Fingerprint evidence alone not enough to convict man of robbery

A man sent to prison for robbery successfully appealed his conviction, arguing that fingerprint evidence alone was not enough to prove that he committed the crime, reported The Legal Intelligencer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday ruled in favor of defendant Jamar Travillion, who was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for robbery in 2006. While successful in overturning his robbery conviction, Travillion will remain incarcerated because of a separate sentence of life without parole for second-degree murder.

Travillion was accused of robbing the Rainbow Apparel store in Pittsburgh, according to Third Circuit Judge Luis Restrepo’s Dec. 15 opinion. The store’s owner, Deborah Diodati, testified that a man with a turtleneck around his face and a stocking covering his head forced his way into the store and demanded money. She obliged, handing over approximately $6,000 from the store’s safe. In the process of the robbery, the suspect dropped a manila folder containing papers he’d carried into the store.

A police investigation found Travillion’s fingerprints on the folder but nowhere else in the store, including an office door that Diodati said was torn from its hinges by the robber. Additionally, Diodati was unable to identify the suspect more specifically than noting his clothing, race and dialect.

Because of that, Restrepo said, the court concluded the evidence was insufficient to convict  Travillion of robbery.

“Evidence that Travillion’s fingerprints were found on the easily movable manila folder and a paper inside the folder carried into the store by the robber and a witness’ description of the robber that does not match Travillion but doesn’t necessarily exclude him is not sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to place Travillion at the scene of the crime at the time the crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt,” Restrepo said.

The judge added that the evidence did nothing to place Travillion at the store during the time of the robbery.

“There was no evidence that the folder and paper were unavailable to Travillion prior to the robbery, no evidence as to the age of the prints, and no evidence as to how long the prints could remain on the folder and paper after their impression,” Restrepo said.

He added, “In addition to the absence of evidence regarding when Travillion’s fingerprints on the easily movable folder and paper were impressed, there was a lack of sufficient additional incriminating evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, so as to allow a rational juror to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Although there is evidence that Travillion touched the folder at some indefinite time with his left hand, and there is evidence that the robber carried the folder at the time of the crime in his left hand, there is not sufficiently incriminating evidence that Travillion was the perpetrator holding the folder at the time of the crime.”

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Travillion’s attorney, Kimberly Brunson of the Federal Public Defender’s Office for Western Pennsylvania, said she thought the Third Circuit “got it right.”

“Mr. Travillion was convicted and sentenced to 10 to 20 years imprisonment without sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict,” Brunson said. “This decision is a victory for every citizen who stands accused of a crime because it affirms the prosecution’s duty to provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to every element.”

To read more CLICK HERE

GateHouse: Social media drives fear of crime

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

March 1, 2019

The good news this week, in the midst of a convicted felon accusing the President of the United States of essentially running a criminal enterprise, is that crime is down in this country - with maybe the exception of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Statistics released this week by the FBI revealed overall declines in the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported for the first six months of 2018 when compared with the first six months of 2017.

The Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report is based on information from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies from across the country. Violent crime is down dramatically from its high in the early 1990s. The most recent decline merely emphasizes that America’s streets are as safe as they have been in decades.

Drilling down on the FBI stats reveals that three of the offenses in the violent crime category - robbery, murder, and aggravated assault - showed decreases when data from the first six months of 2018 were compared with data from the first six months of 2017.

The number of robbery offenses decreased 12.5 percent, murder fell 6.7 percent, and aggravated assault is down 2 percent.

In addition, the overall number of violent crimes decreased in cities of all sizes. Law enforcement agencies in cities with populations of 1,000,000 and over decreased 2.8 percent.

Those numbers don’t seem to jibe with President Donald Trump’s declaration in his inaugural address that violent crime was experiencing its largest increase in nearly half a century and that the carnage must stop, “right here and now.”

The president’s continued rhetoric on the border “emergency” and the imminent threat to public safety posed by undocumented immigrants leads many Americans to believe that violence is out of control.

According to Politico, the decline in violent crime is so great that criminologists routinely refer to the period after the 1990s as “the great crime decline.” Annual homicide rates were about the same in 2016 as they were in 1960. Property crimes are lower than at any point since the 1960s.

Although violent crime rates continue to fall people are still afraid - why?

It has long been established that people who watch a lot of television tend to be more afraid of crime. A study released in December 2017 updates this phenomenon for the digital age. The study found that, for many people, time spent on social media appears to similarly heighten fears of being a crime victim, reported the Pacific Standard.

“Our results suggest that overall social media consumption plays an important role in increasing fear among young adults,” researcher Jonathan Intravia of Ball State University wrote in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Another recent study dispelled the notion of “dangerous neighborhoods.” According to CityLab, research found that around half of all crime complaints or incidents of gun violence are concentrated in about five percent of streets or blocks in a given city.

The rhetoric of fear, especially the politically expedient rants about crime and immigration - some of which appears to be generated from outside of the country - contributes to the finding that “overall social media consumption is significantly related to individuals’ fear of crime.”

