A good summary of the program charged with rehabilitating the District’s delinquent and violent youth is in Colbert King’s Washington Post column this week.
King explains the DYRS system and citing Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, states that
●16 young people killed in the District this year have been at one time under DYRS supervision or supervised by court social services;
●Nine people who are DYRS wards or have recently left DYRS because they reached age 21 have been charged with first-degree murder;
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Spend enough time in DC’s courtrooms and you’ll hear plenty about DNA evidence. From swabs of guns, knives, forks, caps, and more to the drawing of blood or swabbing of a defendant’s cheek, it came seem as if DNA plays a role in nearly every case.
The BBC this week tackled the issue of DNA evidence in a report on upcoming changes to the national DNA index system used by the FBI.
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Slate this week looked at the declining crime rates across America and asked, “is there an Obama effect on crime?”
Obama effect?
Slate explains:
[The “Obama Effect”] holds that the election of the first black president has provided such collective inspiration that it has changed the thinking or behavior of would-be or one-time criminals. The effect is not yet quantifiable, but some very numbers-driven researchers believe it may exist.
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Rend Smith’s profile of Cathy Lanier in Washington City Paper this week has prompted an intense online conversation about the Chief’s popularity— and effectiveness— in DC.
Smith looks at Lanier’s approval rating (“cosmic 84 percent”), muses on the possibility that she could run for mayor (“she’s a Ward 5 resident whose blue-collar affectations play best in the parts of town where her original patron, Fenty, got his butt kicked”), reports a little on her background (after becoming a teen mom she got her GED and tried waitressing and sales before a boyfriend encouraged her to apply to MPD), and looks into Lanier’s policing style (” stop viewing crime stats in isolation, instead factoring in details like “population density, demographic trends, projected economic development, physical infrastructure” to create a broader picture.”).
Read the City Paper story (and comments thread) here.
