Asset forfeiture law in the united states 2nd edition is a completely revised and up to date treatise that addresses important changes and significant developments in civil and criminal forfeiture law every chapter has been rewritten as a result of the explosive growth in this area of law and practice. Asset forfeiture law in the united states second edition is a one volume resource designed to lead the practitioner prosecutor judge and policy maker through the labyrinth of statutes rules and cases that govern this dynamic area of the law it examines and explains in a concise readable fashion the procedures that the government must follow in civil and criminal cases initiated by federal law enforcement agencies including the fbi dea atf irs and homeland security and the . 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. This chapter summaries the procedures governing asset forfeiture in the united states it begins with a discussion of the purposes that asset recovery is intended to serve as part of the prosecutors arsenal of weapons in the enforcement of the criminal laws next it discusses the categories of property that are subject to forfeiture that is the