RICO currently provides both civil and criminal sanctions. Civil sanctions include divestment, injunctive relief, dissolution of the racketeering enterprise, treble damages, and attorneys' fees and costs. Proving a racketeering pattern requires proving the commission of at least two criminal acts as defined in the law. However, the few courts that have considered the issue have found civil RICO proceedings to be civil rather than criminal in nature and have refused to apply criminal procedural safeguards. Nevertheless, no court has explored the subject rigorously. The law has both a punitive purpose and a punitive effect, however. The current practice of treating civil RICO as civil undermines the criminal sanction and unnecessarily stigmatizes defendants who might not be found liable under a higher standard of proof and with other appropriate procedural protections. Both U.S. Supreme Court precedent and policy considerations point to the need for criminal protections. Either the courts should apply criminal procedural safeguards or Congress should take appropriate action to eliminate this circumvention of the fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments of the U.S. Constitution. 111 footnotes.