Earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division represented the U.S Department of Justice as a keynote speaker at the 5th International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property (IP) Crime Conference in Madrid, hosted by INTERPOL, EUROPOL, and the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia. Breuer joined China, Ghana, Nigeria, Canada, Chile, Sweden and other countries to discuss solution-driven proposals to IP crime enforcement at the conference, which brought together more than 400 law enforcement and customs personnel from more than 50 countries.

Criminals manufacture and distribute counterfeit and pirated goods across the globe. While advances in technology bring our world closer together, those same advances allow those who would commit intellectual property crimes to operate globally without ever needing to leave their homes.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer spoke about the importance of devoting time and effort toward IP crime and raising global awareness about its harmful consequences:

“Counterfeit pharmaceuticals, counterfeit automotive and defense-industry parts, and other counterfeit consumer products can cause serious harm to people and endanger their lives; and . . . companies whose trade secrets are stolen or whose goods are counterfeited may be forced to downsize or go out of business, costing individuals their jobs. Nevertheless, the public perception at times persists that IP crime is victimless. It is therefore one of our important duties here this week to spread the message about the significant, and very real, costs of IP crime.”

The conference emphasized the importance of an organized and collaborative international strategy. International cooperation to disrupt the distribution of counterfeit goods improves the quality and safety of goods being sold and distributed to citizens in all countries. IP crime is an international problem and economic road block for businesses, both large and small. Coordinating with our foreign law enforcement partners enables our partners all over the world to address and work toward eliminating IP crimes happening beyond our borders.

For instance, German authorities provided vital assistance that led to the indictment of a Dow AgroSciences LLC research scientist on economic espionage charges for his alleged misappropriation and transportation of company trade secrets to China and Germany. Elsewhere, because of the Israeli government’s help and cooperation, a Massachusetts individual pleaded guilty to economic espionage after providing company trade secrets to an undercover agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

In addition to cooperating on law enforcement matters, the department works to build partnerships through international training programs. In the last six years, the Justice Department has participated in IP enforcement training and education programs for more than 12,000 prosecutors, investigators, judicial officers, and other officials from more than 30 countries.

We also send prosecutors overseas to take the lead on our IP protection efforts in key spots around the globe through the Department’s Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator, or IPLEC, program.

We know IP crime is a serious threat. It jeopardizes the health and safety of consumers. It stifles innovation and creativity. And it has negative effects on the global economy. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our criminal IP statutes, and bring trade secret thieves, counterfeiters, intellectual property pirates, and others to justice.

To learn more about our efforts, visit the website of the IP Task Force

This post is based on the written testimony of Mary Lou Leary, Prinicipal Deputy Assistant Attorney, in DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, about the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act passed in 2000.  Ms. Leary appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 14, 2011. 

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery.  Trafficking victims are viewed as property.  They exist in every corner of our society, working long hours for little or no pay.   We may see them every day, but never know what’s truly going on beneath the surface.  Some work in elegant restaurants and high-end hotels.  Others live in the murky shadows of nondescript neighborhoods and the gloomy light of urban nightclubs. 

Fighting human trafficking and serving trafficking victims are among the most difficult challenges facing law enforcement and victim services today.  One element of this crime that makes it so challenging to address is that trafficking victims are often hidden from society and prevented from contacting people who might help them.  Traffickers control victims through physical, psychological, emotional, familial and economic forms of coercion.  They also exploit a trafficking victim’s fear of deportation and use threats of reprisals against loved ones in the home country to further coerce and control a victim.  Because of the secrecy surrounding this crime, it’s very difficult to determine the number of victims or the number of perpetrators.  

The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), through its Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), supports 42 human trafficking task forces operating across the country.  These task forces proactively investigate cases of minor and adult trafficking and support successful prosecutions of traffickers.  They raise community awareness of the dangers of trafficking and the plights of its victims.  And they provide critical services to these victims, including case management, food, shelter, transportation, counseling and medical care. 

Between January 2008 and June 2010, these task forces investigated 2,515 suspected incidents of human trafficking.  Over this same period, the task forces arrested 144 suspected traffickers.  Collectively, these task forces have trained more than 205,000 federal, state, tribal, and local criminal justice and victim service professionals.
OJP emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to human trafficking and encourages close partnerships among federal prosecutors, state and local law enforcement, victim service providers, and other federal partners, including the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and State.  

