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Essay On Overcriminalization

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The problem does not seem to be slowing down either. Congress continually passes new criminal offenses. The same conduct passes through the floor on a regular basis, but comes out with more guidelines on the previous laws. From 2000 to 2007. Congress enacted 452 new criminal offenses. That’s a new offense every week. There is no way that all of those offenses enacted, did not umbrella another. Congress probably means well, at least I like to think that. At what point do they realize that they are making countless vague or broad law?
Addressing overcriminalization leads to the correction of other problems as well. As I mentioned above, since the War on Drugs era, the prison population has increased at an alarming rate. Overcriminalization has most of the responsibility for this problem. Along with the overcrowding of prisons, the obstacle of overcriminalization also brings sentencing reform to the table. It puts citizens that had no criminal intent in their actions and non-violent offenders in prison for unjust lengths of time.
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This task force addressed and did research on the important issues that seemed to reoccur often within the criminal justice system. This task force has had success in bringing matters to the attention of members of the government. So much success, that this year, the House Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction over criminal matters has been strengthened. According to the House Judiciary Committee’s website, “the Committee has the opportunity to review all new federal criminal laws and ensure that they are appropriately drafted, fit with the overall federal criminal law scheme, are appropriate in force relative to other criminal laws, and are necessary (Criminal Justice Reform Initiative). This task force was a step in the right direction of drawing attention to the problem and hopefully solving

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