Civil Asset Forfeiture

Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom

Modest reforms have helped, but civil forfeiture remains legalized theft by government agencies.

J.D. Tuccille | 6.5.2026 7:00 AM

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(Illustration: Institute for Justice/Ilkin Guliyev/Dreamstime)

Two years ago, the Netflix film Rebel Ridge turned a common law enforcement tactic into a cinematic study of injustice. In fictionalized form, the movie brought home to audiences the reality that civil asset forfeiture is nothing more than legalized theft. Unfortunately, as documented in a recent Institute for Justice (I.J.) report, while several states have sought to reform the use of civil forfeiture, it remains a source of profit for many law enforcement agencies and a cause of grief to unlucky victims who rarely get to argue their cases in a courtroom.

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Forfeiture 'Clearly Has Been Abused'

Civil asset forfeiture is "a legal process enabling law enforcement agencies to seize property which is suspected of having connections to criminal activity," Northeastern University criminology professor Nikos Passas explained when Rebel Ridge spurred Americans to wonder whether cops could really take money and property without convicting anybody of a crime. "The difference between criminal and civil forfeiture is that the criminal one requires a conviction. A civil forfeiture targets the property itself, and often it is done without charging the owner with wrongdoing."

The problem, he added, "is that by giving a profit motive, a financial motive, to law........

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