The 1980s: Law and Justice: Overview

THE 1980s: LAW AND JUSTICE: OVERVIEW

The Reagan Revolution

With the election of former California governor Ronald Reagan to the presidency, the country was entering a decade of change that was soon to become known as the Reagan revolution. During the period between 1981 and 1989 President Reagan and his administration had a profound influence on the way Americans thought about themselves and the world at large. While the so-called Reagan revolution promised great things, and delivered many of them, it also had a downside. Not more than a year and a half into his presidency, Reagan was being criticized by civil rights leaders for his lack of motivation in ensuring that the rights of minorities continued to be diligently protected. Early in his administration he replaced the well-regarded head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission with another person who was thought by many leaders of the civil rights movement as something of an "Uncle Tom," due to his conservative views including negative feelings about such things as affirmative action. On the other hand, Reagan was quick to appoint the first female Supreme Court justice in American history. And despite fears of many liberals that his picks to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court would be right-wing archconservatives, they turned out to be more middle of the road in their decision making. This is not to say that they have not tended to be more conservative than previous members of the Burger court. As one example, during the 1980s, the Court ruled that evidence illegally obtained by police could be used against the suspect if it could be shown that such evidence would have been inevitably discovered at some other point. Prior to this decision, such evidence could not be used under a doctrine called the Exclusionary Rule. The general feeling of people in America in response to such rulings was one of hope that the judicial system was finally going to crack down on criminals.

Crime in the 1980s

While crime in this decade climbed ever upward, it took some strange twists as well. While mass murders and serial killers had always existed, it was during the 1980s that the public came to realize just how dangerous and unpredictable these types of criminals were. Media attention focused on reports of murders committed with chilling similarity either in small areas or, in some cases, across the country. The FBI's little-known Behavioral Science Unit gained widespread renown when its psychological profiles of unknown suspects in serial-killing cases led to the solution of more and more of these kinds of cases. Often, the profile fit the killer almost identically. The 1980s were also called the "me" decade. Examples of greed and white-collar crime abounded and included the Abscam scandal and the sale of worthless junk bonds as prudent investments, leading to charges of investor fraud. Presidents Reagan and Bush declared a war on drugs that helped educate the public and cut down on certain types of drug abuse, but did little to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the country. The stress of attempting to lead the good life during the "me decade," proved too much for some to bear, and several highly publicized examples of mass murders occurred, sometimes for no discernible reason. Prison populations reached an all-time high, and the burden became so great that states and counties began experimenting with the privatization of prisons in an effort to save taxpayer dollars. Increasingly violent gang warfare reached new heights, with several Los Angeles and New York street gangs becoming organized more along the lines of the Mafia and beginning to reach across America in their efforts to expand their territories.

American Justice

In an effort to fight what seemed a never-ending onslaught of crime, the Supreme Court loosened rules that police had to follow in order to assist in apprehending criminal suspects. New case law allowed illegally obtained evidence to be used in certain circumstances; the Court ruled that the FBI could apprehend citizens of other countries who were wanted for crimes against Americans (this was done when a terrorist was captured off of the coast of Italy by an FBI sting operation); and limited military interdiction was authorized for the first time to assist South American countries in their efforts to eradicate drug crops. Several television shows became popular in publicizing the fight against crime, including COPS, Unsolved Mysteries, and America's Most Wanted, which was hosted by the father of a murdered youngster. Block patrols sprang up in cities and towns all over the country, and the establishment of private security forces occurred in certain high-income areas such as Beverly Hills. McGruff the Crime Dog commercials urged children and adults to "Take A Bite Out of Crime,"and the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) became popular in elementary and junior high schools and, more important, showed results in the battle against crime and drugs. As the decade ended, the war may not have been won, but the victories appeared to have outweighed the losses.