Is Shaken Baby Syndrome the New Satanic Panic?

“It’s never simple when science suffers a shakeup. The road to the truth is littered with fallen experts who were disgraced when they tried to disprove—or prove—the common wisdom, be it that the earth revolves around the sun or that …

NCRJ’s Emily Horowitz Interviewed About Forthcoming Book

“Why did you write a book about the sex offender registry?”

“When I saw the research on the registry I was really shocked at how pointless it is. And it was shocking because usually, when you research something, there’s ambiguity—there …

Stop the Sex Offender Registry Panic

(XiXinXing via iStock)

“How did you arrive at taking up reform of the sex offender registry as a cause?

“Well, I’m interested in keeping kids safe and I’m also interested in when our fears don’t match reality. That began when …

A Disputed Diagnosis Imprisons Parents

Read these articles in the Washington Post on Shaken Baby Syndrome.…

Case of “San Antonio Four” Set to Enter its Final Act

Tamir Kalifa

“On April 22, the case will enter its final act as the two alleged victims take the stand. Now in their late 20s, one still maintains the abuse took place, and the other says the two were coerced …

It’s Not Just the Drug War

“The growing unpopularity of the War on Drugs and the number of bipartisan moves to, supposedly, roll back mass incarceration have led some leftists to believe that, finally, the prison-state is about to be cut down to size.

“Yet a …

Nine Horrible Social Panics

9 Social Panics That Gripped the Nation, Were Totally False, and Did Horrible Lasting Damage.

Read the article by Janet Allon and Kali Hollway in Alternet.…

Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe

“You have to feel a little sorry these days for professors married to their former students. They used to be respectable citizens—leaders in their fields, department chairs, maybe even a dean or two—and now they’re abusers of power avant la …

The new panic: campus sex assaults

emily cooper for the boston globe

“The situation on college campuses has become so dire that civil libertarians are calling for sexual assault investigations to be left to police and prosecutors. Despite the fact that conviction in a criminal court …

A Moral Imperative: Release Aging and Long-Term Prisoners

“It was only for a moment, but on January 20, 2015, this country’s criminal punishment system got a general call for reform in President Obama’s state of the union address. With 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent …