The United States has been increasingly successful in prosecuting organized crime and insider trading cases during the past few years, U.S. Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said in a speech at the Law School last night.

Giuliani said that more ethics education for students in grammar school would prevent future crime, and that the government could reduce its deficits by prosecuting more tax evaders.

Giuliani, who was introduced by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz as "one of the great prosecutors of all time," has served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York since 1983. He has successfully prosecuted the heads of the New York Mafia as well as prominent insider traders and politicians.

"We've done a very effective job in the last four or five years combating organized crime," Giuliani told an audience of more than 250 people.

Previous prosecutors merely threw Mafia bosses in jail, but in recent years the government has been attempting to break the corporate structure of organized crime by confiscating criminal money and property, Giuliani said.

Giuliani also said that there have been more prosecutions of white collar criminals, including insider traders, bribe-takers, and perpetrators of securities fraud.

From 1934 to 1984, only 12 people were convicted of insider trading. In the last three years, 50 insider traders have been successfully prosecuted, Guiliani said.

Guiliani noted, however, that "tax evasion gets much too little attention." He said that some cases involve nearly $1 billion in evaded taxes, and that "we would not have the deficit problems that we have" if people stopped evading taxes.

The ultimate solution to crime is notprosecution, Giuliani said, but a better ethicseducation.

"We do not do a particularly good job inAmerican education in the teaching of ethics,"Giuliani said. "We really have to begin at a muchearlier age, at six and seven and eight," he said.

"The Greeks did it thousands of years ago.Socrates used to walk around Athens talking ethicswith the young people," the Attorney said.

Responding to a question from the audience,Giuliani said that he had not made up his mindwhether to run for public office.

"Public service for me is a very exciting wayto live my life," said Giuliani, who has beennamed as a potential candidate for mayor, governorand senator in New York.

"Rudy Giuliani is one of the very, very fewbaby boomers who I know who could actually survivea Supreme Court nomination," Dershowitz said inhis introduction.

Another student questioned whether Giulianiever feared that the Mafia might attempt to killhim.

The prosecutor said that organized crime groupsas a rule did not attack policemen, prosecutorsand other law enforcement officials.

"This is the only rule of theirs which I agreewith," Giuliani said