The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/tcr-special-report/)
Stories by The Crime Report staff and nationwide network of contributors.
America’s probation and parole systems were originally conceived as a channel for providing “rehabilitation and mercy.” For our special report, TCR surveyed some of the states where innovative strategies might offer a path to recovering those goals.
The feds are considering a shift in federal oversight of foreign gun sales from the State Department to the Department of Commerce. Critics charge the regulatory change, expected later this year, will put more U.S. firearms into the hands of overseas gangs and terrorists.
Speakers at a Florida conference predicted Amendment 4, passed last year to restore voting rights to convicted felons, will kickstart sentencing and prison reforms badly needed by the state. But a legal tussle over who is entitled to register is casting a shadow.
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.