the crime report

Illinois routinely prosecutes teenage nonviolent offenders in adult court, says the Chicago Reporter. The paper’s analysis of court data found that 17-year-olds convicted of felonies in the state defy the perception that they are violent criminals who deserve to be punished alongside adults. More than half of 17-year-olds prosecuted in Cook County’s adult courts were convicted for drug deals and property theft.  Include robbery without a gun, and nonviolent offenses amount to 71 percent of all convictions. The single largest number of convictions was based on low-level drug offenses. (more…)

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Chicago law enforcers have embarked on a pilot effort to stem the gang-related violence by applying direct pressure on top gang leaders, reports the city’s Tribune. Earlier this month, police Superintendent Jody Weis and federal prosecutors secretly met with a group of West Side gang leaders, informing them over snacks and beverages that they would be held accountable for violence committed by their gangs. If a crime is traced back to a particular gang, Weis said, police will “come down with every bit of firepower we have, every prosecutive trick we know.” (more…)

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California has been unable to meet the needs of  the rising number of girls in the juvenile justice detention system, found a new report, “Gender Responsiveness and Equity in California’s Juvenile Justice System.” Findings by researchers at the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice include: gender-specific programs for girls were one of the least available program types, the nature of girls’ violence is more often relational and that girls are more often referred to court on prostitution charges than boys.

Read the full report here.

Use the Crime Report for more information on juvenile justice.

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Concern over crime against Latinos, already simmering in Baltimore as a result of several recent attacks, has reached new heights after the fatal beating over the weekend of a 51-year-old man from Honduras, the Baltimore Sun reports. Martin Reyes — whose killing early Saturday was attributed by police to a mentally troubled man who said he hated “Mexicans” — was the fifth Latino shooting or homicide victim in the area in less than two months. All the victims were Honduran. (more…)

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