The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/tcr-special-report/)
Stories by The Crime Report staff and nationwide network of contributors.
A dedicated network of psychologists, advocates and shelters has emerged to cope with the rise in domestic violence victims since last year’s Hurricane Maria. The challenge is complicated by the slow pace of reconstruction and the lack of government resources.
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.
A chief of police is one of the nation’s toughest jobs today. Choosing the right one may be even tougher. As Los Angeles scouts a replacement for Charlie Beck, other cities might pick up some pointers.
A program that trains ordinary citizens in New York to act as watchdogs over the city’s courts has attracted flak from some who argue their criticisms are not well-informed. But the “Court Watchers” respond they are already having a positive impact.
For lack of alternatives, thousands of mentally ill individuals are trapped in the justice system. In a conversation with TCR, Alisa Roth, author of “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness,” says change will only happen when we reexamine our attitudes towards mental illness.
Privacy advocates say California’s Supreme Court justices put citizens’ most personal info at risk when they rejected an appeal last Monday to strike down a law requiring all arrested individuals to provide DNA samples. Supporters of the ruling say concerns about the law, similar to statutes now in effect in 30 states, are overblown.
Reducing US prison populations requires a strategy that engages all the players in the justice system, from courts to community residents to the media, a panel at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice was told.
With heightened media attention towards sexual misconduct in the workplace, a panel at John Jay College examined how to turn women’s concerns into efforts to produce long-term change. The issue is “shaking and shaping our time,” said New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is now recognized as a serious and sometimes deadly risk for police officers. But experts say law enforcement managers still have a long way to go in addressing the problem.
Some 200,000 drones are now sold to hobbyists in an “uncontrolled’ global market every month. A Philadelphia professor says they have already been deployed by terror groups in the Middle East and by U.S. criminals, and a $1.6 billion industry has merged to develop anti-drone technology.