The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/viewpoints/)
The decision Thursday to drop the misdemeanor sex charges against the New England Patriots owner and other defendants shouldn’t be a surprise. Prosecutors’ and media efforts to portray Kraft as a “monster,” and conflate his case with sex trafficking, undermined serious efforts to combat the trade—and may have harmed some of the victims, writes a former law enforcement professional.
What often appear to be racist acts by individuals in our justice structures are in fact reflections of “systemic” bias—and they need to be addressed at the root, writes TCR’s legal affairs columnist. He suggests the recent root-cause analysis of the deaths of two men in police custody in Tucson is an example of how that should be done.
“No one who claims to stand for pro-life values can credibly” support capital punishment, writes Wyoming Republican state Rep. Jared Olsen, who predicts his bill ending the practice will be passed by the GOP-controlled legislature in his state next year.
Polls show most Americans now support solutions to the ‘broader problems’ of modern policing. A law enforcement scholar examines what a police department committed to fundamental change would look like.
Countless prisoners are held in solitary confinement because they are believed to pose a threat to correctional management. But there are better ways to maintain order than to impose a punishment that causes deep psychological harm, writes a former inmate who spent years enduring the “madness” of administrative segregation.
A child safety advocate argues that a proposed federal program to protect children from abduction is not only a needless waste of money, but a “theatrical approach to a sensationalized issue.”
The shooting of Jacob Blake is the most recent example of how a misguided, fear-based approach to training that deliberately pits police against the public needlessly costs lives, write two former cops.
The problem isn’t just the lack of equality. As the nation debates the proper role of policing, there is strong reason to believe that women make for safer and less violent law enforcement officers, writes a criminal justice manager at Arnold Ventures.
As courts go online, thanks to the pandemic, they risk exposing people to a form of “digital punishment” that undermines the values of our justice system, warns the author of a new book.
Does every police officer need a gun? While there are good reasons for arming officers who need to protect themselves or others from harm, major sectors of American policing can be remade so that unarmed personnel with enforcement powers, but not firearms, would do those jobs, argues a criminologist whose late husband was a former deputy NYPD commissioner.