The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/research-analysis/)
A new study argues that innovative crime-reduction policies can lead to an increase in organized crime activities. Even though the impact may be temporary, according to author Iain W. Long of Cardiff University, his findings suggests a shrewd crime boss can undermine those strategies.
A three-year study of participants in a Florida mental health court—the longest of its kind—found “significantly” lower re-arrest rates among individuals who completed the program of community-based treatment and counseling.
Columbia University researchers say that fatally injured drivers who tested positive for prescription opioids rose sevenfold from 1995 to 2015. The principal investigator called it “cause for great concern.”
An 18th-century theory used by sports bettors, gamblers and even weather forecasters could help criminologists and policymakers uncover crimes that are unrecorded in official statistics, claims a British researcher.
“Weak patenting standards and ineffectual policing” have helped turn the pharmaceutical industry into a key driver of the opioid epidemic, according to a study published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review.
Two briefing papers by the Vera Institute of Justice contend that criminal justice policy “is too often swayed by political rhetoric and unfounded assumptions.” According to Vera, assertions that “violent crime increases in a few cities equal a sweeping national problem” are not based on facts.
Under get-tough anticrime laws from the 1980s and 1990s, prisoners’ average length of stay has grown in every state since 2000, a report by the Urban Institute finds.
The use of federal criminal charges that carry a mandatory minimum prison term has dropped since 2011, reports the U.S. Sentencing Commission. That is likely to change under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
A study finds widespread support among U.S. journalists for naming and publishing photos of perpetrators in mass shooting events. A co-author of the study says reporters were “largely ambivalent” about research showing that coverage can lead to “copycat” incidents.
Prisons should be wary of private communications firms that “exploit” incarcerated individuals by charging high fees for the use of their services, the Prison Policy Initiative warned in a study of a computer tablet program offered to Colorado prisoners.