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543 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1996)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0543 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE

The role of criminal law in American society is important and its power
immense. The exercise of such power, with its attendant mechanisms, carries
substantial implications, and its use should be thoughtful, measured, and
principled. This is no less true of the federal government's attempts to deal
with crime than for any other system of criminal justice.
There is no dispute that the federal government has a valid and key role
to play in the field of criminal law. What is less clear is the appropriate extent
of that role in a federal society. The American federal system places in
different entities the power to prosecute and punish for essentially the same
incident, raising questions about the proper spheres of state and federal
government. A federal system can thus present opportunities for significantly
varying consequences that depend upon which governmental entity-the
state or the federal government (or both)-brings a prosecution. It is particu-
larly important, then, to discern the appropriate allocation of such power
between federal and state governments.
LEGISLATING FEDERAL CRIME AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
In fact, the federal government's role with regard to crime is multifaceted
and operates through all three branches of government. An important aspect
of the federal role involves the initial legislative decision to define criminal
conduct as warranting federal prosecution and punishment. In turn, the
legislative decision to create a federal crime triggers involvement by the other
branches of the federal government. Federal executive departments, such as
the Department of Justice, assume broad supervisory responsibility and
power; federal law enforcement agencies have similarly expanded field inves-
tigative powers and responsibilities. The federal judicial branch becomes
involved in the trial of alleged violations, as well as in the traditional judicial
interpretive functions concerning federal substantive law. Moreover, as Philip
Heymann and Mark Moore note, an examination of the federal role must take
account of activity that occurs beyond that which is seen by simply focusing
on the body of substantive criminal law; some related federal activity occurs
without reference to any specific statute. Executive decisions and a variety
of entities also affect the functioning of the criminal justice systems that
operate throughout the nation.
For the largest portion of our national history, the federal government
played a notably limited role in dealing with crime. The states were left with
the primary, and nearly exclusive, responsibility of defining criminal conduct,
as well as the responsibility of creating and supervising nearly all the
agencies that administered that criminal law. Early federal criminal legisla-

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