The Crime Report

ASC 18

Assaults by President Won’t Stop Justice Reforms, claims Sally Yates

By Stephen Handelman | 19 mins ago

The former acting attorney general, fired by Trump for opposing his Muslim travel ban, says the “norm-busting” culture of the current administration has only stiffened the resolve of career Justice Department officials to follow the law and pursue their jobs conscientiously.

Race and Equity

‘Laissez-Faire Racism’ Remains Core of Justice System, Conference Told

By Stephen Handelman | November 16, 2018

The victories of the Civil Rights era have been undermined by the systemic bias that perpetuates mass incarceration and the unequal treatment by courts, police and corrections of people of color, two prominent scholars told the American Society of Criminology Thursday.

ASC 2018

Human and Sex Trafficking Vastly 'Under-Reported' in the US

By Ted Gest | November 16, 2018

The FBI found nearly 1,000 cases of commercial sex crime in the U.S. last year, but experts believe the actual number is much higher, based on victim reports to medical and social service agencies.

ASC 2018

How School Violence 'Madness' Robs Students of Help

By TCR Staff | November 16, 2018

Many school districts are spending money on fortifying school buildings at the expense of hiring counselors and psychologists, University of Virginia Prof. Dewey Cornell tells criminologists. He urges more emphasis on prevention.

ASC 2018

New Crime Victim Research Center Aims to Fill Gaps in Data

By TCR Staff | November 16, 2018

The new agency created by three Washington DC organizations is designed to collect and promote research on victims. Congressional staff members handling justice issues want more than anecdotes about victims, asking, “Where are the data?”

Guns

Hashtags to Laws: A Public-Health Argument on Guns

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

A physician makes the argument that the hashtag war between doctors and the NRA signals more than just another culture-war feud. It’s a sign, she writes, that public-heath arguments will win the gun-control debate.

Forensics

Ballistics Database's Growth Changes Policing Routines

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Police departments are increasingly turning to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a central catalog of more than three million detailed images of spent shell casings, to hunt down suspects and not just to help prosecutors win convictions after an arrest.

Drugs

NY Lawmakers Want Prisons to Adopt Addiction Treatments

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

A group of New York state lawmakers is seeking support for a bill that would require all jails and prisons in the state to offer medication-assisted treatment to curb opioid overdose deaths of former prisoners released to the streets with cravings left intact by traditional abstinence therapy.

Police Shooting

Witness Contradicts Police in Illinois Security Guard's Death

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Days after a speedy Illinois State Police exoneration of a local police officer who shot and killed a security guard in a bar melee, an eyewitness who worked with the victim has contradicted key elements of the official version of events.

Mental Health

Oregon Hid High Recidivism Among Criminally Insane

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Oregon releases people found not guilty by reason of insanity from supervision and treatment more quickly than nearly every other state in the nation, but they commit far more crimes after their release than the state has previously led the public to believe, a news investigation has found.

Police Oversight

Civil Rights Commission: Revive DOJ Scrutiny of Local Police

In the wake of Jeff Sessions’ departure from the Justice Department, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is urging the Trump administration to resume federal oversight of troubled police departments and reinstate the Justice Department’s community policing office.

Campus Crime

Campus Sex Misconduct Rules Tilt Back Toward Accused

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is proposing a major overhaul of the way colleges handle complaints of sexual misconduct, narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and increasing protections for students accused of misconduct.

Courts

Trump Judges Named at Faster Pace, With More White Men

An NPR analysis comparing President Trump’s judicial nominees to President Obama’s turns up clear patterns, even though this administration so far has served less than a quarter of the time as the previous one.

Justice Reforms

Reformers Take ‘First Step’ Forward, But Then One Back

Criminal-justice reform advocates barely had time to celebrate the president’s endorsement of a new bipartisan sentencing and prison bill before clouds formed over their reverie, in the form of growing opposition and a growing realization of the bill’s limited impact.

Research & Analysis

Guns

Could ‘Red Flag’ Laws Reduce Gun Violence Among the Elderly?

