New Releases from Bureau Of Justice Statistics

The following are some of the new releases by the Bureau Of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009

Presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, and principals. A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school.

Prisoners In 2008

This report presents data on prisoners under jurisdiction of federal or state correctional authorities on December 31, 2008, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series. This annual report compares changes in the prison population during 2008 to changes from year end 2000 through year end 2007. These are the only comprehensive national-level data on prison admissions and releases. Findings cover data on decreasing growth in state and federal prisons through declining admissions and increasing releases; imprisonment rates for prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year by jurisdiction; the number of males and females in prison; age, race, and gender distributions; the number of inmates in custody in state and federal prison and local jails; and custody incarceration rates.

Probation and Parole In the United States, 2008

This report presents the number of adults under community supervision (probation or parole) at year end 2008 and the growth rates in these populations during the year and since 2000. The report examines factors associated with changes in the probation and parole populations, such as the number of entries and exits, the rate at which probationers and parolees exit supervision, changes in the populations within jurisdictions, and compositional changes in both populations.

Jails In Indian Country, 2008

Presents findings from the 2008 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of 82 jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The report includes data on the number of adults and juveniles held, type of offense, number of persons confined on the last weekday of each month, average daily population, peak population, and admissions in June 2008.

HIV In Prisons, 2007-08

Presents year end 2007 and 2008 data from the National Prisoner Statistics and the Deaths in Custody series, including data on the number of female and male prisoners who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or had confirmed AIDS. Findings include the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons, a profile of those inmates who died in state prison, and a comparison of AIDS rates between prison inmates and the general population.

Capital Punishment, 2008 - Statistical Tables

Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2008, and persons executed in 2008. Preliminary data on executions by states during 2009 are included. Tables present state-by-state information on the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2008, status of capital statutes, and methods of execution. Numerical tables also summarize data on offender characteristics such as gender, race, Hispanic origin, age at time of arrest for capital offense, legal status at time of capital offense, and time between imposition of death sentence and execution.

Prof. John A. Humbach Is Featured on Legal Theory Blog

Article titled 'Sexting,' the First Amendment and Prosecuting Teens by professor John. A. Humbach, Professor of Law at the Pace University School of Law is featured on the Legal Theory Blog.

'Sexting' and other teen autopornography are becoming a widespread phenomenon, with perhaps 20% of teenagers admitting to producing nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves and an ever greater proportion, perhaps as many as 50%, having illegally received such pictures from friends and classmates. It is, moreover, beginning to result in criminal prosecutions, and the statutory penalties are severe. Given the reality of changing social practices, mores and technology utilization, today’s pornography laws are a trap for unwary teens and operate, in effect, to criminalize a large fraction of America’s young people. As such, these laws and prosecutions represent a stark example of the contradictions that can occur when governmental policies and initiatives built on past truths and values collide with new and unanticipated social phenomena.

The focus of anti-pornography enforcement in recent years has been the child pornography laws. The landmark cases of New York v. Ferber and Osborne v. Ohio have established and defined a categorical exclusion that denies First Amendment protection to sexually explicit visual depictions of minors. Even though Ferber and Osborne may not strictly speaking require a conclusion that sexting and other autopornography are unprotected speech, at least some lower courts and prosecutors appear to regard them that way.

By contrast, the language and reasoning of the more recent case of Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition gives strong reason to believe that the scope of the categorical exclusion for child pornography should be closely aligned with the governmental objectives that Ferber and Osborne relied on - which would mean constitutional protection for teen sexting and autopornography that occur on the teens’ own initiative. Ashcroft strongly implies, though does not quite say, that the categorical exclusion should be limited to materials that are produced by means of criminal child abuse and exploitation. Also, current standards of strict scrutiny for content-based regulations, if applied, would probably prevent (on the present state of the studies and research) self-produced teen materials from being subsumed into the Ferber categorical exclusion. How this issue will be decided, however, remains to be seen.