Importantly, the researchers found social media usage raised fear levels mainly among those who generally feel safe in their neighborhood. According to Pacific Standard, this supports the idea that “media consumption may have stronger effects for individuals without personal experiences with crime and violence.”

Fear of crime is being driven by what we see and read not necessarily what we experience.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

To visit the column CLICK HERE

Supreme Court: Robbing drug dealers is a federal offense

In Taylor v. United States , decided June 20, 2016, by a 7-1 vote, with the exception of  Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court gave all conscientious, sentencing-reform-minded folks swift kick in the pants, reported JURIST.

As summarized by scotusblog.com, Taylor holds that,

"Because the Hobbs Act criminalizes robberies and attempted robberies that affect any commerce 'over which the US has jurisdiction,' the prosecution in a Hobbs Act robbery case satisfies the act's commerce element if it shows that the defendant robbed or attempted to rob a drug dealer of drugs or drug proceeds."

JURIST explains:rob

"The Hobbs Act makes it a crime for a person to affect commerce, or to attempt to do so, by robbery. In an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court found that because Congress has the power to regulate the marijuana under the Commerce Clause, Congress may also regulate drug theft. 'By targeting a drug dealer in this way, a robber necessarily affects or attempts to affect commerce over which the United States has jurisdiction.'"

Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissenting opinion. He would 'hold that the Act punishes a robbery only when the government proves that the robbery itself affected interstate commerce.'"

Respectfully, we submit that in his dissent in Taylor, Justice Thomas is the lone Justice to get it right. (And, one has to wonder if his position might have carried more weight= —maybe even the day= —had it had the backing of a still-alive, formidable and feisty, Justice Scalia).

In his dissent, Justice Thomas writes: "When courts construe criminal statutes" it goes without saying that, "they must be especially careful. And when a broad reading of a criminal statute would upset federalism, courts must be more careful still."

Thomas concludes that the majority opinion "fails to identify the language in the Hobbs Act that" unequivocally evidences "Congress' intention to reach the sorts of local, small-scale robberies that States traditionally prosecute."

Taylor was convicted of two separate robberies of low-level marijuana dealers. The underwhelming spoils of Taylor's crimes: three cell phones, $40, some jewelry, and a marijuana cigarette= —hardly, one would think, reason to invoke federal prosecution under the Hobbs Act= —with each charged Hobbs Act violation exposing Taylor to up to 20 years in federal prison (where under federal sentencing law he will have to serve a minimum of 85 percent of his sentence, even with credit for good behavior).

to read more CLICK HERE

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FBI: Violent Crime up in every category

Statistics released by the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report revealed an overall increase in the number of violent crimes reported for the first six months of 2015 when compared with figures for the first six months of 2014. 

The report is based on information from 12,879 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of comparable data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for the first six months of 2014 and 2015.

All of the offenses in the violent crime category—murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape (revised definition), rape (legacy definition), aggravated assault, and robbery—showed increases when data from the first six months of 2015 were compared with data from the first six months of 2014. 

The number of rapes (legacy definition) increased 9.6 percent, the number of murders increased 6.2 percent, aggravated assaults increased 2.3 percent, the number of rapes (revised definition) rose 1.1 percent, and robbery offenses were up 0.3 percent.

Violent crime increased in all but two city groupings. In cities with populations from 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants, violent crime was down 0.3 percent, and in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 in population, violent crime decreased 0.1 percent. The largest increase in violent crime, 5.3 percent, was noted in cities with 250,000 to 499,999 in population.

Violent crime decreased 3.3 percent in non-metropolitan counties but rose slightly, 0.1 percent, in metropolitan counties.

Violent crime increased in all but one of the nation’s four regions. These crimes were down 3.2 percent in the Northeast but increased 5.6 percent in the West, followed by rises of 1.6 percent in the South and 1.4 percent in the Midwest.

To read more CLICK HERE

GateHouse: Feds use racketeering law to hammer state offenders

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse News Service

July 26, 2013

 

The FBI is hard at work in your neighborhood. That stick-up at the convenience store across town may be a federal offense.

 

There are a growing number of cases around the country where FBI agents and federal prosecutors are using the weight of federal law to go after what might typically be seen as the job of state law enforcement — prosecuting people who rob pharmacies, bars, shops and gas stations.

 

Why is the federal government jumping in and prosecuting cases that have been traditionally the province of state prosecutors? The rationale is straightforward: The federal statutes have more teeth than the state statutes.

 

Local robberies are being prosecuted under the Hobbs Act, a World War II-era law meant to target union racketeering and organized crime. The law was named for Congressman Sam Hobbs, a Democrat who represented Selma, Ala., in the House of Representatives during the 1930s and 1940s.  

 

Now the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies are using the Hobbs Act to go after robbers of all sorts. The feds use an interstate commerce argument to get jurisdiction. The goods inside a store, shop, pharmacy or mini-mart crossed state lines to get there.