A University of Arizona researcher argues that special protection orders allowing police or family members to remove access to guns from dangerously unstable individuals, now in place in 13 states, can reduce firearm deaths among the elderly, who are most at risk for committing suicide with a firearm.
Corrections & Reentry

11 States Report Reduction in Three-Year Recidivism Rates

A broad range of states, from New Jersey to South Dakota, are reporting significant reductions in the number of ex-offenders who return to prison within three years of their release. Some corrections authorities trace their success to federal funding provided through legislation like the Second Chance Act .
Reforming the System

Children of the Incarcerated Face Multiple Traumas: Study

A West Virginia researcher calls them “prisoners of fate” and argues that “Family Impact Statements” assessing the health and psychological effect of a parent’s imprisonment should be mandatory in pre-sentencing reports.
Prisons

Study: Shorter Sentences Key to Shrinking Federal Prisons

A new federally funded study shows how much the federal prison system would shrink without affecting recidivism by levying shorter prison sentences.
60% of Hate Crimes are Racially Motivated: FBI

The majority of hate crime victims last year were targeted because of the offenders’ race, ethnicity, and/or ancestry bias, according to an FBI report released Tuesday
Guns

‘Old-Fashioned’ Policing Still Needed to Stop Gun Violence, say Two Scholars

The “public health” approach to preventing gun violence won’t reduce the high levels of shootings seen in many neighborhoods around the U.S. unless traditional policing is strengthened, according to two leading criminologists.

WORTH A READ

Viewpoints

The National Crisis of the Public Defender System
By Norris Z. McManus | November 15, 2018
Constitutional guarantees of equal protection look hollow to poor, working-class Americans who are forced to turn to under-funded and overworked public defenders’ offices when they are in trouble with the law.
International Crime

Is El Chapo a Murderous Drug Lord or a Tool of Corrupt Governments?
By Megan Hadley | November 14, 2018
In opening arguments of the much-anticipated trial of reputed Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, the defense claimed the government's case was more myth than reality.
Cybercrime

How ‘Dark Commerce’ is Making Us Poorer—and Sicker
By Cara Tabachnick | November 13, 2018
In the last few years, the sophisticated connections enabled by cyber technology have emboldened criminals from all corners of world. TCR talks with Louise Shelley, whose new book explores how the illicit economy threatens our future.
Viewpoints

Post-Midterms Forecast for Justice Reform: Cloudy, But Encouraging
By Adam Gelb | November 13, 2018
Voters besieged with scary events and frightening rhetoric mostly swung in the opposite direction at the ballot box last week. That’s expanded an encouraging bipartisan reform climate for newly elected, or re-elected, governors, DAs and legislators—if they’re willing to take heed, says a leading justice commentator.

Featured

Bill Moyers Speaks Out on Justice. Watch the Video.

By TCR Staff | December 1, 2017

Moyers received TCR’s annual “Justice Trailblazer” award at a John Jay College dinner Feb. 15. See the video of his remarks here.

The Crime Report - Your Complete Criminal Justice Resource

Guns

Hashtags to Laws: A Public-Health Argument on Guns

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Forensics

Ballistics Database's Growth Changes Policing Routines

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Drugs

NY Lawmakers Want Prisons to Adopt Addiction Treatments

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Police Shooting

Witness Contradicts Police in Illinois Security Guard's Death

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Mental Health

Oregon Hid High Recidivism Among Criminally Insane

By Crime and Justice News | November 16, 2018

Police Oversight

Civil Rights Commission: Revive DOJ Scrutiny of Local Police

Campus Crime

Campus Sex Misconduct Rules Tilt Back Toward Accused

Courts

Trump Judges Named at Faster Pace, With More White Men

Justice Reforms

Reformers Take ‘First Step’ Forward, But Then One Back

Shootings

Alabama DA Wounded In Ambush By Former Trooper

Rape and ‘Exceptional Clearance’: A Numbers Game

20 Years for ‘Swatting’ Pranks, One That Caused a Death

Private Prison Cash Poured Into 2018 Campaigns

Why Philly Cops and Docs Swear By ‘Scoop and Run’