The U.S. Supreme Court has heard at least half a dozen forfeiture cases during the nineties, but its rulings have not done much to rein in the practice. This short survey of the law of forfeiture draws upon these Court decisions. Its introduction to the essential statutory provisions focuses on the Federal statutes. State and local provisions tend to be quite similar. Nearly all contemporary forfeiture involves the civil variety.
Criminal forfeiture operates as punishment for a crime.
It, therefore, requires a conviction, following which the state takes the assets in question from the criminal. Thus, the proceeding is directed against the res , or the thing involved in some illegal activity specified by statute. Unlike criminal forfeiture, in rem forfeiture does not require a conviction or even an official criminal charge against the owner. This is the source of its attractiveness to law enforcement, and its threat to those concerned about abuse or circumvention of Constitutional protections. Contraband Property for which ownership by itself constitutes a crime, including smuggled goods, narcotics, and automatic weapons.