page_title: Civil forfeiture in the United States
section_title: Prohibition era
hierarchical_section_title: Civil forfeiture in the United States / History / Prohibition era
context_page_description: Civil forfeiture in the United States, also called civil asset forfeiture or civil judicial forfeiture, is a process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. While civil procedure, as opposed to criminal procedure, generally involves a dispute between two private citizens, civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a pile of cash or a house or a boat, such that the thing is suspected of being involved in a crime. To get back the seized property, owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity. Sometimes it can mean a threat to seize property as well as the act of seizure itself. Civil forfeiture is not considered to be an example of a criminal justice financial obligation.
  Proponents see civil forfeiture as a powerful tool to thwart criminal organizations involved in the illegal drug trade, with $12 billion annual profits, since it allows authorities to seize cash and other assets from suspected narcotics traffickers.
context_section_description: Government used forfeiture during the Prohibition years 1920–1933. Police seized vehicles and equipment and cash and other property from bootleggers. When Prohibition ended in 1933, much of the forfeiture activity ended as well, and modern forfeiture was an "infrequent resort" until the last few decades.
caption: During Prohibition, Detroit police inspect equipment suspected of being used to make alcohol; under civil forfeiture laws, police could seize the equipment without having to charge any owners with a crime.
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