Crime Reduction & Prevention

Inside the Boston Bombing Investigation

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Inside the Boston Bombing Investigation

Yesterday, linked to a This American Life story about an Orlando FBI shooting loosely linked to the Boston Marathon Bombing.  Today, we take you inside the investigation of the investigation of the Boston Bombing.

60 Minutes went “the inside story of the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt.” Here is how the story began:

The two explosions that tore through the Boston Marathon nearly a year ago were like a starting gun on a second race against time. Unknown terrorists were on the loose and they had more bombs. Now, for the first time, you’re going to hear the inside story from the federal investigators who ran the manhunt. They led a taskforce of more than 1,000 federal agents, state police and Boston cops.

Tonight, they will speak of the disturbing evidence that cracked the case and of a debate among the investigators that ultimately led to the dragnet’s violent end. The afternoon of April 15th, the FBI’s man in charge of Boston got a text, “two large explosions near the finish line.” For Special Agent Rick DesLauriers, the marathon became a sprint to catch the killers before they struck again. . . .

 

 

The Problem of Over Criminalization in America

/ Melissa DiRado / Leave a comment

The Heritage Foundation  defines over criminalization as “the trend to use the criminal law rather than the civil law to solve every problem, to punish every mistake, and to compel compliance with regulatory objectives.” In today’s society, most states have laws on the books for just about anything you could think of.   Criminalizing every behavior a person can engage in is said to chill the effects that punishing criminal behavior was originally intended to produce. The Heritage Foundation issued a report entitled “Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law.” For more information, see their webpage on the topic.  In sum, this article details that Congress continues to create new crimes through legislation that do not possess the characteristics of what is typically referred to as a “crime.” Here are some of the brief findings outlined in this article:

” A core principle of the American system of justice is that no one should be subjected to criminal punishment for conduct that he did not know was illegal or otherwise wrongful. This principle of fair notice, which has been a cornerstone of our criminal justice system since the nation’s founding, is embodied in the requirement that, with rare exceptions, the government must prove the defendant acted with mens rea—a “guilty mind”—before subjecting him to criminal punishment. Members of the 109th Congress (2005–2006) proposed 446 criminal offenses that did not involve violence, firearms, drugs and drug trafficking, pornography, or immigration violations. Of these 446 proposed non-violent criminal offenses, 57 percent lacked an adequate mens rea requirement. Worse, during the 109th Congress, 23 new criminal offenses that lack an adequate mens rea requirement were enacted into law.” This quote can be found here.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers notes that there are over 4,450 crimes throughout the Federal criminal code. Americans are expected to know and understand the laws so they can conform their behavior to them. Ignorance to the law is said to not be a defense to criminal conduct. However, can our society really expect the average citizen to be fully informed of what conduct is punishable when there are that many offenses?

For more examples of this problem, see this article.

 

Sunday Funday: “Shawshank” Star Tim Robbins Teaches Acting in Prison

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Sunday Funday: “Shawshank” Star Tim Robbins Teaches Acting in Prison

Several weeks ago, CBS News Sunday Morning ran a story about a prison acting program run by actor Tim Robbins, best known for his role as a prisoner in The Shawshank Redemption. 

Here is an excerpt from the story:

The inmates at this medium security prison in Norco, Calif., are serving time for crimes ranging from possession of marijuana to murder.

One of their coaches is Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins.

“It creates this place, particularly important in prison, where people can step outside of what’s expected of them and try to explore new emotions, create new realities, create new truths for themselves,” Robbins said.

The project, now in its seventh year, is funded by The Actors’ Gang, which Robbins and some acting friends founded in 1981.

For more public policy related video/audio, be sure to check out the SLACE Archive.

The Ivory Tower Half Hour: Detroit’s Bankruptcy and Syracuse’s Murder Rate

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The Ivory Tower Half Hour: Detroit’s Bankruptcy and Syracuse’s Murder Rate

 

Hosted by David Rubin, Dean of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, this powerhouse panel of Bob Spitzer (SUNY Cortland), Tim Byrnes (Colgate University), Bob Greene (Cazenovia College), Tara Ross (Onondaga County Community College), and Kristi Andersen (Syracuse University) discuss the new face of the Detroit’s bankruptcy and Syracuse’s murder rate (although unfortunately the panel does not discuss Syracuse Truce).

Here is a description of the program:

 The panelists examine the challenge of bankruptcy facing Detroit—and perhaps Syracuse at some point down the road. They debate who was responsible for the fiscal problems and how best to dig out. Then the panelists offer advice to the Syracuse Chief of Police and the Mayor on how to combat the murder rate in the city, which is the highest for any city in the state.

 

This video runs approximately 27 minutes.

 

How I Became Involved in Syracuse Truce

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

How I Became Involved in Syracuse Truce

Last Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to be able to meet David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.  Professor Kennedy’s work, in developing effective strategies aimed at reducing gun and gang violence in inner cities, is the backbone of the violence reduction strategy currently being implemented in Syracuse, Syracuse Truce.  I first learned of Kennedy’s work just over six months ago when I heard the rebroadcast of his interview on NPR’s Fresh Air.  After reading Professor Kennedy’s book and emailing him, he put me in touch with Syracuse Truce.

Below is an introduction to the interview:

In 1985, David M. Kennedy visited Nickerson Gardens, a public housing complex in south-central Los Angeles. It was the beginning of the crack epidemic, and Nickerson Gardens was located in what was then one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America.

“It was like watching time-lapse photography of the end of the world,” he says. “There were drug crews on the corner, there were crack monsters and heroin addicts wandering around. … It was fantastically, almost-impossibly-to-take-in awful.”

Kennedy, a self-taught criminologist, had a visceral reaction to Nickerson Gardens. In his memoir Don’t Shoot, he writes that he thought: “This is not OK. People should not have to live like this. This is wrong. Somebody needs to do something.”

Kennedy has devoted his career to reducing gang and drug-related inner-city violence. He started going to drug markets all over the United States, met with police officials and attorney generals, and developed a program — first piloted in Boston — that dramatically reduced youth homicide rates by as much as 66 percent. That program, nicknamed the “Boston Miracle,” has been implemented in more than 70 cities nationwide.