 

The connection between neighborhood stick-ups and the act’s original focus — racketeering and organized crime — is nebulous at best. The act is even used to prosecute those who rob drug dealers.

 

State prosecutors actually pursue collaborative relationships with federal prosecutors so that some state offenders get longer federal sentences than are available in state courts for the same offense.

 

If duly elected state legislators wanted to enact laws that could result in offenders receiving sentences in line with federal penalties, don’t they have the authority to do so? If a legislator, or the entire legislature, is perceived as soft on crime, voters can put them out of office. If voters choose to keep those legislators, then by and large, the electorate has accepted the legislature’s position on law and order.

 

A state prosecutor handing off a case to a federal prosecutor is essentially an end-run around the law of a particular state in favor of a harsher federal sentence. Every time a state prosecutor capitulates her authority under state law in favor of a federal prosecution she thwarts the representative form of government.

 

Kent Wicker, a former federal prosecutor, told the Center for Effective Justice he sees nothing wrong with prosecuting such cases in federal court “regardless of how little commerce is affected,” because armed robbery is a serious and dangerous crime. He said the “key is to use good judgment on selecting the cases and charging them in a way that’s fair.”

 

Fairness is a concern when it comes to federal criminal statutes. Congress has launched an investigation into the proliferation of federal criminal laws. The problem is known as overcriminalization and it is not just a federal problem. There is no dearth of criminal statutes on the state level. For instance, Texas lawmakers have created over 1,700 criminal offenses.

 

However the problem here is not creating new laws — it is the overly broad application of existing law. Although crime rates are historically low, the federal prison system is operating at almost 40 percent over capacity. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service found that the federal prison population has grown by almost 790 percent since 1980. Yet federal prosecutors are looking for state offenders to throw in federal prison.

 

The goal for every prosecutor is to seek justice. The selection of a fraction of robberies — and there are a lot of them — for the sole purpose of increasing the range of penalties appears to be arbitrary and unfair. When the robber on the north side of town gets twice the sentence as the robber on the south side of town, justice has not been served.

 

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly and George and the former district attorney for Lawrence County, Pa. You can read his blog at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.

Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/medfield/archive/x606639832/Matthew-T-Mangino-Feds-use-racketeering-law-to-hammer-state-offenders#ixzz2aATxO5gL
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OMG: Disgruntled bank robber gets arrested

This story is courtesy of The Legal Blog Watch and stretches the bounds of believeablity. But here it is--according to the Post-Standard, a disgruntled bank robber was quickly captured in Syracuse, New York when he returned to Alliance Bank after discovering the teller had not given him the full $20,000 he had demanded.

Arthur Bundrage, 28, of 306 Kinne St, East Syracuse, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny. He is being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment in Syracuse City Court.

According to the Post-Standard, here’s what police say happened:

About 9 a.m., Bundrage entered the Alliance Bank at 1001 James St., walked up to a teller and demanded $20,000 in cash.

The teller told him no. When Bundrage demanded again, the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of cash.

Bundrage then left. The bank immediately called 911.

As officers were responding, Bundrage discovered the teller had not given him the full $20,000.

Officers found him standing at the front door attempting to get back in.

He was taken into custody without incident, police said.

To read more: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/short-changed_robber_returns_t.html

Tennessee: Getting shot in the leg no big deal

In Tennessee getting shot doesn't seem to hurt as much as it does in other states.  So says the state's supreme courrt.  The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a gunshot wound isn’t necessarily the same as a serious bodily injury.

The court’s opinion was published this week in the case of two men found guilty of especially aggravated robbery for shooting a man in the leg during a 2008 Memphis holdup.

The opinion written by Justice Sharon G. Lee said the prosecution failed to show that the victim, was at risk of dying, lost consciousness or suffered extreme pain, disfigurement or substantial impairment. Those are the standards spelled out in the state statutes that define serious bodily injury.

The court threw out the especially aggravated robbery convictions against the two men. A lower court was ordered to sentence them on the less serious charge of aggravated robbery.

In Tennessee, thugs can expect a slap on the wrist for shooting somoeone as long as they keep it below the waste.

To read more: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120823/NEWS21/308230046/Tennessee-Supreme-Court-rules-gunshot-wounds-different-from-serious-bodily-injury?nclick_check=1

Louisiana churns out more than 500 new laws

Louisiana has added more than 500 new laws to the books during the most recent legislative session, according to The Advocate.  Some of the legislation seems out-of-step with other states, others seem like overkill and others down right ridiculous.

On piece of criminal legislation is the product of a sensational criminal prosecution that played out on television.  The new law subjects parents or guardians to up to 50 years in prison for failing to report the disappearance of a child who later is found dead. The new law stems from Florida prosecutors’ failure to convict Casey Anthony of murder in her daughter’s death.

Like other states Louisiana enacted a law for those rare instances where a parent kills a child, hides the body and is later acquitted of murder.  I'm sure that comes up a lot in Baton Rouge.

The legislature also makes the killing of a taxicab driver punishable by the death penalty, regardless of whether robbery can be tied to the crime.  Cab drivers in Louisiana are right up there with police officers, pregnant woman and public officials.

