Millions of children throughout the country endure difficult living conditions that affect their overall well-being. For some, their home life is so detrimental that it pushes them to run away from home. In 2002, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimated 1.6 million youth run away each year in the United States. The…
Mass incarceration has dominated discussions surrounding policing and prison reform for several years. With just 5% of the global population, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and holds nearly a quarter of all the world’s prisoners. Mostly, the conversations about mass incarceration have focused on reducing the number of male…
A person who faces drug charges stands to face harsher penalties upon a conviction if he or she was within a drug-free zone at the time of the offense. When drug-free laws were promoted in 1970, the premise was to keep children safe from drug dealers and users. Back then, legislators began to designate specific…
Many people are surprised to discover criminal charges against them for crimes they did not commit. An accomplice to a crime is a person who intentionally facilitates a criminal act by another person. Whether this person helps or encourages the person committing the crime, he may eventually face consequences that are as serious as if…
A little over a month after the Parkland school shooting, the shooter’s younger brother, Zachary Cruz, was arrested for trespassing on the school grounds. He told Broward County deputies that he had returned to the school to “reflect on the shooting.” The judge sentenced him to six months of probation for doing so. Under the…
Federal law is supposed to preclude those accused or convicted of felony crimes and violent misdemeanors from obtaining firearms. People who suffer from mental illness or are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others are also prohibited from buying guns. While you would hope that violent criminals could not legally purchase weapons in…
Florida’s gun laws have quickly evolved since the state endured one of the deadliest school shootings in the country. Students and parents across the nation are more concerned about firearms in schools than ever before, and for a good reason. After 14 students and 3 educators lost their lives in a public high school in…
Domestic violence is much more common than many realize. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men 18 and older have been the victim of physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. The State of Florida has 66 organizations dedicated to helping victims of domestic…
“For far too long, Backapge.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike.” — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions On April 6, 2018, the FBI shut down Backpage.com in an attempt to curb human trafficking, prostitution, and child exploitation. What started out as…
It is no secret that opioid deaths continue climbing throughout the country. As more victims die from overdoses, police are turning to charge drug dealers in the hopes that harsher consequences for supplying addicts with illegal substances will reduce their availability. While police have rarely charged people connected to overdose deaths in the past, drug…
