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A 3-4 defense helps hide attacking schemes and blitzes from the offense, making it harder for an offense to call appropriate changes to defensive alignments that they see on a play by play basis. In a 3-4, the defensive line's (the three down linemen, RDE, NT, LDE) primary responsibility is to occupy blockers in order to let the smaller, faster linebackers make plays on the ball. Linebackers, especially the ROLB and ILB, are asked to rush/blitz more, cover more than they would in a 4-3 scenario.
A 3-4 scheme is harder to find players for than a 4-3 system. The ROLB must have superb pass rush skills. The defensive line must be bigger, stronger and be able to hold their point of attack against multiple offensive linemen. Guys like that are a rarity, and why you are seeing a perceived increase in value for guys like Raji and Jackson in this years draft as they are being seen as pure 3-4 scheme type players (although I don't believe that Raji will be effective in this type of system as he's a bit of a one year/Senior Bowl wonder ala Ryan Sims who operated at the one gap uptackle in a 4-3 system in college).
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