The Crime Report

Reforming the System

Is Ending Pretrial Detention a Better Alternative to Bail Than Risk Assessment?

By Stephen Handelman | December 13, 2019

The spreading use of algorithms to determine whether to detain individuals before trial has increasingly come under fire from civil rights advocates. A paper commissioned by the Safety and Justice Challenge offers an alternative vision designed to measure individuals’ chances of success in staying out of trouble rather than their risk of failure.

Homicide

Young Teen Suspects in NYC Student Stabbing Death

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

The apparent killing of an 18-year-old Barnard College student by a 14-year-old boy means “you now have families on both sides of this horrific crime who are facing devastating loss,” says a city councilman.

Guns

NJ Market Killings Highlight Interstate Gun Sales

By Crime and Justice News | 7 hours ago

New Jersey has strong gun restrictions, but two of the guns owned by suspects in the fatal attack on a Jewish store in Jersey City came from Ohio.

Policing

VT Chief Used Anonymous Twitter Account to Troll Critic

By Crime and Justice News | 15 hours ago

Burlington, Vt., Police Chief Brandon del Pozo used an anonymous Twitter account to troll a government critic. Del Pozo, the chief in Vermont’s largest city, took six weeks of medical leave to seek mental health treatment after telling his story to the mayor.

rural justice

Opioid Epidemic Drives Increase in Rural Jail Populations

By TCR Staff | December 13, 2019

While jail populations have dropped 18 percent in urban areas since 2013, they have climbed 27 percent in rural areas, says the Vera Institute of Justice.

Justice and Health

Florida Warned to End Private Health Contracts with Prisons

By TCR Staff | December 13, 2019

In a stunning rebuke of the decade-long push to privatize Florida prisons, an audit says the state is losing money and facing litigation by turning its prison health care system over to private contractors.

Media

Media Make 'Remarkable' Shift in Covering Mass Shooters

By TCR Staff | December 13, 2019

Many news outlets have chosen to devote less coverage to perpetrators and more to victims and to the laws and policies that have not prevented shootings, says the Wisconsin Center for Journalism Ethics.

Guns

Expanded Gun Background Checks Effective in Oregon—But Not Washington State: Study

By TCR Staff | December 13, 2019

The neighboring states of Washington and Oregon had starkly different rates of compliance with expanded comprehensive background check (CBC) laws on private gun purchases, according to a University of California, Davis study.

Policing

Gay Officer Who Won Lawsuit to Lead MO Diversity Unit

By Crime and Justice News | December 13, 2019

Sgt. Keith Wildhaber, who was awarded nearly $20 million in a discrimination lawsuit after claiming he was passed over for promotion and told to “tone down” his “gayness” will lead a new diversity and inclusion unit in the St. Louis, Mo., police department.

Prisons

Deaths in Georgia Women's Prison Raise Questions About Official Negligence

By Crime and Justice News | December 13, 2019

Eight women have died in 10 months at Pulaski prison in Georgia. Evidence in at least three cases points to failures that caused inmates to languish as their treatments were delayed or their symptoms misunderstood.

Drugs

‘The Other Opioid Crisis’: Tramadol Abuse Worldwide

It’s not as deadly as the opioids causing overdoses around the U.S., but abuse of this synthetic painkiller is so rampant that some countries are asking international authorities to intervene.

National Security

Russia Probe Report Suggests ‘Major Problem’ With FISA Wiretaps

“Basic and fundamental” FBI errors cited by the Justice Department’s inspector general report on the Russia investigation raise questions about the accuracy of more than 1,000 annual wiretap applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Clemency

Kentucky Pardons Called ‘Absolute Atrocity of Justice’

Before leaving office this week, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin issued 428 pardons, some for people who committed violent offenses. Prosecutors objected. Bevin said, “I’m a big believer in second chances.”

School Crime

100 FL Youths Threatened to Murder Teachers, Students: Paper

In a tabulation of threats made by schoolchildren, the South Florida Sun Sentinel said some were the idle words of indiscreet adolescents, but a “disturbing number” came from mentally impaired children who are fixated on violence and have access to guns at home.

