The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/tcr-special-report/)
Stories by The Crime Report staff and nationwide network of contributors.
Fictional detectives like Peter Falk’s Columbo can solve mysteries on a hunch. Real-life investigators who do the same are often responsible for wrongful arrests that undermine the legitimacy of the justice system–and let the real wrongdoers escape, according to criminologists.
A criminologist’s count found that the number of planned shooting attacks that have been stopped in the U.S. since 2000 far exceed the 92 “completed” ones.
A new draft study says the federal-Pew Charitable Trusts justice reinvestment program hasn’t done much to reduce prison populations. Its former head told a criminology meeting this month it was a case of “reform meeting reality.”
The widely reported courtroom hug last month between the Dallas cop convicted of murdering Botham Jean, an unarmed civilian, and his brother received national attention and has been called an example of how “restorative justice” can heal harm created by tragedy. TCR asked experts in the field to weigh in.
Nearly 300 amateur investigators joined law enforcement authorities in Seattle for a groundbreaking effort to “crowd solve” two crimes—one of them a murder—that have defeated detectives’ efforts for decades. Our reporter was there.
Journalists and researchers told a Philadelphia conference that despite efforts to improve coverage, news outlets do a poor job of reporting on violent crime in many communities.
Caren Harp, head of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection, says the government hopes to “roll back” the bureaucratic requirements that have led to states dropping out of a program aimed at ensuring core protections for youths in custody.
The Bard Prison Initiative, one of several programs that attempted to fill the void in prison education created when Congress stopped Pell grants for the incarcerated, is the subject of a new PBS documentary. TCR talks to the producers and some of the students who participated in the New York program.
There’s growing acknowledgement by state authorities, including prosecutors, of the need to temper “justice with mercy,” Joe Moody, Speaker Pro Tem of the Texas House of Representatives, told a conference this week. But he conceded there’s a long way to go.
Black farmers charge they have been blocked from receiving Department of Agriculture funds awarded in a class-action lawsuit because of the machinations of local agriculture officials and sometimes the courts who back up those officials. That, according to advocates, has perpetuated a pattern of eroding black land ownership and systemic rural racism.