CRIME PREVENTION: ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUE
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was signed into law by President Clinton on 13 September 1994 (Idleson, 1995, pp. 367-369). There was opposition to the bill in the Congress (Masci, 1994, pp. 2488-2492. The source of most of this opposition, however, was Republican legislators who would vote against a resolution praising God if such a resolution were offered by President Clinton or indeed by any Democrat. The game of political insanity being played by congressional Republicans, however, does not mean that serious and thoughtful opposition does not or should not exist in relation to various provisions of the crime bill or to the omission from that bill of various proposals dealing with crime.
The battle over the crime bill in 1994 was between the executive branch of government (the presidency) and the legislative branch of government (the congress), although the congress was not unified in its opposition to the president. Within the congress, both opposition and support to the president's proposals were present in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses, although the president, as was to be expected, enjoyed greater support and less opposition among congressional Democrats than among Republicans in the legislative arena. The concept of shared powers was not the central issue in the battle over the crime bill. There were major differences of substance in relation to crime prevention strategies, gun control, sentencing policies, and other issues. Intrinsic to the crime battle also however, was an effort by the Republican congressional representation to deny any achievement to be credited to a Democratic president however worthwhile a particular bill might be for American society. The Republican congressional victory in the Fall of 1994 was less than three months in the future when major efforts were made by the Republican congressional delegation to dera...