Research & Analysis

Reforming the System

Fixing ‘Barbaric’ Prison and Jail Conditions Called ‘Missing Link’ in Reform

A law professor at Loyola University says it's crucial to look at “every aspect of a person’s confinement" — from the temperature of the facility and the availability of medical and mental health services, to prison rules regarding religion, discipline and visitation — in order to better address the impact of mass incarceration.
Juvenile Justice

Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Decreasing: BJS

Bureau of Justice Statistics reports the number of youths in the nation's juvenile correctional facilities who reported being sexually victimized has decreased.
Crime Trends

Bitter Pill at Xmas: More Cities are Criminalizing the Homeless

Almost three in four of cities surveyed by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty restrict camping in public. That's a 15 percent increase since the last study in 2016. Arresting or ticketing people who have nowhere else to go doesn't help them find housing, the group says.
Crime Statistics

FBI Issues Detailed Data on 6.6 Million Crimes

The report presents data about victims, known offenders, and relationships for offenses reported in 52 categories..The FBI plans to convert its historic Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program to NIBRS in 2021 to provide more complete information about crime incidents.
Mass incarceration

Soaring Female Population, Racial Disparities Drive State Incarceration Numbers

Who’s behind bars in America? An interactive resource developed by the Vera Institute of Justice that breaks down jail and prison data by state and county finds some troubling answers to that question.
Immigration

Border Walls Don’t Prevent Crime, Study Finds

A new study published by Ryan Abman and Hisham S. Foad, both of San Diego State University, found no evidence that existing structures set up to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S. have contributed to a reduction in crime rates.

WORTH A READ

Policy & Politics

Krasner Challenges Trump: ‘You and Me, Let’s Go.’
By TCR Staff | December 12, 2019
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner responded to President Donald Trump’s attacks against him, inviting the president to come discuss criminal justice reform and casting Trump’s comments as a sign of political weakness,
Juvenile Justice

Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Decreasing: BJS
By TCR Staff | December 11, 2019
Bureau of Justice Statistics reports the number of youths in the nation's juvenile correctional facilities who reported being sexually victimized has decreased.
Policing

Guns Kill More Cops in South Than Any Other US Region
By TCR Staff | December 11, 2019
According to FBI data, 22 officers have been killed in the southern region in 2019. In comparison, there were nine officer fatalities in both the West and the Midwest in the same period. Two officers were killed in Puerto Rico.
Drugs

L.A., Chicago DAs Plan Purge of Pot Convictions: End of Drug War?
By TCR Staff | December 11, 2019
Jettisoning pot cases has taken on urgency as more states legalize the drug. A police group protests that convicted people "shouldn't get a free pass like it never happened." The Los Angeles Times calls it "a key part of a progressive crime-fighting strategy that is seeking to rectify the wrongs of a decades-long drug war."

Featured

Bill Moyers on Justice

By TCR Staff | December 1, 2017

Moyers was honored as TCR’s 2018 “Justice Media Trailblazer.” Watch the video of his remarks at the Feb 15, 2018 John Jay College dinner here.

The Crime Report - Your Complete Criminal Justice Resource

Homicide

Young Teen Suspects in NYC Student Stabbing Death

By Crime and Justice News | 5 hours ago

Guns

NJ Market Killings Highlight Interstate Gun Sales

By Crime and Justice News | 7 hours ago

Policing

VT Chief Used Anonymous Twitter Account to Troll Critic

By Crime and Justice News | 15 hours ago

Policing

Gay Officer Who Won Lawsuit to Lead MO Diversity Unit

By Crime and Justice News | December 13, 2019

Prisons

Deaths in Georgia Women's Prison Raise Questions About Official Negligence

By Crime and Justice News | December 13, 2019

Drugs

‘The Other Opioid Crisis’: Tramadol Abuse Worldwide

National Security

Russia Probe Report Suggests ‘Major Problem’ With FISA Wiretaps

Clemency

Kentucky Pardons Called ‘Absolute Atrocity of Justice’

School Crime

100 FL Youths Threatened to Murder Teachers, Students: Paper

Homicide

Boy, 13, Arrested in Death of Barnard College Student

Many Prisoners Freezing As Winter Approaches

Harvey Weinstein Settlement Could Near $47 Million

New KY Gov Restoring Voting Rights to 100,000 Felons