When crime falls, prosecution for small stuff (including DUIs) rises

As noted in the New York Times Freakonomics blog, crime is down, way down. Not only is it down, but it’s been going down for over a decade. (Although you would hardly know it since it seems that all we read about are the horrific crimes that happen with such frequency that one can’t help but be left with the impression that crime is rampant). It’s not.

In the criminal defense business, falling crime rates correlating along WITH a falling economy is rare. As one New York blogger notes, the end of year indictment numbers in New York are in the 4 digits, like Indictment Number 6347/2007. Ten years ago, the last indictment of the year would have been closer to 29641/1997. That’s an awful lot of business off the table for criminal defense lawyers. Sure, a jaded statement, but we can’t defend people who aren’t getting arrested, now can we?

But the gross numbers only tell part of the story. The nature of crime has shifted. Serious crime — that is violent crime such as homicides and major drug cases, are substantially down. The “quality” cases are few and far between. This is good for society, generally bad for criminal defense lawyers (and prosecutors who crave job security), and problematic for those poor defendants who get arrested for petty offenses.

In the old days, police and prosecutorial resources were focused on big cases, the ones on the upper end of the felony spectrum. There were only so many prosecutors to go around, and they weren’t going to waste them on small potatoes, like simple weapons possessions or dime bag heroin sales. These lower level cases were throw-aways, move them in and out and clear out the dockets for the players. With cops tied up closing murder cases, who can bother with your garden variety small crimes.

But today, there isn’t enough big stuff to keep the State busy. When society was adrift in crime, they added tons of resources to combat the “plague” of crime. Budgets bulged. Courtrooms were opened. Prosecutors were hired. The State was ready. So when things shifted, and knowing that no arm of government ever says that they have more money or staff than they need, so did the focus.

Without big guys to go after, they prosecutors make every offense the most vile crime in the world, ESPECIALLY DUI. Jail time is demanded on every second time DUI, no matter what, even though that would have gotten community service a decade ago. Drunk driving is the new murder. Crimes that nobody thought twice about have become the greatest threat to civilization in existence and are politicized. This is what happens when police and prosecutors don’t have enough to do.

While criminal defense lawyers may bemoan the lack of quality cases, since defendants see less need for our services when they aren’t facing the rest of their natural lives in prison, the sharp decline in violent crime over the past 10 years is of course a good thing for America. But maybe it’s time to readjust our perspective on the allocation of scarce resources, rather than turn jaywalking and DUIs into capital offenses. Just because we have extra room in our prisons these days doesn’t mean that we need to fill it.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under DUI advice, DUI News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.