Category Archives: Crime
Casey review: key steps the Met police must take to address its institutional racism and sexism
John Fox, University of Portsmouth
Baroness Louise Casey has found that London’s Metropolitan police force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. We heard similar 24 years ago when, after the incompetent investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, Sir William MacPherson reported that the Met was institutionally racist.
Matteo Messina Denaro: arrest of mafia boss after 30 years on the run is the end of an era – but not the end of the Cosa Nostra
Felia Allum, University of Bath
Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the leaders of the Sicilian mafia, the Cosa Nostra, has finally been detained after 30 years on the run. His arrest came as around 100 police officers surrounded the private Maddalena clinic in Palermo where they had discovered he was receiving treatment.
How can black people feel safe and have confidence in policing?
Clare Torrible, University of Bristol
The inquest into the death of Chris Kaba opened on October 4 2022. Kaba, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed in Streatham Hill, south London on September 5 2022 by a Metropolitan police officer.
How the UK press is failing victims of miscarriages of justice
Jon Robins, University of Brighton
On September 20 2022, Adnan Sayed had his murder conviction overturned by a Baltimore judge after spending nearly 23 years in jail. His case had featured in the groundbreaking true crime podcast Serial.
US tech monitors for gunfire but critics say targets Black areas
- U.S. homicides jump 44% in two years
- Government may fund divisive gunshot detection systems
- Critics say the tech is biased and doesn’t work
By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Toledo experienced a spike in gun violence, the Ohio city police force turned to a simple if controversial tool: it miked up part of the city to capture the sound of gunfire.
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Killing prisoners for transplants: Forced organ harvesting in China
Ali Iqbal, McMaster University and Aliya Khan, McMaster University
Organ transplantation is a life-saving therapy for millions of patients and one of the greatest successes of modern medicine. However, a limited supply of donor organs, paired with a massive demand for transplants, has fuelled the global organ trafficking industry which exploits poor, underprivileged and persecuted members of society as a source of organs to be purchased by wealthy transplant tourists.
How your brainwaves could be used in criminal trials
Michel Funicelli, Teesside University
American Kevin Strickland was exonerated after spending 42 years in prison for being wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in November 2021. His 1978 conviction was based on mistaken identification of an eyewitness. The eyewitness later said that police pressured her into identifying Strickland, and attempted to have her testimony recanted but failed. She died in 2015.