Congressional Research Service Reports - 63 Matching Results
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- Violence Against Women Act: History, Federal Funding, and Reauthorizing Legislation
- This report discusses the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 2000 which reauthorized most of the original act’s programs and created new grant programs to prevent sexual assaults on campuses, assist victims of violence with civil legal concerns, create transitional housing for victims of domestic abuse (administered by HHS), and enhance protections for elderly and disabled victims of domestic violence. VAWA 2000, also, created a pilot program for safe custody exchange for families of domestic violence.
- Botswana: The San (Bushmen) Rights Case
- This report discusses the case of San people of Botswana against the government of Botswana.
- RICO: An Abridged Sketch
- This report discusses the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) provisions enacted by Congress as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970.
- Sudan: The Darfur Crisis and the Status of the North-South Negotiations
- No Description Available.
- The Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003 (H.R. 3214): A Section-by-Section Analysis
- This report summarizes the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act (H.R. 3214). Additionally, the report covers each title of the act such as title one expanding the ability to qualify for the DNA Backlog Grant Program.
- Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles
- This report describes protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles related to Homeland Security.
- DNA Testing for Law Enforcement: Legislative Issues for Congress
- DNA evidence is a powerful forensic tool in criminal cases. Its use and capabilities have increased substantially since it was first introduced in the late 1980s. That growth has led to the emergence of the following issues that were considered by the 106th Congress in legislative initiatives: eliminating the nationwide backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples, expanding the kinds of offenders who are profiled, providing opportunities for post-conviction testing of DNA evidence, and continuing development of forensic science capabilities. This report discusses those and related issues and the legislation proposed and enacted to address them. It begins by describing provisions in prior federal law and then discusses issues and the legislation proposed, including the enacted DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 (H.R. 4640, which became P.L. 106-546).
- Standards For Retroactive Application Based Upon Groundbreaking Supreme Court Decisions in Criminal Law
- This report discusses the Supreme Court decision to announce the “new rule”, supreme courts decision that addresses an issue of law in a new way or for the first time. In criminal law new rules apply prospectively, but they also apply retroactively sometimes.
- Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Indecency: Recent Developments and Pending Issues
- No Description Available.
- Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Indecency: Recent Developments and Pending Issues
- No Description Available.
- Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Indecency: Recent Developments and Pending Issues
- No Description Available.
- Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity
- Congress has broad plenary authority to determine classes of aliens who maybe admitted into the United States and the grounds for which they may be removed. Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended, certain conduct may either disqualify an alien from entering the United States (“inadmissibility”) or provide grounds for his or her removal/deportation. Prominently included among this conduct is criminal activity. “Criminal activity” comprises acts violative of federal, state, or, in many cases, foreign criminal law. It does not cover violations of the INA that are not crimes, most notably, being in the U.S. without legal permission. Thus, the term “illegal alien” – an alien without legal status – is not synonymous with “criminal alien.”
- Terrorism in South Asia
- No Description Available.
- Guarding America: Security Guards and U.S. Critical Infrastructure Protection
- No Description Available.
- Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web
- No Description Available.
- Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web
- No Description Available.
- Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web
- No Description Available.
- Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism in South Asia
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism in South Asia
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism: Some Legal Restrictions on Military Assistance to Domestic Authorities Following a Terrorist Attack
- No Description Available.
- Military Courts-Martial: An Overview
- No Description Available.
- Obscenity and Indecency: Constitutional Principles and Federal Statutes
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends
- No Description Available.
- Drug Control: International Policy and Approaches
- Over the past decade, worldwide production of illicit drugs has risen dramatically: opium and marijuana production has roughly doubled and coca production tripled. Street prices of cocaine and heroin have fallen significantly in the past 20 years, reflecting increased availability. Despite apparent national political resolve to deal with the drug problem, inherent contradictions regularly appear between U.S. anti-drug policy and other national policy goals and concerns. The mix of competing domestic and international pressures and priorities has produced an ongoing series of disputes within and between the legislative and executive branches concerning U.S. international drug policy. One contentious issue has been the Congressionally-mandated certification process, an instrument designed to induce specified drug-exporting countries to prioritize or pay more attention to the fight against narcotics businesses.
- The Department of State's Patterns of Global Terrorism Report: Trends, State Sponsors, and Related Issues
- This report highlights trends and data found in the State Department’s annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report, (Patterns 2003) and addresses selected issues relating to its content.
- Small-scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons
- No Description Available.
- Ricin: Technical Background and Potential Role in Terrorism
- No Description Available.
- Small-Scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons
- No Description Available.
- Juvenile Delinquents and Federal Criminal Law: The Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act and Related Matters
- No Description Available.
- War on Drugs: Legislation in the 108th Congress and Related Developments
- No Description Available.
- Civil Charges in Corporate Scandals
- This report lists civil suites filled by federal regulatory agencies charging individuals and corporations with violations related to these scandals. The list is limited to corporations and their offices or employees that fit within the Enron pattern. That is, these are cases that display one or more of the following: irregular accounting and auditing, management self-dealing, conflicts of interests between firms and financial advisors (or Wall Street firms and their costumers), and manipulation or abusive trading in energy markets.
- Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response
- This report reviews the statistics and growth of human trafficking across the world. The report discusses how the Bush and Clinton administration both advocated against human trafficking and the acts put in place during both administrations to combat trafficking in the United States.
- Options for Trying Saddam Hussein for International Crimes
- No Description Available.
- Terrorist Identification, Screening, and Tracking Under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6
- No Description Available.
- Removing Terrorist Sanctuaries: The 9/11 Commission Recommendations and U.S. Policy
- No Description Available.
- U.S. Treatment of Prisoners in Iraq: Selected Legal Issues
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Terrorism: A Brief Review of Threats and Responses
- No Description Available.
- Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement
- This report examines the role of state and local law enforcement in enforcing immigration law. The discussion is limited to the role of state and local law enforcement in the investigation, arrest, and detention of all immigration violators. The report does not discuss the prosecution, adjudication, or removal of aliens who violate the law. The report opens with a brief discussion of the types of immigration interior enforcement activities that the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) pursued and the current immigration activities that are now the focus of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A discussion of the legal authority that permits state and local law enforcement to enforce immigration law under certain circumstances follows. Current administrative efforts to involve state and local law enforcement in enforcing immigration law as well as selected issues are discussed. The report concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of such a policy and an analysis of policy options for Congress.
- Terrorism in Southeast Asia
- No Description Available.
- Homeland Security: 9/11 Victim Relief Funds
- In the first days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, an unprecedented number of Americans contributed over $2.7 billion in donations to assist in the relief of victims. According to a 2004 Rand Corporation study, that money amounted to only a modest share (7%) of the $38.1 billion “quantified benefits” provided to victims of the terrorist attacks. The Rand Study reported that payments worth $19.6 billion (51%) were disbursed by insurers and $15.8 billion (42%) were disbursed by government programs.
- Illicit Drugs and the Terrorist Threat: Causal Links and Implications for Domestic Drug Control Policy
- The international traffic in illicit drugs contributes to terrorist risk through at least five mechanisms: supplying cash, creating chaos and instability, supporting corruption, providing “cover” and sustaining common infrastructures for illicit activity, and competing for law enforcement and intelligence attention. Of these, cash and chaos are likely to be the two most important.
- Detention of American Citizens as Enemy Combatants
- This report provides background information regarding the cases of two U.S. citizens deemed “enemy combatants,” Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been returned to Saudi Arabia, and Jose Padilla, who remains in military custody. The report addresses the constitutional and statutory sources that arguably provide authority for the detention of enemy combatants, as well as those that may prevent the exercise of that power with respect to U.S. citizens. The report concludes that historically, even during declared wars, additional statutory authority has been seen as necessary to validate the detention of citizens not members of any armed forces, casting in some doubt the argument that the power to detain is necessarily implied by an authorization to use force. Finally, the report briefly analyzes the Detention of Enemy Combatants Act, H.R. 1029, which would authorize the President to detain U.S. citizens and residents who are determined to be “enemy combatants” in certain circumstances.
- The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: An Overview of the Statutory Framework and Recent Judicial Decisions
- This report will examine the detailed statutory structure provided by FISA and related provisions of E.O. 12333. In addition, it will discuss the decisions of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review
- Federal Crime Control Assistance to State and Local Governments
- This report provides profiles of eight major Department of Justice programs to assist the state and local governments in combating crime.
- The Department of Defense Rules for Military Commissions: Analysis of Procedural Rules and Comparison with Proposed Legislation and the Uniform Code of Military Justice
- This report provides a background and analysis comparing military commissions as envisioned under M.C.O. No. 1 to general military courts-martial conducted under the UCMJ. The report notes some of the criticism directed at the President’s M.O., and explains how those concerns are addressed by the military commission orders and instructions. The report provides two charts to compare the regulations issued by the Department of Defense and standard procedures for general courts-martial under the Manual for Courts-Martial. The second chart, which compares procedural safeguards incorporated in the regulations with established procedures in courts martial, follows the same order and format used in CRS Report RL31262, Selected Procedural Safeguards in Federal, Military, and International Courts, in order to facilitate comparison with safeguards provided in federal court and the International Criminal Court.
- Andean Counterdrug Initiative (ACI) and Related Funding Programs: FY2005 Assistance
- This report discusses the funds and material support the U.S. has contributed to help Colombia and the Andean region fight drug trafficking since the development of Plan Colombia in 1999.
- Privacy: Key Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission
- Several of the recommendations made to protect against and prepare for terrorist attacks in the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) focus on the protection of civil liberties. This report examines these recommendations, and those of other recent commissions.
- Defense Cleanup and Environmental Programs: Authorization and Appropriations for FY2005
- This report provides background information on each defense-related environmental program, discusses key funding issues, and examines relevant provisions in authorization legislation and appropriations for FY2005.