This Article argues that commercial pressures are determining the news media's contemporary treatment of crime and violence, and that the resulting coverage has played a major role in reshaping public opinion, and ultimately, criminal justice policy. The news media are not mirrors, simply reflecting events in society. Rather, * Charles L.B. Lowndes Professor of Law, Duke University School of La...

Since 2009, the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA), with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), has provided training and technical assistance (TTA) in strategic planning to State Criminal Justice Administering Agencies (SAAs) in 20 states, 2 territories, and the District of Columbia. TTA services have been tailored to the needs, planning scopes, and timelines establishe...

Although criminal justice involvement and incarceration are common problems for homeless veterans, few studies have examined childhood risk factors for criminal justice involvement among veterans. This study examined the association between three types of childhood problems, family instability, conduct disorder behaviors, and childhood abuse, and criminal justice involvement and incarceration i...

Most sexual assaults are never reported to law enforcement, and even among reported cases, most will never be successfully prosecuted. This reality has been a long-standing source of frustration for survivors, victim advocates, as well as members of the criminal justice system. To address this problem, communities throughout the United States have implemented multidisciplinary response interven...

There are constant calls for reform in the criminal justice system, but obs­ ervers have often reported that criminal justice reform is an exceptionally challenging task. As with any organizational change, resistance to new policies, procedures, and practices comes from a variety of sources. The relatively broad discretionary authority vested in line­level personnel often contributes to the dif...

The focus of this manuscript is on the challenges faced by individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities within the criminal justice system. Prevalence data are cited and these data are interpreted in light of possible rationales for the disproportionate number of individuals with disabilities present within the system. Then the specific challenges faced by individuals with disab...

Introduction The development of the Internet is strongly intertwined with the possibility of increasing the flow of information among knowledgeable actors. This is particularly important for today’s government, which is characterized by increasingly complex tasks and decentralized structures. As we move to integrate technologies into our government, such as DNA into the criminal justice system,...

This article examines the historical and contextual factors that are related to the growing numbers of persons with mental illness who are processed through the criminal justice system. The paper discuss five major mental health and criminal justice policies that frame the challenges associated with the mentally ill in the criminal justice system: deinstitutionalization (a shift in the locus of...

The law regulates addiction in two primary ways: by limiting access to controlled substances and by criminal and civil law doctrines pertaining to addicts. This chapter first addresses the basic definitional and conceptual issues concerning addiction. Then it turns to the justification of substance regulation in the USA and public policy issues. It suggests that the right to use substances recr...