One new law bans abortions 20 weeks after fertilization, except in limited medical cases where the mother’s life is in danger.  Certainly out-of-step a significant majority of other states.  Louisiana didn't stop with crime and abortion.

The legislature took on the heady issue of outlawing the sale of dogs and cats along highways and at public playgrounds, flea markets and retail parking lots.  Then there is the new law that allows school systems to punish parents who refuse to participate in a parent-teacher conference deemed necessary by a teacher, that is going to be a game changer in Louisiana.

The Louisiana legislature should had taken the summers off.

To read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/3499075-123/new-laws-take-effect

The Cautionary Instruction: Crime rates influenced by reporting practices

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
July 20, 2012

Last fall, I posed the following question: Is there a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey? Can a culture of not cooperating with police have an impact on crime rates?

The question seemed relevant -- what we heard about crime rates did not jibe with what we were feeling in neighborhoods across the country.

The FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2011 found that violent crime declined for the fifth consecutive year.  Despite the reports, a majority of Americans continued to believe that the nation's crime problem was getting worse. In 2011, sixty-eight percent of Americans said that crime increased over the previous year.

There is an unsettling influence on crime rates; it’s not a seamy underground crime industry, but rather law enforcement itself.

In New York City, an anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired police officers found that the manipulation of crime reports -- downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look better -- has long been part of the department’s culture.

“I think our survey clearly debunks the Police Department’s rotten-apple theory,” Eli B. Silverman, one of the survey’s authors told the New York Times. The rotten-apple theory was the argument that very few officers manipulated crime statistics. “This really demonstrates a rotten barrel,” added Silverman.

Crime reporting manipulation is not new, nor is it isolated to a few big city police departments. In the last 15 years crime reporting issues have surfaced in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Broward County, FL and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Some law enforcement practitioners blame the “fudge factor.” Politicians cajole police chiefs and supervisory staff to get crime numbers down. The practice invites precinct commanders to make it appear as though crime has dropped when in fact crime actually increased. Fudging an aggravated assault down to criminal mischief or robbery down to theft can have a dramatic impact on violent crime rates.

In Milwaukee, a Journal-Sentinel investigation found rampant police under-reporting of violent crime. A subsequent internal police department audit showed more than 5,300 violent assaults were misreported since 2006. The audit revealed that 20 percent of aggravated assaults were under-reported as lesser crimes and were not counted in Milwaukee’s violent crime rate during that period.

Police Chief Edward Flynn contends the errors in reporting violent crime were bureaucratic mistakes and not an effort to manipulate data. Flynn said the coding errors will be sent to the FBI for revision, meaning last year’s touted decrease in violent crime was actually an increase.

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Violent Crime Falls 6.4% During First Half of Year

Overall crime reports in the first half of 2011 dropped 6.4 percent as compared with the first six months of 2011. Murder reports declined 5.7 percent, rapes 5.1 percent and robbery reports 7.7 percent.

Data from the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report are based on information from more than 12,500 law enforcement agencies that submitted data to the FBI.

Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation reported a decrease of 6.4 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for the first 6 months of 2011 when compared with figures reported for the same time in 2010. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to June of 2011 decreased 3.7 percent when compared with data from the same time period in 2010. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2011 indicate that arson decreased 8.6 percent when compared to 2010 figures from the same time period.

To read full report: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/preliminary-annual-ucr-jan-jun-2011

Nation's longest serving prisoner about to be released

Harry S. Truman was still president when Harvey Stewart first went to prison. Stewart is probably the longest serving prisoner in the nation. However, the state of Texas may soon parole him, according to the Associated Press.

Stewart is certainly the longest-serving inmate among the 155,000 prisoners in the Texas system, and research by the Associated Press found no one having spent a longer period of time incarcerated. Although, prison officials and historians say they're unaware of any agency or organization that keeps track of all inmates' jail time.

Among other states with significant prison populations, convicted murderer James Moore, 78, has been locked up in New York since 1963. In California, 80-year-old Booker Hillery first went to prison in 1955 for rape and was returned in 1962 for a murder earlier that year while on parole Norman Parker is Florida's longest-serving inmate, arriving in 1967, reported the Associated Press.

Stewart was first sent to prison in spring 1951 after a junk yard heist in Houston got him a 10-year sentence. He was paroled after serving six years but was convicted in 1958 of murdering a man in Beaumont and received a life sentence. Seven years later he broke out of prison for several days, then waited another two decades before being paroled a second time to a halfway house and worked as a dishwasher. By the summer 1986 he was back behind bars, busted for a robbery plot.

The 83-year-old Stewart reassured, in a way, parole officials by telling them, “I'm too damn old to do any robbing...I think I am anyway. My old ticker might kick out on me," reported the Associated Press.

