Why and what’s next — I regret to announce that I’m winding down True Crime Adjacent. I’ve taken stock of what I’ve committed myself to, looked at what engagement it’s received, and decided where to devote my limited attention. My conclusion? Everything’s gotta go. While I think True Crime Adjacent still has potential, it would…

True Crime Adjacent will cover topics sure to interest fans of the genre, such as criminology research and the ethics of true crime. — [Sept. 13, 2023 Update: I’m winding down True Crime Adjacent to focus my energies on Understand Crime.] True Crime Adjacent is a new Medium publication about the things that are close to true crime, but that aren’t actual True Crime itself. I know these things will interest true crime fans…

Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey in the U.S., researchers found that the presence of a third party during a sexual assault wasn’t associated with seeking help and only a little associated with reporting to the police. Research: But Someone Was Right There: An Examination of How Third-Party…

Using a “transdisciplinary” approach where researchers from across disciplines work together, researchers looked at homicides in Harris County, Texas, from 2016 through 2020. — They looked at Harris County, in part, because it’s the most densely populated county in Texas and also had the most incidents of violent crime of any Texas county. Researchers were trying to better understand things such as how often different types of domestic homicide happened during the study time…

Researchers set out to discover whether the release of video showing police fatally shooting Laquan McDonald, 17, in 2015 led to “depolicing,” or a decrease in policing. They found that felony and misdemeanor arrest rates went down in Chicago. However, there was “no discernable impact on traffic stop rates, contraband…

Researchers reviewed case histories of 87 patients of the EMPOWER Center in New York (who were enrolled in the EMPOWER Center Study) with histories of sex trafficking to better understand their experience. All 87 were women, and 23 had been re-trafficked at some point after having initially escaped. Among the…

Called the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, the approach aims to treat people with severe personality disorder who have committed violent crimes — Researchers spoke extensively to two dozen men who had been through the program to understand its impact. “The men recruited to the study were all residing in a high-security prison in England and Wales,” said the researchers, writing in a recent journal article.

Recent research suggests that predictive policing — the practice that purports to use data to predict and prevent crime — doesn’t rely on neutral, objective pictures of reality. Instead, the predicted futures rely on data that is often incomplete and inaccurate as a result of details of data collection practices…

Decades of research on pre-arrest diversion programs shows an association between use of the programs and reductions in recidivism and costs, according to a recent analysis of the research. “Police diversion programs can be seen as one major social justice strategy to reduce dependence on mass incarceration to resolve social…

Researchers sought the contribution, if any, of policing to neighbourhood collective efficacy (“a neighbourhood social process that emphasizes social ties among neighbours and a willingness to intervene to solve local problems”). They found being trustworthy was the main thing police can contribute to collective efficacy, perhaps because trustworthiness reassures “people…

Working with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, researchers found that youth with more “grit” (maintaining perseverance toward and interest in long-term goals) were less likely to be arrested. The NLSY97 has surveyed the same people since 1997. When the higher-grit individuals were arrested at all, these…

5 crime and criminal justice studies from this week — 1. Trustworthiness of police helps neighbours work together 2. Risk of re-trafficking higher for women who have been undocumented in the past: New York study 3. The presence of a third party during a rape not associated with victims seeking help 4. Researchers find evidence of “depolicing” in Chicago after…

Who confesses and who doesn’t — New research into police interrogations and confessions by extrafamilial murderers found three types of killers. The clusters of offenders found in each type differed in many ways, including whether they confessed and their relationships to their victims. Conducted using coroner’s reports and police investigation files from cases where victims were…

Research examining the new practice found that the data-driven approach to policing also lacks sufficient evaluation and raises questions of accountability — Predictive policing is a relatively new approach that uses data science and crime data to try to prevent crime by altering how police are deployed in the field. However, research suggests that the practice has some challenges that should be addressed.

The same women and girls are also more at risk of being trafficked — Recent work examining the limited body of research into sex trafficking in Canada found that “Indigenous, im/migrant, and other marginalized women and girls” are “particularly impacted” by “gaps and barriers in anti-trafficking responses.” The authors of the study wrote: “The findings of this review highlight the importance of addressing the…