News

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States — a new report from the National Research Council —  argues that “the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute… Continue reading New report: The high cost of incarceration

An editorial by NCRJ Advisor Dr. Susan Robbins. Dr, Robbins reviews the history of the DSM as psychiatry evolved from being psychoanalytically based towards a biomedical model. Robbins says “Each DSM revision attempted to add a patina of scientific discovery, despite the failure to empirically denonstrate major advances in either reliability or validity.” She also… Continue reading The DSM-5 and its Role in Social Work Assessment and Research

photo credit: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times The case of Robert Hill, convicted of murder in 1988 on the eyewitness accounts of some high crackheads, brings the Catch-22 of parole to the fore. Thinking it would get him paroled, Hill expressed remorse for a crime he says he did not commit. It’s a perennial problem for… Continue reading Parole boards want remorse, but what if you’re innocent?

NPR’s “This American Life” airs an intelligent and compassionate story about a young pedophile who has never offended and is helping other young pedophiles not to offend. This story was suggested to Luke Malone by NCRJ Board Member Debbie Nathan.

City Limits reports on pressure in New York State to catch up with, yes, Texas, in preventing or remedying wrongful convictions. New York reformers want the state to broaden its very narrow requirements of the kinds of exculpatory evidence the prosecution must turn over to the defense before a trial.

The new report from the National Registry of Exonerations, a joint project of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools, contains some interesting data about exonerations for alleged child sexual abuse, many of which never occurred. Women are disproportionately falsely convicted of such crimes. Whereas women and men are exonerated for most crimes… Continue reading New exonerations report: Child sex abuse is different

It has long been said, in varying language, that a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. You do not have to reach back 200 years to Scotland to find enduring wisdom in that adage. You need return only to the 1980s and to the subject of this… Continue reading New York Times revisits McMartin daycare trials

Mike Graczyk/Associated Press The New York Times on the Todd Willingham case. Mr. Scheck said that the Willingham case suggested a fundamental weakness in the justice system: If Mr. Webb’s testimony “was really based on a deal and misrepresentation, then the system cannot be regulated,” he said. Under those circumstances, “you cannot prevent the execution… Continue reading Evidence of Concealed Jailhouse Deal Raises Questions About a Texas Execution

NCRJ President Michael Snedeker is quoted in The Atlantic: The new statute offers another kind of clarity: “It’s important because a lot of really shaky evidence is clothed in objectivity,” said Snedeker, noting the incalculable impact expert testimony can have on a juror’s decision-making—especially expert testimony characterized as scientific or medical. “Our priests now are… Continue reading In Texas, a New Law Lets Defendants Fight Bad Science

JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation “Trampling on an accused priest’s due process rights doesn’t matter to a lot of people, even civil libertarians. Ordinarily, an overgrown gossip column with pretensions wouldn’t matter either, except that this one, “Mia’s Story,” was angled to popularize a claim of child sexual abuse against Allen; and now, twenty-two years… Continue reading Woody Allen Deserves the Benefit of the Doubt