To read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/AP-Exclusive-Texas-inmate-paroled-after-60-years-2409250.php

Minnesota: Crime Rates in Question

A new survey reveals that a significant proportion of crime in Minnesota goes unreported. Crime is reportedly down, but the results make it clear that the police record is incomplete, according to Minnesota Public Radio.
In a survey of 6,000 Minnesotans, respondents listed numerous crimes that they didn't report to police, including sexual assaults, domestic violence and burglaries. Women had the highest rates of unreported crimes in the survey.
Unreported crime isn't new, reported Minnesota Public Radio. Although the survey indicates crime rates that contrast the official numbers which show reported crime are down, it does not indicate rates of unreported crime that are dramatically different from past surveys.
Preliminary state 2010 crime victim survey numbers show:
Twelve percent of Minnesotans reported being stalked. Of those, 19 percent reported the activity to police.
Among those surveyed, 75 percent who were victims of aggravated assault or a "stickup" or a robbery reported the incident, one in four did not.
Overall, however, Minnesota's reported crime rate in 2010 was down nearly 3 percent from the year before.  Falling crime rates and unreported crime leads one to ask--are falling rates as depicted in the Uniform Crime Report and the National Crime Victimization Survey giving us an accurate picture of crime in the United States.

To read more:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/22/unreported-crime-presents-incomplete-picture-for-police/

The Cautionary Instruction: Falling Crime Rates: Do We Know What We Think We Know Do?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
September 24, 2011

According to two reports released this week violent crime continues its downward spiral. The FBI released its Crime in the United States report. In 2010, violent crime dropped 6 percent, the fourth consecutive year violent crime declined. The report is based on information provided by more than 18,000 city, county, university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Most importantly, the report contains information on the number of reported crimes, including murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and burglaries.

A second report, the National Crime Victimization Survey, gathers information on nonfatal crimes by questioning a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. The report found that violent crime fell by an even greater 12 percent nationwide last year.

The continued decline in violent crime is forcing some criminologists to reexamine their theories on the causes of crime. “It will be years before we get the answer, if we do, to what’s going on right now,” said Professor William Pridemore from Indiana University in Bloomington. “Criminologists have been pretty stumped.”

Could there be a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey?

The culture in some neighborhoods of not cooperating with police -- the idea that the “snitch” is both in danger and a neighborhood pariah -- has surely had some impact on crime reporting.

Last year, Pittsburgh’s decline in violent crime was even greater than the national average. The city saw a 9 percent drop in violent crime. Among violent crimes, robberies were down nearly 13 percent in 2010, and citywide aggravated assaults were down 4.2 percent.

Yet, last year murder was up 41 percent in Pittsburgh. Murder cannot go unreported. However, a drug dealer being robbed at gun point can and does go unreported. A home invasion, an assault, a shootout among rival gangs, most assuredly is going unreported.

National clearance rates for murder and manslaughter have fallen from about 90 percent in the 1960s to below 65 percent in recent years. Experts say that homicides are tougher to solve now because crimes of passion, where assailants are easier to identify, have been replaced by drug and gang-related killings. Many police chiefs -- especially in areas with rising numbers of unsolved crimes -- blame a lack of witness cooperation.

If witnesses are reluctant to cooperate in a murder investigation, it is reasonable to assume witnesses are equally reluctant to cooperate or report robberies, assaults and threats. In light of that reluctance, are we getting a true picture of the safety and security of our neighborhoods?

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State Police: Crimes Reported in PA Dropped 5.4 Percent in 2009

Uniform Crime Report Shows Violent Crime Fell 4.9 Percent

The overall number of crimes in Pennsylvania reported to state police through the Uniform Crime Reporting System dropped 5.4 percent in 2009, with violent crimes declining 4.9 percent to their lowest total since 2003, Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski announced today.

The statistics are included in the 2009 Uniform Crime Report available online through the Public Services link at www.psp.state.pa.us.

Pawlowski said the total number of crimes reported to state police in 2009 was 955,669, compared to the 1,010,703 crimes reported in 2008.

The number of violent crimes, which are murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, dropped from 50,523 in 2008 to 48,023 last year. Property crimes, which are burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft and arson, decreased 6.8 percent from 298,024 in 2008 to 277,720 in 2009.

Pawlowski said the number of Crime Index offenses, which are those considered most likely to be reported to police and are used nationally as a basis for comparing criminal activity, dipped 6.5 percent from 348,548 in 2008 to 325,743 last year. Crime Index offenses are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor-vehicle theft and arson.

The breakdown of reported Crime Index offenses for 2009 is as follows:

· Murders dropped 8 percent from 704 to 648;
· Forcible rapes increased 4.9 percent to 3,620;
· Robberies declined 6.9 percent to 17,464;
· Aggravated assaults dipped 4.8 percent to 26,291;
· Burglaries dropped 6 percent to 54,519;
· Larcenies/thefts were down 5.6 percent to 203,268;
· Motor-vehicle thefts fell 20.2 percent to 17,776, and
· Arsons declined 9.3 percent to 2,157.

