Crime & Justice

Local · Crime & Justice

Crime and justice news from courtrooms and communities: investigations, trials, verdicts, and the questions they raise about the system.

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Police rejected 13 IPCA calls to lay charges against staff in past three years

RNZ

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9/24: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff announces arrest list

American Press

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Camp Mystic under investigation for manslaughter, other criminal charges

KUT

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Austin Police, Travis County DA launch independent investigation into ICE shooting

KUT

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New statutory guidance from the Lady Chief Justice on Live Links in Criminal Courts

Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

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Bill will improve experience of criminal justice system for victims and witness of crime - justice-ni.gov.uk

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AI tech ambition to deliver smarter justice for victims

GOV.UK

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IU criminal justice expert’s research offers best-practices, guidance for police responses to homelessness

News at IU

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Whatcom County Council passes new 0.1% criminal justice sales tax

Cascadia Daily News

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Major funding boost to divert women from a life of crime

GOV.UK

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Here's where the 2024 presidential candidates stand on crime and criminal justice - ABC News

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US Fed chair Jerome Powell under criminal investigation

bbc.com

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Liberals’ stricter crime policy is a response to public concern: justice minister

toronto.citynews.ca

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New CU Boulder report finds criminal justice system needs solutions to address AI, video evidence

Denver7

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UC Berkeley criminal justice professor discusses Oakland crime data

CBS News

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'Swift and fair' plan to get justice for victims

GOV.UK

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International Criminal Court: Justice at Risk

Human Rights Watch

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New lab provides criminal justice students opportunity to process simulated crime scenes

ashland.edu

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Wisconsin Assembly approves criminal justice, human trafficking bills

WPR

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Texas court blocks execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson

Houston Public Media

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Press Release: Priya Sarathy Jones Selected as Member of the Council on Criminal Justice

finesandfeesjusticecenter.org

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North Carolina Gov. Stein signs criminal justice bill into law after Ukrainian refugee’s death

PBS

CRIME & JUSTICE

People First Language Guide Offers New Resources for Journalists Covering the Criminal Justice System

FWD.us

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‘Tough-on-crime’ policies are back in some places that had reimagined criminal justice

Stateline

CRIME & JUSTICE

As a New Term Begins, Where Does the Supreme Court Stand on Criminal Justice?

American Civil Liberties Union

About Crime & Justice

The process, stage by stage

Criminal cases move through defined stages, and confusing them is the most frequent error in reading coverage. An arrest is a police determination that grounds exist to detain someone, not a finding of guilt. Charging is a separate decision made by a prosecutor, who may decline. A grand jury or preliminary hearing tests whether the case proceeds. Pretrial release conditions determine whether someone waits at home or in jail, which is a decision about risk and not about guilt. The overwhelming majority of cases end in a negotiated plea rather than a trial. Appeals review legal error rather than reweighing the evidence, which is why an appeal succeeding is not the same as an acquittal.

What crime statistics actually measure

Crime figures are counts of recorded events, and recording depends on reporting, on police classification practice and on which offenses a given system counts. Changes in willingness to report can move the numbers without any change in underlying behavior, and a shift in classification rules can do the same. Victimization surveys ask households directly and capture incidents never reported, so the two sources routinely diverge. Local counts over short periods are volatile simply because the numbers are small, which makes percentage changes between adjacent periods a poor basis for conclusions. Comparisons between jurisdictions are the least reliable use of all, because definitions differ.

Presumption of innocence is a reporting problem too

Most information available early in a case comes from law enforcement and prosecutors, because the defense has both less access and less reason to speak. That asymmetry shapes coverage regardless of intent, and early accounts are frequently revised. Charging documents describe allegations rather than established facts. Named suspects who are never charged, or later cleared, carry the association permanently in searchable archives, which is why corrections policies and how publications handle old stories matter more on this beat than almost any other.

Criminal and civil are separate systems

The same conduct can produce both a criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit, and they run independently with different rules. A criminal case is brought by the state and must be proven beyond reasonable doubt, with imprisonment among the possible outcomes. A civil case is brought by a private party under a lower standard, usually the balance of probabilities, and ends in money or a court order rather than custody. Because the standards differ, an acquittal in one and a judgment in the other are not contradictory. Regulatory and administrative proceedings form a third track again, with their own penalties.