Show A Hatch by Senator Orrin Hatch I-ach The root of crime is drugs A major majo crime is committed in utah every six minutes There is a murder every week a rape rap every day a robbery every seven hours and a burglary every 30 minutes Yet in the face of crimes crime's serious and damaging impacts the American criminal justice system is foiling failing to ad- ad address address dress the problem adequately Only 11 percent of the I surveyed in some recent think our legal system renders justice Over 87 percent say its it's incorrectly biased in favor of the rights of accused criminals Ive I've drafted or co a number of oC legislative measures that aim at cor- cor correcting correcting that imbalance Another measure I co co strikes at a root cause of American crime drugs The Violent Crime and Drug Enforce Enforce- Enforcement Enforcement ment Improvement Act of 1982 endors- endors I 1 haven't heard of anybody who wants to stop living on account of the cost COlt Kin Hubbard ed by the Reagan administration aims directly at the burgeoning related drug crime problem that affects every level of our society Specifically the bill toughens the penalties and fines that tha t can be imposed against drug traffickers It increases the penalties that can be levied against repeat offenders and it seeks to increase the risks and decrease the profits of operating in the drug market The illegal profits from drug traffickers fickers count in the billions of dollars said Sen Strom Thurmond the acts act's author As long as this profit is inherent in this activity there will be criminals who will continue to traffic in dangerous drugs Criminologist James Q Wilson agrees and says in his book Thinking About Crime that crime can be fought by raising rais- rais raisIng Ing the potential costs of bring a criminal If the expected cost of crime goes up without a corresponding increase in the expected benefits then the would would-be criminal engages in less crime just as the average citizen will be less likely to take a job as a day laborer if the earl carp Ings from that occupation relative to those from other occupations go down Wilson wrote The time for talking about crime in Utah and America is over Its It's time to act and the Violent Crime and Drug En- En Enforcement Enforcement Improvement Act outlines one way we should do it fh |