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Positions and Views on Other Issues where Information is Available: |
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| Crime |
Positions and Views |
| Crime, a General Statement |
Biden: Fighting crime is like cutting grass. In the summer I cut my grass on a Saturday and it looks great. I let it go for a week, it looks a little shaggy. Let it go for two weeks, I notice it. Let it go for a month, I have the weeds back.
Sen. Biden has dedicated his career to protecting families. Biden's historic 1994 Crime Bill helped reduce crime nationwide by allowing local police departments across the country to hire 100,000 new police officers through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. He recently introduced a bill to extend the life of the successful COPS program that would add up to 50,000 more officers nationwide.
The Crime Law has allowed states to hire more than 92,000 officers nationwide. In Delaware, it is providing $32 million in grants to hire 210 cops, more than $12.5 million to aid in Delaware's prison bed expansion project, over $1 million to create and expand prison-based drug treatment programs, combating domestic violence, and helping to build new Boys and Girls Clubs.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |
| Reducing Crime |
Biden: Biden Crime Bill added 100,000 cops to America’s streets, helping to bring down murder and violent crime rates eight years in a row. But with cuts to the program crime is on the rise again, as are threats of terrorism, so the Senator wants to put an additional 50,000 cops on America’s streets and add 1,000 FBI agents.
Senator Biden introduced an omnibus crime bill that carefully sets forth his comprehensive crime plan. The Biden Crime Control and Prevention Act (the “CCPA”) will make American communities safer again by re-establishing a Federal, state and local partnership to implement effective prevention programs; to hire, train, and equip more law enforcement officers; and to reform prisons to safely house offenders and prepare them to reenter society as productive, law-abiding citizens.
In Delaware, the Biden Crime Bill has provided more than $33 million in grants to hire more than 462 officers, more than $10 million in grants for crime-fighting technologies, and more than $22.5 million to help the state’s prison projects. The Crime Law has also provided over $1 million to create and expand prison-based drug treatment programs, helped combat domestic violence, and helped build new and expand existing Boys & Girls Clubs.
Source: biden.senate.gov/issues Date: 04/21/2008 |
| Rehabilitation |
Biden: Offenders reentering our communities lack sufficient monitoring, job skills, and housing. Two-thirds of people released from state prisons are re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years. Joe Biden authored the Second Chance Act to provide ex-offenders with housing, drug and alcohol treatment, job training, and other life skills, providing them with the skills they need to rejoin their families and communities.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |
| Recidivism |
Biden: No Response |
| Neighborhood Crime |
Biden: For more than two decades, Joe Biden has been a strong advocate in the struggle against crime as he believes safe streets and neighborhoods are fundamental to our nation's safety and security. Joe Biden knows that it won't be a marine with night vision goggles who stops the next attack -- it will be a local cop in the right place at the right time. He has worked to restore billions of dollars in funding to state and local law enforcement the Bush administration has cut. As president, Joe Biden would invest $10 billion a year for five years to keep America safe.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |
| Youth and Gang Crime |
Biden: No Response |
| Identity Theft |
Biden: No Response |
| Hate Crime |
Biden: Joe Biden is a strong supporter of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act to expand federal and state coordination to fight hate crimes. Every year more than 7,000 hate crimes are committed. Joe Biden believes these acts not only hurt victims, they damage the values that are America. The Act would enable the Justice Department to assist local agencies in investigating and prosecuting crimes, and would expand the definition of hate crimes to include offenses based on sexual orientation, gender, or disability. He also supports the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act which would dedicate resources at the Department of Justice and FBI to re-open unsolved murders from the civil rights era.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 12/01/2007 |
| Sex-related Crimes |
Biden: No Response |
| Crimes Against Children |
Biden: Joe Biden has worked over the last two decades to help parents protect their kids from sexual predators. In 1994, he required every state to establish a registry for convicted sexual offenders; in 1996, he helped create the national registry of sexual predators, so these criminals could not move from state to state to avoid being tracked. In 2003, he increased funding for Child Advocacy Centers with the Victims of Child Abuse Act. And in 2006, he authored the Adam Walsh Act to ensure convicted sex offenders can’t slip through the cracks by establishing registration requirements.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 12/01/2007 |
| Violence Against Women |
Biden: Senator Biden wrote the ground-breaking Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the 1990s that set the national agenda on criminalizing violence against women and holding batterers truly accountable. It encouraged states to set up coordinated community responses to domestic violence and rape; was the catalyst for passage of hundreds of state laws prohibiting family violence; and provided resources to set up shelters so battered women abused by husbands and boyfriends had a place to go. The law also established the national hotline that over 1.5 million abused women have called for help. By empowering women to make changes in their lives, and by training police and prosecutors to arrest and convict abusive husbands instead of telling them to take a walk around the block, domestic violence is down 50 percent and rape is down 60 percent nationwide.
The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 contains over 40 programs to be administered by either the Department of Justice or the Department of Health and Human Services. These programs range from policies to encourage the arrest and prosecution of abusers, to victims’ services like shelters, to education that can prevent violence against women from happening in the first place.
To ensure that federal Department of Justice remains dedicated to tackling domestic violence and sexual assault crimes, Senator Biden fought tenaciously for an independent and empowered federal Office on Violence Against Women. The Senator’s law requires that the Director be nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate and report directly to the Attorney General.
Senator Biden’s National Domestic Violence Volunteer Act would infuse 100,000 new volunteer lawyers into the justice system to represent domestic violence victims. To enlist, train and place lawyers, the Act creates a new, electronic National Domestic Violence Attorney Network and Referral Project to be managed by the American Bar Association.
Source: biden.senate.gov/issues Date: 04/22/2008 |
| Child Abuse And Neglect |
Biden: No Response |
| Human Trafficking |
Biden: No Response |
| Corporate Crime |
Biden: Joe Biden recognizes that corporate criminals at corporations like Enron that wipe out families' savings through fraud and other criminal activity should be subject to stiff penalties. He has sponsored legislation requiring top executives to certify financial statements for public companies and imposing criminal penalties if those certifications are false.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |
| Victimless Crimes |
Biden: No Response |
| Non-Violent Crime |
Biden: No Response |
| Domestic Violence |
Biden: Joe Biden has often said the Violence Against Women Act is his proudest achievement in the Senate. The law strengthened the national network of shelters so that abused women had a place to go and provided funding for a national hotline that has served over 1.5 million women. Domestic violence rates have dropped by 50 percent since the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act, and rape has dropped by 60 percent. Joe Biden continues to be committed to this cause and is now working to provide legal services to women in need.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |
| Rape |
Biden: No Response |
| Corporate Fraud |
Biden: No Response |
| Police & FBI Agents |
Biden: In the 1990s, the Biden Crime Bill added 100,000 cops to America's streets. As a result, murder and violent crime rates went down eight years in a row. George Bush's cuts to the program have put America at risk and crime rates are back on the rise. Joe Biden wants to put 50,000 more cops on the street and add 1,000 more FBI agents to address the rise in crime and threats of terrorism.
Source: www.joebiden.com Date: 11/30/2007 |