The Democratic Presidential Candidates on Crime

Michael Bennet

• Implement sense gun laws
• Eliminate mass incarceration
• Address relationships between law enforcement and all communities they serve
• Provide naloxone to law enforcement
• Hold those behind the opioid epidemic criminally responsible

Joseph Biden

• Explicitly addresses violence against women on his campaign website
• End the rape kit backlog
• Expand college campus requirements for gender-based violence prevention
• Enact individual firearm purchasing requirements (limit of one per month)
• Reduce incarceration and instead, focus on rehabilitation

Michael Bloomberg 

• Co Founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns which merged with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America to establish Everytown for Gun Safety
• As Mayor, halved New York City murder rates
• Advocated for alternatives to juvenile incarceration
• Initiated undercover operations targeting illegal gun sales by private sellers
• Champions common sense gun policies

Cory Booker 

• Decriminalize marijuana
• Eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses
• Prohibit assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and bump stocks
• Increase funding for research on gun violence and community violence prevention programs
• Address racial bias within the justice system

Pete Buttigieg

• Decrease youth incarceration
• Abolish the death penalty via constitutional amendment
• Establish a minimum age at which juveniles can be held criminally responsible
• Bolster the FBI and other law enforcement agencies' ability to counter domestic terrorist attacks
• Create a national system for gun licensing

John Delaney

• Impose limitations on the implementation of solitary confinement in federal prisons
• Is against charging juveniles as adults and proposes alternative solutions for nonviolent juvenile offenders
• Eradicate the death penalty
• Proponent of a national extreme risk protection order (meaning those who believe someone may be an extreme risk can petition the court to limit that person's access to firearms)
• Provide funding for federal research on gun violence

Tulsi Gabbard

• Start utilizing alternatives to jailing and imprisonment
• Cease the war on drugs
• Abolish cash bail
• Imposing a federal ban on assault weapons
• Maintain the second amendment, but while enacting common sense gun safety policies

Amy Klobuchar

• Increasing the minimum age to purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21
• Ending the gun show loophole, requiring universal background checks
• Prevent the sale of guns to people who have abused an intimate partner
• Establish lynching as a federal hate crime
• Focus on addressing the causes of and law enforcement response to domestic terrorism and hate crimes

Deval Patrick

Deval Patrick announced his bid last-minute. As of yet, he does not have an official website for his candidacy. Updates will be provided once more is known about this candidate's stance on criminal justice.

Bernie Sanders

• Abolish the death penalty
• Get rid of three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentencing
• Cut national prison population in half
• End the war on drugs
• Reform juvenile justice

Tom Steyer

• Take on probation and parole reform
• Increase community-based intervention resources
• Create workforce readiness programs for formerly-incarcerated people
• Establish an Office of Gun Safety
• "We Can End Gun Violence" plan which consists of universal background checks, red flag laws, and closing dangerous loopholes

Elizabeth Warren

• Implement of violence intervention programs for young people before law enforcement involvement
• Create a federal licensing system for firearms
• Prioritize addressing the issue of white nationalist violence
• Rely on a public safety, rather than a punitive approach, to fighting violence and crime
• Increase the amount of federal funds for the training of law enforcement officers

Marianne Williamson

• Focus on early interventions environmental causes of crime and tailoring services towards a community-based prevention
• Increase governmental support for families impacted by domestic violence through emergency housing and emotional support
• Fund bonding opportunities, such as workshops and retreats between at-risk youth and law enforcement
• Promote restorative justice solutions
• Provide more rehabilitation of incarcerated people and re-entry support for people leaving correctional facilities

Andrew Yang

• Reduce mass incarceration
• Legalize marijuana and decriminalize opioids
• Decrease pre trial cash bail
• Common sense licensing policy for guns
• Declares that as president he will mandate all law enforcement officers to wear body cameras