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Violent crime across the city of Minneapolis has dropped significantly over the last year. The trend over the past year is a continuation of declining violent crime rates that began two decades ago. In addition, the most popular crime on the University of Minnesota’s campus, theft, is also on the decline. Despite the reduction in crime levels, experts are not entirely sure what is causing the reduction in crime.
The beginning of the last decade and the end of the last decade are marked with different bookends in terms of legal strategy for the Department of Justice. The beginning of the 2000’s was marked with aggressive white-collar criminal cases against firms like Arthur Anderson, Enron and Tyco. By 2008, the Department of Justice had officially taken a much softer approach in policing financial fraud cases.
Previously, we spoke about drug crimes related to pill mills where pain treatment centers illegally sell narcotics. Over the years, the state of Florida has become the epicenter of drug crimes associated with pill mills but a new state law there bans doctors and clinics from selling pain pills. Law enforcement officials believe the enforcement of the new law will reduce the number of pill mill drug crimes.
In the past, the difference between the drug crimes sentencing of cocaine and crack was a legal and political talking point that demonstrated the unfairness of treating two similar illegal drugs differently based on the users of the drugs. Under the Obama Administration the sentencing laws addressing crack cocaine were rewritten but did not affect those currently in prison for crack cocaine crimes. Recently, the United States Sentencing Commission voted to retroactively reduce the prison terms of prisoners serving time for crack cocaine.
Unlike many people who have been charged with allegations of a crime, the man from North Carolina who purposefully robbed a bank for one dollar probably does not want any criminal defense help. The reasoning behind the man’s plan was to get caught robbing a bank so that he could receive health care while in jail.
Synthetic marijuana and other synthetic drugs have caused quite a stir and a good amount of controversy over the last few months as law enforcement and the legal system try to adopt their strategies to combat the drugs. Synthetic marijuana was added to the federal government’s list of banned substances in March and many states have added varying forms of synthetic marijuana to their list of drug crimes.
Retailers in the United States have been hit by more theft and fraud than at any point over the last seven years. Retailers from Target to Macy’s to locally owned businesses have all been targets. According to an industry survey three factors have contributed to increased theft and fraud at retailers across the U.S. Those factors are less store personnel, sophisticated technology and more gang activity.