Civil Forfeiture Research Reports

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Forfeiture in Arizona Before Reform: Why Concerns About Abuse Were Justified
Using more than four years’ worth of data leading up to Arizona’s sweeping 2021 forfeiture reforms, this study finds lawmakers were right to worry that forfeiture was putting ordinary, often innocent, people at risk.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Does Civil Forfeiture Fight Crime? Evidence From New Mexico
Abstract: This study examined civil forfeiture’s impact on crime rates. Proponents of civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to take and permanently keep property without a criminal conviction, claim it is an essential crime-fighting tool,…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair
Victims of civil forfeiture call it frustrating, corrupt and unfair. This first-of-its-kind survey describes the experiences of victims of one civil forfeiture program, Philadelphia’s.

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Does Forfeiture Work?
Forfeiture is a controversial tool police and prosecutors use to take and keep people’s cash, cars and even homes under the guise of fighting crime. This study is the first to look at whether state…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
A New Panel Dataset for Studies Using Substate Units of Analysis and Indicators of Drug Activity
This research note reports on the creation of a new panel dataset using multiple waves of substate estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It also provides identifying information that contains state,…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Policing for Profit
Nationwide, civil forfeiture is a massive threat to property and due process rights. So finds the third edition of Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture. The report presents the largest ever collection…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Jetway Robbery?
Law enforcement agencies routinely seize currency from travelers at airports nationwide using civil forfeiture—a legal process that allows agencies to take and keep property without ever charging owners with a crime, let alone securing a…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Fighting Crime or Raising Revenue?
Forfeiture is a controversial tool governments use to take and keep property often without charging or convicting anyone with a crime. Police typically get a portion of the proceeds. Proponents argue forfeiture helps police fight…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Civil Forfeiture Hurts America’s Poor
In 2014, Tyson Timbs sold $400 worth of drugs to undercover police in an effort to support his addiction. Tyson, a first-time offender, was sentenced to one year of house arrest and five years of…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Forfeiture in Arizona
In 2017, Arizona adopted incremental but important bipartisan reforms of the state’s civil forfeiture system. These reforms included new transparency requirements for forfeiture, obliging agencies to report the value, type and date of a property…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Civil Forfeiture, Crime Fighting and Safeguards for the Innocent
In 2017, the Department of Justice revived a controversial federal forfeiture program the previous administration had sharply curtailed. In defense of these “adoptive forfeitures” or “adoptions,” as well as of civil forfeiture in general, the…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
The Questionable Ethics of Civil Forfeiture
On a cool, sunny November day, Mark Brewer – a disabled decorated U.S. Air Force veteran – was driving through the state of Nebraska on his way to Los Angles to visit his uncle. While…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Forfeiture Transparency & Accountability
Every year, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies across the United States seize and keep billions of dollars in cash, cars, homes and other property using a legal tool called forfeiture. Criminal forfeiture requires…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Policing for Profit: Second Edition
Policing for Profit, 2nd Edition Published in 2015, this is an older edition of IJ’s landmark Policing for Profit report. You can download the report here, but please see the third and current edition for the most up-to-date…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Seize First, Question Later
Thanks to federal civil forfeiture laws, the Internal Revenue Service has seized millions of dollars from thousands of Americans’ bank accounts without proof of criminal wrongdoing.

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Bad Apples or Bad Laws?
An original experiment finds that civil forfeiture laws create a strong temptation for law enforcement to seize property to pad their own budgets.

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Rotten Reporting in the Peach State
Georgia has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws in the nation, a problem compounded by law enforcement agencies’ routine failure to report forfeiture revenue and expenditures as required by law. But a 2011 Institute…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
A Stacked Deck
State data show that from 2003 to 2010, forfeiture revenue in Minnesota jumped 75 percent, even as crime rates declined, and the average value of forfeited property was only $1,000.

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Arizona’s Profit Incentive in Civil Forfeiture
Arizona’s civil forfeiture laws need to be reformed. In the upside-down world of civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize and keep cash and property that was allegedly involved in criminal activity—without ever proving a…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Inequitable Justice
This report examines a federal law enforcement practice known as “equitable sharing.” It enables—indeed, encourages—state and local police and prosecutors to circumvent the civil forfeiture laws of their states for financial gain. Civil forfeiture is…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Public Opinion and Civil Forfeiture
In November 2010, as part of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study National Survey, the Institute for Justice asked a random sample of 1,000 participants nationwide whether they support various features of modern civil forfeiture laws.

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Forfeiting Accountability
Georgia has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws in the country. But at least state law requires law enforcement to publicly report annual forfeiture proceeds and expenditures. Public reporting ought to help check abuse…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Forfeiting Justice
Texas law gives police and prosecutors generous rewards for seizing people’s property—without even having to prove the owner committed any crime. And the law makes it so hard for owners to fight for the return…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Policing for Profit: First Edition
Policing for Profit, 1st Edition Published in 2010, this is an older edition of IJ’s landmark Policing for Profit report. You can download the report here, but please see the third and current edition for the most up-to-date…

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Policing and Prosecuting for Profit
In 2002, New Jersey’s Carol Thomas made headlines after her teenage son used her 1990 Ford Thunderbird to sell marijuana to an undercover police officer. He was arrested, pled guilty and faced his punishment. However,…