Black Americans were nearly four times as likely than whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession in 2010, even though the two groups used the drug at similar rates, according to new federal data. … During the same period, public attitudes toward marijuana softened and a number of […] Read more »
Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. … Nearly all the decline in the firearm homicide rate took place […] Read more »
Quietly and behind the scenes, gun research and regulation has been stymied
Each year, lawmakers quietly tuck language into spending bills that restricts the ability of the federal government to regulate the firearms industry and combat gun crime. It’s the reason the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can’t research gun violence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can’t use data to detect […] Read more »
How the media is killing the death penalty
… Many believe capital punishment is justified, but they worry that innocent people might be executed. And as the political debate has in the last two decades focused on wrongful convictions and death row exonerations, Americans have increasingly come to evaluate the death penalty in terms of its potential unfairness. […] Read more »
Most Back Funding for Sexual Violence Victims
More than eight in 10 Americans agree with the basic tenets of the Violence Against Women Act, which Congress recently voted to reauthorize and President Barack Obama signed into law on Thursday. Specifically, 82% say that, if given the opportunity, they would vote “for” a law that provides “federal funding […] Read more »
Death Penalty Support Stable at 63%
Americans’ support for the death penalty as punishment for murder has plateaued in the low 60s in recent years, after several years in which support was diminishing. Sixty-three percent now favor the death penalty as the punishment for murder, similar to 61% in 2011 and 64% in 2010. [cont.] Lydia […] Read more »