Experience demonstrates that effective law enforcement in trafficking cases and effective victim services go hand-in-hand.  Victim service providers may be able to identify some victims of a particular trafficker, but they often will need effective law enforcement to reach the trafficker’s other victims, who are usually very frightened and unable to come forward on their own.  Law enforcement, in turn, needs victim service providers to help work with the victims to collect the critical information.  In addition, victims who receive immediate physical, mental, and emotional support will be much more able and willing to participate in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. 

As Attorney General Holder said at the DOJ 2010 National Conference on Human Trafficking:

“Those of us here today are bound together by an unrelenting commitment to eradicate the scourge of human suffering and involuntary servitude.   And we are united in the recognition that there isn’t a second to lose.   We must seize the opportunity to be a leader in the global fight against human trafficking, and to ensure that the nation we love remains a beacon of freedom for all humankind.”

President Obama made openness a priority of his Administration, committing to an “unprecedented level of openness in Government” on his first full day in office. 

In the years since that declaration more information has been released under Freedom of Information Act, and made available on government websites, than ever before. The federal government continues to use technology in innovative ways that harness government information to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.

As President Obama today signs the Open Government Partnership declaration, the Justice Department is proud to highlight some of the ways that it has advanced America’s open government agenda and created a more efficient and effective government through greater transparency, participation, and collaboration.

As the “flagship initiative,” of its Open Government Plan, the Justice Department pledged a new “FOIA Dashboard.” The site, FOIA.gov, launched earlier this year. It is a comprehensive resource for government-wide FOIA compliance data and educational information.

FOIA.gov presents data on agency FOIA processing, including the numbers of FOIA requests made and processed by each agency, the disposition of those requests, the time taken to respond, and any backlogs of pending requests.  That data can be compared and contrasted between agencies and over time.  Users can select the criteria they want to examine and then run a report on the site. 

As an educational resource, FOIA.gov contains material about how the FOIA works and what to expect during the process, and also provides contact information for all government agencies with links to their FOIA websites. 

The department has also begun posting newly digitized reference materials – including legislative histories and archived speeches of former Attorneys General. These materials were previously available only to department employees. 

The legislative histories track the development and passage of laws that were deemed of interest to the department or in which the department played a vital role.  

In addition, speeches from past  Attorneys General are being digitized and posted online. Dating from 1933 to 2009, many of these documents have never before been widely available. These documents will prove to be a treasure trove to librarians, researchers and anyone else interested in the department’s history and documents.

An open and good government is much more than releasing information.  It is about harnessing the skills and talents of the American people, establishing greater collaboration among Federal agencies, and ensuring that the taxpayer’s money is wisely spent.  To that end, today, the department is recommitting itself to the principles that the President announced on his first day in office and exemplified in our work since then. 

In the upcoming months the Department of Justice plans to convene an Interagency Technology Working Group to focus on expanding the use of technology in the core elements of FOIA administration. 

Agencies across the government have already embraced technology to assist in receipt and tracking of requests and generation of Annual FOIA Reports.   The next step is to improve and streamline administration of the FOIA. Improving this process will allow agencies to respond to requests more quickly and will further reduce backlogs. 

In the coming months, the Office of Information Policy, will seek input from interested stakeholders and lead an effort to transform the administration of the FOIA.

For more information on the Justice Department’s Open Government efforts, visit justice.gov/open.

This post is based on the remarks of Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney for DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, before the International Community Corrections Association on September 13, 2011.  ICCA presented Ms. Robinson with its Margaret Mead award in recognition of her leadership and innovation in advancing the goals of community-based correctional programming. 

Our knowledge of effective criminal justice programs has grown considerably in recent years. Evidence has become our lodestar, and I’ve watched with pride as practitioners, policymakers, and politicians have turned to science for answers.  With today’s budget challenges, our need for answers—that have proven results, based on research—has never been greater.

Even before I returned to the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in 2009 as the Assistant Attorney General, I thought we needed to improve the way OJP and the justice community use evidence to make program and policy decisions.  While I was at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007, I testified before Congress about the need for a “What Works” Clearinghouse to help spread knowledge about effective programs and practices in the criminal and juvenile justice fields. 

This June, we proudly announced CrimeSolutions.gov, a searchable database of 150 justice-related programs, each accompanied by an effectiveness rating.  Database users can locate programs across an array of justice topics, ranging from corrections and reentry to courts, crime and crime prevention, drugs and substance abuse, forensics and technology, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and victims and victimization.  Each program profile includes a description of its target audience, evaluation outcomes, costs, and other important details practitioners look for when deciding how to best meet the needs of their communities.

