3. For a more extended treatment of the increases in the federal criminal caseload and its impact on the federal courts, see Sara Sun Beale, “Too Many and Yet Too Few: New Principles to Define the Proper Limits for Federal Criminal Jurisdiction,”Hastings Law Journal, 46:979 (1995).
4.
4. For a general discussion of the history of federal criminal jurisdiction, see Sara S. Beale, “Federal Criminal Jurisdiction,” in Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice, 2:775-779.
5.
5. Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S. 321 (1903).
6.
6. Edward Rubin, “A Statistical Study of Federal Criminal Prosecutions,”Law and Contemporary Problems, 1:494, 497 (tab. 1) (1934).
7.
7. U.S., Congress, Senate, S. Rep. No. 1189, 75th Cong., 1st sess., 1937, p. 38.
8.
See generally Kathleen F. Brickey, “The Commerce Clause and Federalized Crime: A Tale of Two Thieves,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (reading Lopez narrowly). Although the decision is narrowly drawn, it may nonetheless signal a new willingness to place greater limits on the commerce power.
9.
9. National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws, Study of a New Federal Criminal Code (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970), p. xxvi.
10.
10. Roger J. Miner, “Crime and Punishment in the Federal Courts,”Syracuse Law Review, 43:681 (1992) (“about 3,000”).
11.
11. For a general discussion of the history of federal law enforcement, see Norman Abrams, “Federal Criminal Law Enforcement,” in Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice, 2:779, 780.
12.
12. For a general discussion of federal police agencies, see Norman Abrams and Sara Sun Beale, Federal Criminal Law and Its Enforcement, 2d ed. (St. Paul, MN: West, 1993), pp. 5-9.
13.
13. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, “The Criminal Caseload: The Nature of Change” (Manuscript, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1994), p. 16.
14.
14. See ibid., p. 17 (chart 18).
15.
15. Ibid., p. 17 (chart 17).
16.
idem , Annual Report of the Director, 1992 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1992), tab. D-2. These tables are also the source of the data regarding drug and firearms prosecutions.
17.
17. William W Schwarzer and Russell R. Wheeler, On the Federalization of the Administration of Civil and Criminal Justice, Long Range Planning Series, paper no. 2 (Washington, DC: Federal Judicial Center, 1994), p. 3.
18.
Other caseload spikes occurred when war-related and selective service cases were prosecuted. See ibid., p. 497.
19.
19. Administration Office of the United States Courts, “Criminal Caseload,” p. 1.
20.
20. Stanley Marcus, “The Federalization of State Law,” in “Proceedings of the Western Regional Conference on State-Federal Judicial Relationships,” ed. John B. Oakley, 155 F.R.D. 301, 303 (1994).
21.
21. There were 19,825 trials in 1980 and 19,992 in 1992. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1993 (Washington, DC: Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1993), p. 206 (tab. 332).
22.
22. Garry Sturgess, “Judges Rap Stephens on Drug Cases,”Legal Times, 11 Feb. 1991, p. 7.
23.
23. Ibid. But see Tracy Thompson, “Stop Complaining, Stephens Tells Judges; Federal Jurists Bristle When U.S. Attorney Suggests They Don't Work Very Hard,”Washington Post, 8 June 1991 (federal courts in District of Columbia are not overburdened; it is 79th of 94 federal districts in number of criminal cases per judge).
24.
24. The number of requests for jury trials in criminal cases increased from 81 to 294 during this period, while requests for civil jury trials fell from 120 to 93. Garry Sturgess, “Another Clash over Criminal Caseload,”Legal Times, 1 Apr. 1991, p. 7.
25.
25. Sturgess, “Judges Rap Stephens on Drug Cases,” p. 7.
26.
26. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, “Criminal Caseload,” pp. 5-6 (charts 4 and 6).
27.
27. Ibid.
28.
28. Ibid., p. 8 (distribution cases take an average of 6 hours compared with 1.5 hours for possession cases; marijuana cases show a similar pattern).
29.
29. All statistics in this paragraph are derived from Administrative Office of the United States Courts, “Criminal Caseload,” pp. 1, 14.
30.
30. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98-473, 98 Stat. 1987 (1984), authorized the appointment of a federal sentencing commission and initiated a complete overhaul of federal sentencing procedures. See generally Kevin R. Reitz, “The Federal Role in Sentencing Law and Policy,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
31.
31. Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee, p. 137.
32.
32. John E. Shapard, Research Division of the Federal Judicial Center, to Sara S. Beale, 29 Mar. 1995. The study included sentencing data for 1934 cases filed between 1988 and 1990.
33.
33. The Sentencing Reform Act permits either the defendant or the government to appeal a sentence. Even a defendant who pleads guilty may nonetheless file an appeal to contest his or her sentence. Each year from 1990 to 1993, appeals raising sentencing issues alone accounted for at least 26 percent of the classified criminal appeals in cases subject to the Sentencing Guidelines. Prior to the reform of the sentencing process, few if any of these appeals could have been brought. The appeal of sentencing issues has also made appeals from convictions more complex and difficult to resolve, and most appeals from convictions now also raise one or more sentencing issues. In 1993, for example, only 30 percent of criminal appeals did not involve a sentencing issue, and that percentage falls to 15 percent if the calculations exclude cases that occurred before the effective date of the Sentencing Guidelines in 1987. The changes flowing from the reform of the sentencing process have a substantial effect on the workload of the courts of appeals since criminal appeals now account for approximately one-fourth of the appellate caseload. See Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Federal Judicial Workload Statistics (Washington, DC: Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 1993), p. 10 (tab. B-1).
34.
34. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, “Criminal Caseload,” p. 10.
35.
35. Ibid.
36.
idem , Annual Report of the Director, 1992, tab. D-4.
37.
See also ibid., pp. 15-19.
38.
38. Speedy Trial Act of 1974, as amended, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161-62, 3164.
