Legal briefs

Crime

A new article in City Journal by Manhattan Institute Fellow, Tal Fortgang, makes a great case for incapacitation in the criminal justice system. In the article, Fortgang discusses how most crime is committed by a small percentage of people. He writes:

Most people are not teetering on the edge of a felony waiting to become…a “justice-impacted individual.” The overwhelming majority of Americans never engage in serious criminal behavior…But those who do are likely to do so again, the evidence shows. Crime’s concentration is one of the most well-established findings in social science….

Fortgang cites a 1972 study finding that just 6% of males in a birth cohort accounted for 52% of all police contacts. Thirty years later, a similar study in Boston found that 3% of males were responsible for more than half the cohort’s arrests. In related data, a 2014 review indicated that 75% of state prisoners had at least five prior arrests.

Even this underestimates how much crime these people commit, though. The cited 1972 study found that the offenders reported dozens of crimes committed for every one that led to an arrest. Similarly, a 2022 study on juvenile delinquents found that youth reported at least 25 offenses for every one police contact.

If we just incapacitated the most prolific criminals by incarcerating them, crime would plummet. A recent study from Sweden found that crime would fall by 80% if perpetrators could be prevented from reoffending after their first offense. It would fall by 50% if significant incapacitation occurred after three offenses. Crime would fall by 20% if significant incapacitation occurred after a tenth offense.

Our current system focuses on rehabilitation that does not really work, and especially doesn’t work on the most prolific offenders. Incapacitation and deterrence is a time-tested and evidence-based more effective model.

All the studies mentioned are linked to in Fortgang’s article. You can read it by clicking here.

Crime

A couple of weeks ago, just after the shutdown ended, the U.S. House of Representatives, in a bipartisan effort, passed a bill to repeal much of Washington, D.C.’s cashless bail law. The District’s unique legal status allows Congress to legislate for the City. Current law in D.C. requires cashless bail for nearly all offenses. This new bill would mandate preventive detention for the most violent offenders, and would require cash bail for other “dangerous crimes” and “crimes of violence.” The bill now moves to the Senate, where its chances for passage are less but not zero. This move follows similar recent efforts in New York and California to roll back dangerous bail reform laws that swept the nation over the last decade. You can read more here.

Crime

There are a lot of reasons to not use marijuana. Perhaps the most compelling reason is that sometimes marijuana use causes “scromiting.” “Scromiting,” a combination of screaming and vomiting, is a slang term for cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). With marijuana use on the rise following the push for legalization, more people are showing up to emergency rooms writhing in stomach pain due to hours and hours of wailing and puking. Doctors aren’t clear on how the marijuana use leads to scromiting but posit that today’s high THC marijuana plays a role. You can read more about it here.

Anyway, don’t do drugs, kids. Scromiting sounds horrible.

Other

A few years ago, my kids were in school with a kid who identified as Batman. He insisted that his teachers call him Bruce Wayne. My kids thought he was a little weird. I thought he was awesome. It turns out I was probably right about his positive impact.

A recent study involving The Dark Knight took place on the Milan, Italy subway system. Researchers had a pregnant woman board the train then tracked how many people would give up their seat for her. In a second part of the study, the researchers had a person dressed as Batman board the train after the pregnant woman. They then tracked how many people gave up their seat for the pregnant woman with Batman nearby. Commuters were twice as likely to offer a seat to the pregnant woman when Batman was in view. Evil fears the night. You can read all about it here.

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