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acknowledged American use of interrogation techniques that are widely viewed as torture,
and the long-term lack of legal status for those detained at Guantanamo—along with the
growing use of warrantless wiretapping and computerized “data mining” on American
citizens.
The direct impact of the USA PATRIOT Act and other counterterrorism measures on the
civil liberties of American citizens overall is uncertain, although the electronic surveillance
actions could involve millions of Americans. In addition, new revelations regularly point to
overreach in antiterrorism cases by law enforcement agencies. While there is as yet little
evidence to suggest that counterterrorism programs have severely impinged on the rights
of substantial numbers of Americans, the potential for more widespread violations must be
taken seriously. The judiciary (including military courts) has struck down some aspects of
counterterrorism policy, and the prospects are good for further action by the courts and
Congress to curtail or terminate initiatives that pose threats to individual rights.
Criminal Justice

The findings on the functioning of the criminal justice system are perhaps the most
disquieting in this study. This is especially the case because, in so many other areas, the
United States stands as a model rule-of-law society. Analysts consistently point to strong
evidence of unequal treatment of blacks and Hispanics compared with whites, prison
overcrowding and mistreatment of prisoners, and excessively long sentences, especially for
nonviolent drug offenders.
The increase in incarceration rates is jarring. In 1980, the rate of incarceration overall in
America was 1.39 per thousand residents; by 2006, that figure had risen to 7.5. Also
disturbing is the fact that a black man today has a one in three chance of being behind
bars at some point during his lifetime. (If he has not completed high school, he has a 60
percent chance of going to prison.) In contrast, a white man has only a 1 in 17 chance of
going to prison.
Those who defend recent American policies note that stricter enforcement and sentencing
practices coincided with a major reduction in crime over the past quarter century. This is
an important point. Public fears that crime is out of control have contributed to a lack of
faith in democracy in a number of countries around the globe. While the effects of crime
had not reached that level in America, the law-and-order issue was certainly a factor in
political life, and violent crime was clearly contributing to the decline of major American
cities and the impoverishment of minority neighborhoods. High rates of violent crime, and
the sense that the country’s political leadership was unable to offer effective remedies,
enhanced cynicism toward the political process among many Americans.
Yet while one would expect some degree of correlation between crime rates and the rate
of incarceration, in recent years the prison population has continued to expand despite the
preceding drop in crime. Moreover, new policing initiatives have relied heavily on methods
that some deem discriminatory toward blacks and Hispanics, such as stop-and-frisks and
saturation-level police presence in certain neighborhoods.
Looking more broadly at the criminal justice system in America, important concerns have
also been raised about prosecutorial tactics in cases of white-collar crime. Some have
questioned whether the criminalization of certain business practices is appropriate, and
whether due process is observed in the seizure of assets during the investigation and
prosecution of alleged crimes. The zealous pursuit of particular white-collar cases has even
drawn accusations of political motivation.

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