Author: Christopher Marier

The number of crimes reported by college campuses rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, government data show. Crime reported from nearly 6,000 institutions rose about 8% from 2019, even though enrollments dipped during that timeframe. The jump in offenses between 2019 and 2022 coincided with students’ post-pandemic return en masse to campuses. Compared with year-over-year…

Fueled by public outrage over the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other high-profile incidents of police violence, a seismic shift swept across the United States shortly afterward, with a wave of initiatives aimed at reining in police powers and reimagining criminal-legal systems. Yet less than half a decade later,…

Homicides in major U.S. cities are falling at likely “one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded”, a crime analysis has found. Jeff Asher of AH Datalytics, a New Orleans-based data-analytics company focused on criminal justice, education, and the nonprofit sector, discussed that finding with the Wall Street Journal after combing through quarterly data…

In the Oregon mountain town of Grants Pass, a fierce fight over park space has become a battleground for a much larger, national debate on homelessness that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The town’s case, set to be heard April 22, has broad implications for how not only Grants Pass, but communities nationwide address…

During several years of efforts to refine policing tactics — ranging from mandating body-worn cameras to limiting or banning excessive use of force — many states and law enforcement agencies nationwide imposed more restrictive car chase policies to protect civilians and officers. Now, state legislators and some local and state agencies are turning back the…

Cool experiment. Even gun owners and Republicans are much less likely to want to be neighbors with someone with an AR-15. While there seems to be little movement in congress for an assault weapons ban, recall that it has been done before. Full story: Widespread, bipartisan aversion exists to neighbors owning AR-15s or storing guns…

The answer is “yes,” but the effects are quite modest. Full story: Can increasing preventive patrol in large geographic areas reduce crime?: A systematic review and meta‐analysis – Weisburd – Criminology & Public Policy – Wiley Online Library

One arrow key can open many mailboxes in a delivery area. They’re so valuable that it’s against federal law for an unauthorized person to be in possession of one. But that hasn’t prevented a nationwide wave of robberies involving arrow keys. A Scripps News investigation found an increasing number of letter carriers being targeted by…

Colorado will become only the second state in the country to prohibit use of the controversial term “excited delirium” on such official documents as police and autopsy reports after Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law Thursday. The new law, inspired by a lengthy 9NEWS/KFF Health News investigation, follows legislation initially passed in California…

Kentucky’s Democratic governor vetoed a GOP-backed criminal justice bill that would impose harsher sentences for a range of crimes, saying it would saddle the state with sharply higher incarceration costs. The bill, which spurred some of the most contentious debates of the session, would make a multitude of changes to the state’s criminal code, enhancing…