The UCR also includes figures on 18 other types of crime, known as Part II offenses. Those reported offenses dropped by 4.9 percent in 2009, from 662,140 in 2008 to 629,893. Included in the Part II violations are reported incidents of vandalism – down 11.7 percent to 117,316 – and reported drug-abuse violations – down 3.8 percent to 52,565.

Other statistics from the 2009 UCR include:

· Arrests of juveniles for all crimes dropped 11.9 percent to 91,768 in 2009;
· Reported hate crime incidents decreased from 90 in 2008 to 74 last year. Hate crime incidents are those motivated by bias against an individual or group based on race, color, religion or national origin;

· The number of assaults on police officers in Pennsylvania fell 4.2 percent to 3,429 last year;
· Arrests for driving under the influence declined 1.8 percent to 55,568. Of the total, 77.1 percent of those arrested were male.

The commonwealth’s UCR system is a web-based system through which law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania enter monthly data directly into a state police database. Citizens can go to the website and view the data as soon as it is submitted.

“Police can submit data at any time with the web-based system,” Pawlowski said. “As a result, the numbers listed in the 2009 UCR Annual Report are subject to change as police departments update or review their reports.”

He said the UCR does not try to explain the reasons for any increase or decrease in particular crimes. “Its purpose is to help criminal-justice agencies adjust their efforts and resources,” he said.

To read more: www.psp.state.pa.us.

FBI: Violent Crime Down in 2009

Murders declined by 7.3-percent; Violent Crime is Down 5.3-percent

According to the figures released today by the FBI, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation declined in 2009 for the third consecutive year. Property crimes also declined in 2009, marking the seventh straight year that the collective estimates for these offenses dropped below the previous year’s total.

The 2009 statistics show that the estimated volumes of violent and property crimes declined 5.3 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, when compared with the 2008 estimates. The violent crime rate for the year was 429.4 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (a 6.1 percent decrease from the 2008 rate), and the property crime rate was 3,036.1 per 100,000 persons (a 5.5 percent decrease from the 2008 figure).

These and additional data are presented in the 2009 edition of the FBI’s annual report Crime in the United States. This publication is a statistical compilation of offense and arrest data reported by law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

The UCR Program collects information on crimes reported by law enforcement agencies regarding the violent crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, as well as the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. (Although the FBI classifies arson as a property crime, it does not estimate arson data because of variations in the level of participation by the reporting agencies. Consequently, arson is not included in the property crime estimate.) The program also collects arrest data for the offenses listed above plus 21 additional offenses that include all other crimes except traffic violations.

In 2009, there were 17,985 city, county, university and college, state, tribal, and federal agencies that participated in the UCR Program. These agencies represented 96.3 percent of the nation’s population. A summary of the statistics reported by these agencies, which are included in Crime in the United States, 2009,follows:

Nationwide in 2009, there were an estimated 1,318,398 violent crimes reported. The decline in the murder rate nationwide is impressive.

■An estimated 15,241 persons were murdered nationwide in 2009, which is a 7.3 percent decrease from the 2008 estimate, a 9.0 percent decrease from the 2005 figure, and a
2.2 percent decrease from the 2000 estimate.

■There were 5.0 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009, an 8.1 percent decrease from the 2008 rate. Compared with the 2005 rate, there was a 12.1 percent decrease in the murder rate; compared with the 2000 rate, a 10.4 percent decrease was recorded.

■More than 44 percent (44.8) of murders were reported in the South, the most populous region, with 21.3 percent reported in the West, 20.0 percent reported in the Midwest, and 13.9 percent reported in the Northeast.

Nationwide in 2009, an estimated 9,320,971 property crimes were reported.

Each of the property crime offenses also decreased in 2009 when compared with the 2008 estimates. The largest decline was for motor vehicle thefts: a 17.1 percent decrease from the 2008 figure. The estimated number of larceny-thefts declined 4.0 percent, and the estimated number of burglaries decreased 1.3 percent.

Collectively, victims of property crimes (excluding arson) lost an estimated $15.2 billion in 2009.
The FBI estimated that in 2009, agencies nationwide made about 13.7 million arrests, excluding traffic violations.

The 2009 arrest rate for violent crimes was 191.2 per 100,000 inhabitants; for property crime, the rate was 571.1 per 100,000 inhabitants.

By violent crime offense, the arrest rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was 4.1; forcible rape, 7.0; robbery, 42.0; and aggravated assault was 138.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.

By property crime offense, the arrest rate for burglary was 98.1; larceny-theft, 442.3; and motor vehicle theft, 26.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. The arrest rate for arson was 4.0 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In 2009, there were 14,614 law enforcement agencies that reported their staffing levels to the FBI. These agencies reported that, as of October 31, 2009, they collectively employed 706,886 sworn officers and 314,570 civilians, a rate of 3.5 employees for each 1,000 inhabitants.

To read the full report: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/index.html

Chicago’s Crime Problem: Reality or Sensationalism

Crime is declining in Chicago yet no one seems to know it, or believe it. The police are trying to persuade jittery Chicagoans to ignore the fear factor because, bad as it seems, crime is going down.

Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis blames a “24/7 news cycle" for creating the mistaken impression that crime is on the rise. Weis noted that crime has dropped for "19 consecutive months" and that July homicides were down 24-percent from the same period a year ago.

Weis told the Chicago Sun-Times, "I would never stand here and say that the violence we're suffering in Chicago is acceptable. It's not. But I do think it's important to frame things. For the past 20 years, we were hovering in the 800-to-900 homicide range . . . We've cut that in half.”

However, many in Chicago think that things can get a whole lot better. The Sun-Times reported that in 2009, there were 16 murder victims per 100,000 residents in Chicago. That's at least double the murder rates in Los Angeles, 8 per 100,00 and New York, 6 per 100,000. When it comes to robbery and aggravated battery, Chicago's rates dwarf those of L.A. and New York.

As Mayor Richard M. Daley faces re-election, crime will be a major issue. The question is—will the reality of falling crime rates or the illusion of greater lawlessness control the debate?

To read more: http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2563784,CST-NWS-daley04.article

Lower Crime Rates: “It Not Complicate—Prosecute and Incarcerate”

The overall crime rate in North Carolina dropped 8.8 percent in 2009, while violent crime was down 12.5 percent compared with 2008. The decline is the sharpest single-year drop in crime rates since North Carolina began statewide crime reporting in 1973, according to The News and Observer.

Statewide, murders fell 19.1 percent, while robberies were down 17.6 percent and aggravated assaults dropped 10.7 percent. All categories of property crime also fell, led by motor vehicle thefts, which were down 25.8 percent.

According to The News and Observer, North Carolina's drop in overall crime mirrors a national trend, said Jeff Welty, an assistant professor of public law and government with the School of Government at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In May the FBI reported a 5 percent reduction nationally in violent and property crimes between 2008 and 2009, Welty said.

Welty said the reasons for the drop in crime are a subject of intense dispute. He said some observers say it's as simple as an aging U.S. population. "Most crimes are committed by younger people," he told The News and Observer.

Welty said others, like North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, credit newer and more efficient policing strategies and longer prison sentences for violent offenders, who cannot commit crimes because they are already locked up.

George Holding, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina told The News & Observer, "It's not complicated," he said. "Prosecute and incarcerate."

To read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/15/581971/crime-slides-to-25-year-low.html#ixzz0toEXu8bI

Juvenile Crime Up, Charging as an Adult Down

A new report, Juvenile Court Statistics 2006-2007, by the National Center for Juvenile Justice, found a significant decrease in the number of juvenile cases being transferred to adult court by a judge. It is not clear whether the report took into consideration those cases that are required by legislation to be filed in adult court without review by a judge. In Pennsylvania, there are a number of offenses that require charging a juvenile as an adult.

In 1994, 13,100 juvenile cases were transferred to adult court. In 2007, 8,500 cases were transferred.

The troubling aspect of the report--if there is a correlation between juvenile crime and charging as an adult--is that juvenile violent crime has increased between 2003 and 2007. Robbery is up 35-percent. Homicide is up 5-percent. These two categories have pushed violent crime up 13-percent.

To read the full report: http://www.ncjjservehttp.org/ncjjwebsite/pdf/jcsreports/jcs2007.pdf

What Would You Pay to be Free From Crime?

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, some southern states, traditionally known for their tough law and order vigor, are looking for ways to balance shrinking state budgets by reducing prison population. Many states face the same difficult decision. Regardless of the choice, many people are going to suffer. The question is how will they suffer?

Here, according to the Journal Constitution, is what some states are doing:

Mississippi lawmakers decided in 2008 to cut prison costs by allowing all nonviolent offenders to be considered for parole after serving 25 percent of a sentence instead of 85 percent.

Texas began a bipartisan effort in 2007 that avoided $2 billion in costs to build and operate new prisons by spending $241 million on alternatives: stepped-up probation and parole programs, new halfway houses and specialty courts devoted to offenders with drug issues and mental health problems.

North Carolina announced in April a bipartisan initiative to develop a new research-driven approach to public safety that is expected to reduce prison costs by investing in alternatives that are more effective.

South Carolina’s Legislature last week approved a landmark sentencing reform package designed to save the state $400 million over the next five years by reducing incarceration of nonviolent offenders and more closely supervising released inmates to reduce recidivism.

Georgia, according to James E. Donald, a member of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, began looking for alternatives for nonviolent prisoners. The state is considering a movement to create a state network of “day reporting centers,” a community-based option for errant probationers who pose little threat but who would otherwise take up prison space.

According to the Journal Constitution, plenty of states beyond the South — traditionally the leading tough-on-crime region — are also adjusting their approach to punishment.

My Take

For many states it is a Hobson's choice. How many reductions in child care, education or health care are citizens willing to put up with to fund jails and prisons. As the Journal Constitution recently pointed out in Georgia, "Lawmakers will likely face a difficult choice in the 2011 session: Opt for more teacher layoffs, higher college tuition bills and less money for transportation, or make changes to lower Georgia’s prison population."

