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The human fingerprint has been used by law enforcement for over a hundred years. Until the development of DNA as a forensic tool, the fingerprint was the single most important type of crime-scene evidence. As a unique identifier, the fingerprint captured not only our forensic attention, but our collective armchair detective imaginations. Puddn’head Wilson, after […]
June 4, 2012 by CrimeCents
The AMBER alert system, created in 1996, has evolved into a multi-agency rapid deployment response system designed to quickly locate abducted children. It requires that organizations as disparate as law enforcement, mobile providers, and news outlets coordinate their response toward a single common goal: pushing information to the public to help find missing children. The […]
June 1, 2012 by CrimeCents
Marissa Alexander is just another case file that gets shoved in the heap of unintended consequences. She thought she was innocent, she thought it worth the fight. In the end, it wasn't. Like all gamblers, the players in the criminal justice system have to remember that the house always wins.
May 30, 2012 by CrimeCents
Marissa Alexander’s case is not so much about Florida’s stand your ground law as it is about the connections between interrelated facets of her case including gender, domestic violence, and mandatory minimums. In Part I of this series, we explored the role of gender. Today’s post looks at the double standards applied to evaluating violence […]
May 28, 2012 by CrimeCents
The comparisons between Marissa Alexander and George Zimmerman and their use of Florida’s stand your ground law were as inevitable as they were powerful. To be sure, the law matters to Marissa Alexander, but the law itself is not the central issue of her case. I think of it, instead, as the stage upon which […]
May 25, 2012 by CrimeCents
“90% of the abuse situations happen with the victim’s tacit permission.” That’s a direct quote. I’m going to summarize the rest of the conversation, which I overheard, by saying that this was an advocate who justified her comment by explaining that she had grown up in an abusive household and that she had been a […]
May 23, 2012 by CrimeCents
The Mary Kay Foundation conducts an annual nationwide survey about the status of domestic violence services in the United States, titled “The Truth About Abuse Survey.” Key findings include: Demand is up. Funding, services and prevention efforts are down. 8 out of 10 domestic violence shelters nationwide reported an increase in women seeking help. 74% […]
May 22, 2012 by CrimeCents
I see this woman on a regular basis when the weather is warmer. This ledge, though exposed to the elements, concrete, and undoubtedly uncomfortable, is in a safer part of town. The people walking by are a lot like me: professional, educated, non-violent. Unlike me, a lot of the passers-by have serious money, and have […]
May 21, 2012 by CrimeCents
What is a criminologist, anyway? Put away your grin, wiseacre, if you were planing to say, “someone who practices or studies criminology.” As a member of the American Society of Criminology, the largest and most respected professional organization of criminologists in the world, I receive a subscription to ASC’s newsletter titled The Criminologist. Normally, there’s […]
June 8, 2012 by CrimeCents
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