Most importantly, every program has been assessed by a team of researchers and subject matter experts. These experts have rigorously examined evaluation findings and related research to figure out which programs are effective, promising, or have no effects. These ratings give policymakers a sense of which programs are tried-and-true, and which programs may require adjustments or new approaches to get the best results.

I encourage practitioners and policymakers to visit the site– and to use it. CrimeSolutions.gov is a practical tool to translate research about effective justice programs into practices that will make our communities safer.

In line with Attorney General Holder’s commitment to enhancing public safety in Indian Country, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced grants totaling $118.4 million to support law enforcement practices and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts.

Tribal governments received awards in areas including public safety and community policing; methamphetamine enforcement; justice systems and alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; violence against women; elder abuse; juvenile justice; and tribal youth programs. 

“This year, we encouraged comprehensive safety planning– because we know innovative and holistic approaches work,” said Perrelli, who made the announcement at the department’s Four Corners Indian Conference in Ignacio, Colorado.

Perrelli also spoke about the department’s streamlined grant application for federal funding.  Now in its second year, the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) serves as a single application for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs  (OJP), Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

Through consultations and listening sessions tribes expressed a desire for a less cumbersome and flexible application system for grant funding. CTAS does both. The effort has been held up as an example of how federal coordination can better meet the critical needs of tribal nations.

Perrelli told the group:

“Our government-to-goverment consultations have been critical to our understanding of how to better serve and support our tribal partners. By deepening our engagement with tribal governments, we have sought to help put an end to the unacceptable and sobering crime rates witnessed in Indian Country.”

In the past two and a half years of the Obama administration, the Justice Department has taken a number of steps to deepen its commitment to Indian nations and to develop more effective partnerships with tribal leaders, police, prosecutors, courts and advocates to address and combat crime.

To learn more about the department’s efforts, visit justice.gov/tribal.

The following post appears courtesy of Susan B. Carbon, Director of the Office on Violence Against Women

Marking the 17th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) helps us both appreciate the great strides that have been made in addressing all types of violence against women and recognize the fact that more needs to be done to create a society free from domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. The Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) remains committed to addressing these crimes in a broad and comprehensive manner.

The concept of a coordinated community response is one of the most critical and visible achievements of VAWA.   In the years since VAWA’s enactment by Congress in 1994, we have witnessed a sea-change in the ways that communities respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence.  VAWA encourages communities to bring together stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to share information and to use their distinct roles to improve our responses to and prevention of violence against women. These groups include, but are not limited to: victim advocates, police officers, prosecutors, judges, probation and corrections officials, health care professionals, leaders within faith communities, and survivors of violence.  New programs and amendments have strengthened the law and enhanced our work.

We continue to be grateful to this administration and its role in bringing greater attention to and awareness of these crimes.  The ongoing support of the President and Vice President inspires and encourages us in our day-to-day work. In his Proclamation marking the 15th Anniversary of VAWA, President Obama described some accomplishments and important tasks ahead.  His words continue to strengthen our resolve: 

…Communities recognize the special needs of victims and appreciate the benefits of collaboration among professionals in the civil and criminal justice system, victim advocates, and other service providers. With the support of VAWA funds, dedicated units of law enforcement officers and specialized prosecutors have grown more numerous than ever before. Most importantly, victims are more likely to have a place to turn for help — for emergency shelter and crisis services, and also for legal assistance, transitional housing, and services for their children.

Despite this great progress, our Nation’s work remains unfinished. More families and communities must recognize that the safety of our children relates directly to the safety of our mothers. Access to sexual assault services, especially in rural America, must be increased. American Indian and Alaska Native women experience the highest rates of violence, and we must make it a priority to address this urgent problem. We must also work with diverse communities to make sure the response to violence is relevant and culturally appropriate. We must prevent the homicide of women and girls who have suffered from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Far too many women in our communities and neighborhoods, and across the world, continue to suffer from violence. Inspired by the promise and achievement of the Violence Against Women Act, our Nation stands united in its determination to end these crimes and help those in need.

We invite everyone to add his or her voice to putting an end to violence against women.  Specific opportunities are available in many communities during the four observance months:  October (Domestic Violence Month), January (Stalking Awareness Month), February (Teen Dating Violence Month) and April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month).     For more information about OVW or these awareness months, please visit www.ovw.usdoj.gov.

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.