Friday, Aug. 7, 2020
As a senator was Joe Biden a frequent advocate of tougher sentencing and more spending on law-enforcement?
In his 36 years as a senator, Joe Biden sponsored or cosponsored 341 bills affecting crime and law-enforcement policies, with 42 becoming law. His widely-discussed role in passing major 1994 legislation funding more police officers, more prisons and more crime-prevention programs was consistent with support for other measures that gave rise to a reputation as "tough on crime."
In 1980, Biden urged the Carter White House to combat the illegal drug trade with tougher enforcement and sentencing. In the 1990s Biden also pushed to try juvenile criminals arrested for violent crimes in the adult judicial system.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- US Congress: Biden's legislative record on crime and law enforcement
- Washington Post: Biden encourages ramping up the war-on-drugs (1980)
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service: Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
- C-SPAN: Biden on trying "predator" juveniles as adults (1998)
- Wall Street Journal: When Biden was tough on crime
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