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17 Crime & Delinquency 1 (1971)

handle is hein.journals/cadq17 and id is 1 raw text is: 








CRIME


and


  DELINQUENCY


     NATOtA COUNCI ON CUM MMD DEUNQU~r4


Volume  17                 January 1971                  Number  1




             Preventive Detention

                      A  Policy  Statement

    BOARD OF TRUSTEES, NATIONAL COUNCIL ON CRIME AND DELINQUENCY


L  EGISLATION to authorize preven-
    tive  detention-the  holding
without bail of persons accused of
crime who are deemed likely to en-
gage in further crime if released on
bail pending trial-has been proposed
as a means to prevent further crimes
by such defendants. It is argued that
these dangerous defendants are pre-
sumably guilty (despite the presump-
tion of  innocence which the law
guarantees), that a judge or prosecu-
tor is able to predict the likelihood of
their committing further crimes, that
because of delay in trial a consider-
able period will elapse before their
cases are disposed of, and that, if
released on bail or otherwise pending
trial, they are likely to commit fur-
ther crimes.
                                1


  Legislation authorizing preventive
detention would result in pretrial de-
tention of some innocent persons and
of some persons who, although guilty,
would  not have committed further
crimes.
  Aside from objections to substitut-
ing a presumption of guilt for a
presumption of innocence and aside
from the issue of the constitutional
right to reasonable bail, NCCD op-
poses such legislation on practical
grounds. The first is the danger of
abuse. We have had  ample demon-
stration of the abuse of preventive
detention by totalitarian regimes. We
have seen that power invoked, in na-
tions beset with internal disorder, to
suppress and harass minorities and
dissidents.

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