However, crime rates are at historic lows. According to the FBI, violent crime fell by 5.5-percent in 2009. All four violent crime offenses—murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—declined nationwide in 2009 when compared with 2008 data. Robbery dropped 8.1 percent, murder decreased 7.2 percent, aggravated assault declined 4.2 percent, and forcible rape decreased 3.1 percent. Property crimes fell by 4.9 during the same period.

Declining crime has been a trend in this country for the last decade. How much can be attributed to record incarceration rates? One in every 100 Americans is behind bars. While prisons and jails have recently decreased in size, the size of prisons have increased at least five-fold since 1985.

Will a decrease in prison population cause increased crime? There is no question that incarceration has had an impact on crime. A study by economist Steven Levitt found filling prisons reduces crime.

The question is, would states be looking for alternatives to incarceration if the economy had not turned sour and state revenues dried up? If the answer is no, then we must conclude that public safety is being compromised to balance state and local budgets.

The cost of an up-tick in robbery or rape or murder may not be that significant to the state or federal government. What is the cost to the victim? The 5.5-percent reduction in violent crime in 2009 represents more than just some numbers on a statistician's spreadsheet--those numbers represent thousands and thousands of men, woman and children who were not victims. Those statistics represent the growing number of Americans who were not robbed, beaten, raped and murdered.

What are you willing to pay in taxes, or not receive in government services, to be one of the unknown nonvictims of violent crime?

FBI: Violent Crime Down 5.5%

Press Release
May 24, 2010
FBI National Press Office


Preliminary 2009 statistics indicate that violent crime in the nation decreased 5.5 percent and property crime declined 4.9 percent when compared with data from 2008, according to the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, which was released today. Data in the report came from 13,237 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to 12 months of data in both 2008 and 2009.

Violent Crime

All four violent crime offenses—murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—declined nationwide in 2009 when compared with 2008 data. Robbery dropped 8.1 percent, murder decreased 7.2 percent, aggravated assault declined 4.2 percent, and forcible rape decreased 3.1 percent.
Violent crime fell in all city groupings. The largest decrease, 7.5 percent, was in cities with populations ranging from 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants. Violent crime declined 4.0 percent in the nation’s metropolitan counties and 3.0 percent in nonmetropolitan counties.
Cities with 25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants were the only city population group to report an increase in the number of murders, 5.3 percent. The number of murders in the nation’s nonmetropolitan counties also rose, 1.8 percent.
Forcible rape trends dropped in all city population groups. The largest decrease was 7.3 percent in cities of less than 10,000 residents. Metropolitan counties reported a 3.7 percent decline in the number of rapes, but the number of rapes reported in nonmetropolitan counties rose slightly, 0.3 percent.
All population groups reported decreases in the volume of robbery in 2009. Of the city groups, cities with populations of 100,000 to 249,999 had the largest decrease at 10.3 percent. Metropolitan counties reported a 6.7 percent drop in robberies; nonmetropolitan counties reported a 0.7 percent decline.
The number of aggravated assaults declined in all population groups, with cities of 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants reporting a 6.3 percent decrease. Aggravated assaults declined 3.7 percent in nonmetropolitan counties and 3.0 percent in metropolitan counties.
All four regions in the nation showed decreases in violent crime in 2009 when compared with data from 2008. Violent crime decreased 6.6 percent in the South, 5.6 percent in the West, 4.6 percent in the Midwest, and 3.5 percent in the Northeast.

Property Crime

All property crime offenses—burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft—decreased in 2009 when compared with 2008 data. Motor vehicle theft showed the largest drop in volume at 17.2 percent, larceny-thefts declined 4.2 percent, and burglaries decreased 1.7 percent.
The nation’s largest cities, one million or more inhabitants, reported the greatest decrease, 7.9 percent, in property crime overall. Of the city groupings, this population group also reported the biggest decreases in the offenses that comprise property crime: a 21.1 percent drop in motor vehicle theft, a 5.7 percent decline in burglary, and a 5.5 percent decrease in larceny-theft. In the nation’s nonmetropolitan counties, larceny-thefts fell 9.5 percent; in metropolitan counties, larceny-thefts declined 5.9 percent.
The only population group to indicate a rise in any type of property crime was in nonmetropolitan counties, where burglary rose 0.5 percent.
In comparing 2008 data and 2009 data by region, law enforcement agencies in the West reported the biggest decline in property crime, with a decrease of 6.8 percent. Property crime declined 5.6 percent in the Midwest, 5.3 percent in the Northeast, and 3.2 percent in the South.

Arson

Arson offenses, which are tracked separately from other property crimes, declined 10.4 percent nationwide. All population groups reported decreases in the volume of arson offenses. In addition, arson fell in all four of the nation’s regions: 11.6 percent in the West, 10.6 percent in the South, 9.2 percent in the Midwest, and 8.6 percent in the Northeast.

The complete 2009 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report is available exclusively at www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/index.html.