Author: Victoria Mckenzie

Mexico’s prolonged drug war has taken a significant psychological toll on all of its citizens, not just direct victims of violence, according to a study from the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Teaching. Researchers found symptoms of depression and deep emotional distress, fueled as much by state-sponsored military violence as by the gruesome actions of crime cartels.

Can the #MeToo movement offer lessons that can be applied to encounters between civilians and police? Howard University law professor Josephine Ross believes stop-and-frisk strategies create the same kind of power imbalances present in sexual assault cases where there is apparent consent.

Since 1990, at least 146 parents and caretakers have been convicted in hyperthermia deaths after unintentionally leaving their child in a vehicle. Neuroscientists and child safety advocates say these tragedies are the result of a phenomenon known as a “prospective memory” failure—not criminal negligence—and might have been prevented by public education campaigns.

A year after signing the most comprehensive justice reform law in state history, Louisiana is now gearing up for the first year of “justice reinvestment,” fueled by savings that almost doubled those predicted a year ago. But members of the governor’s Justice Reinvestment Oversight Council have raised concerns about the limits of their watchdog power, and question whether community-based funds will actually reach the grassroots organizations as originally intended.

Civil rights attorneys say a Florida ban on a publication critical for inmates fighting abuse and neglect behind bars sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. But editor Paul Wright’s one-man battle against what he calls prison censorship has largely been ignored by the media.

Calvin Buari, convicted of a double murder he didn’t commit, was a casualty of over-zealous prosecutors in New York’s tough-on-crime era of the 1990s. In a conversation with The Crime Report about his new podcast, “Empire on Blood,” investigative journalist Steve Fishman tells the story of the battle to clear his name.

Some 28 states require individuals to disclose HIV status to their sexual partners or face criminal penalties. Author Trevor Hoppe tells TCR that such laws are largely the result of fear and discrimination towards victims of diseases considered socially unacceptable–a punitive approach that he says continues today in the face of public health crises such as the opioid epidemic.