Victoria Mckenzie
The Crime Report
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Past articles by Victoria:
The Psychological Violence of Mexico's War on Drugs
Mexico’s prolonged drug war has taken a significant psychological toll on all of its citizens, not just direct victims of violence, according to a study from the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Teaching. Researchers found symptoms of depression and deep emotional distress, fueled as much by state-sponsored military violence as by the gruesome actions of crime cartels. → Read More
What #MeToo Teaches About Stop and Frisk
Can the #MeToo movement offer lessons that can be applied to encounters between civilians and police? Howard University law professor Josephine Ross believes stop-and-frisk strategies create the same kind of power imbalances present in sexual assault cases where there is apparent consent. → Read More
Hot Car Deaths: Why Do Parents Still Face Prison for a 'Normal' Memory Lapse?
Since 1990, at least 146 parents and caretakers have been convicted in connection with the hyperthermia deaths of young children who were left unattended in cars. But neuroscientists and child safety advocates say that in many cases these tragedies were the result of a phenomenon known as a "prospective memory" failure—not criminal negligence—and might have been prevented by public education… → Read More
The Silencing of Prison Legal News
Civil rights attorneys say a Florida ban on a publication critical for inmates fighting abuse and neglect behind bars sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. But editor Paul Wright’s one-man battle against what he calls prison censorship has largely been ignored by the media. → Read More
SC Lawmakers Want Tour of Prison After Riot
In the aftermath of the nation's worst prison riot in 25 years, a group of South Carolina state representatives say they have received troubling texts and images of chaotic conditions inside Lee Correctional Institution. State corrections chief Bryan Stirling has promised an independent investigation. → Read More
Who’s at Fault When Police Kill Your Pet?
An estimated 10,000 pet dogs are shot by police officers in the line of duty each year. While officers usually explain the shooting of a pet as 'self-defense,' a California law professor argues that there is no requirement of public accountability to test their claims. → Read More
One Man’s 22-Year Search for Justice
Calvin Buari, convicted of a double murder he didn’t commit, was a casualty of over-zealous prosecutors in New York’s tough-on-crime era of the 1990s. In a conversation with The Crime Report about his new podcast, “Empire on Blood,” investigative journalist Steve Fishman tells the story of the battle to clear his name. → Read More
District Judge Rejects Pleas in Favor of Juries
In what a sentencing expert calls a "remarkable" opinion, a federal judge in West Virginia explains why he is rejecting some plea bargains between prosecutors and defendants. → Read More
How 'Buy American' Mood Boosts Private Sector Use of Prison Labor
Putting inmates to work has long been regarded as a rehabilitation strategy. But an economics law professor argues that the growing production of "made in-USA-prison" goods also enables private industries to profit from popular hostility to foreign outsourcing, with little oversight. → Read More
How State Laws Criminalize People With HIV
Some 28 states require individuals to disclose HIV status to their sexual partners or face criminal penalties. Author Trevor Hoppe tells TCR that such laws are largely the result of fear and discrimination towards victims of diseases considered socially unacceptable--a punitive approach that he says continues today in the face of public health crises such as the opioid epidemic. → Read More
For Some Conservatives, the Death Penalty is Another Big-Government Failure
Heather Beaudoin, leader of a conservative group fighting to end capital punishment, found new support for her cause at this month’s annual CPAC gathering of Republican activists. In a conversation with TCR, she reports a growing willingness among conservatives to embrace justice reform. → Read More
Can a Jury Alone Decide Guilt?
Prosecutors have too often left it up to juries to sift through evidence of cases against individuals whom they decided were guilty of their crimes without a thorough investigation, Brooklyn (NY) DA Eric Gonzalez tells TCR. He adds his office is making sure that never happens again. → Read More
Sex Workers Fight Efforts to Link Prostitution with Trafficking
As the campaign against sex trafficking emerges as a $47 million cottage industry, it has also spurred a "moral panic" that sex workers say makes them increasingly vulnerable to police abuse, and turns them into targets for those with religious or moral objections to prostitution. → Read More
How We Win the Opioid War: Report
The Sentencing Project released a report Wednesday assailing the grievous lack of medical treatment for addiction in prisons and jails, hours before the newly appointed Bureau of Prisons director was scheduled to testify before the House of Representatives. → Read More
Fentanyl Spread ‘Alarming,’ Washington Hearing is Told
A U.S. Sentencing Commission hearing was told Tuesday that customs and border patrol agents had seen a “dramatic increase in seizures” of fentanyl and its analogs, from one kilogram in fiscal year 2013, to 208 kilograms in 2016, to 550 kilograms in 2017---a 160 percent increase over the previous year. → Read More
Investigating the Homicide Bump: Federal Report
A federal report released Wednesday examines FBI crime data in big cities, considering two possible explanations for the "sudden and unforeseen" spike in homicides nationwide. → Read More
Six Decades of Felonies in America
A new quantitative study of felony populations between 1948 and 2010, issued by the Population Association of America, represents the first attempt to offer a comprehensive view of states-level criminal punishment in the United States, across both demographic and geographic lines. → Read More
Can America’s Air Safety Watchdogs Police Aviation Fraud?
Defective and possibly counterfeit airplane parts, many produced in China, are showing up in U.S. aircraft. Aviation experts tell TCR that the federal agencies responsible for airline safety and for investigating potential criminal activity in the global aviation industry need to be more aggressive in protecting the American flying public. → Read More
Enforcement Can’t Stop Fake Chinese Drugs: Report
China is the world's largest supplier of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and ingredients, and the source of 79% of all counterfeit drugs seized in the U.S. But enforcement-based solutions are complicated by the lack of cooperation from Beijing, according to a forthcoming paper in the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review. → Read More
The Dirty Data Feeding Predictive Police Algorithms
The ability to predict crimes before they happen has long been a topic of fascination for science fiction writers and filmmakers. But in real life, the data feeding predictive algorithms is riddled with problems, according to a researcher at the UC Davis School of Law. → Read More