Word: crimed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...technique called DNA fingerprinting has, since the mid-1980s, become an important tool for police and prosecutors. Matching a suspect's DNA, the genetic material found in most cells, with DNA found in blood or semen at the scene of a crime can provide seemingly indisputable evidence of guilt. But now DNA fingerprinting is itself on trial, and shadows of doubt are falling on detective work that once seemed virtually infallible. Says William Thompson, a professor of social ecology at the University of California at Irvine: "This technology has been steamrollered through the courts, and now it's beginning...
Illinois is one of several states where "prison-impact statements" are attached to any proposed legislation that might lead to more arrests or longer sentences. One such report was connected to a recent bill that would have added ten years to the sentence for any crime committed with a firearm. It estimated that if the law were passed, so many new convicts would be sentenced to longer terms that it would cost $63.5 million to construct and operate the required prison facilities. A committee of the legislature tabled the bill...
Concerns about the bottom line have been getting through to legislators, who know that crime-weary voters are also taxpayers. "I have a real aversion to the idea that justice should depend on some monetary figures," says Illinois legislator Thomas J. Homer, a former prosecutor. "But there is a correlation between getting tough on crime and the revenue of the state...
NATION: Prison overcrowding forces authorities to turn criminals loose; Bush's crime message promises little relief...
...investigators gather evidence and make more arrests, Hurlbut browses through rows of Hefty Mamas, Leg Show, Bizarre Fantasies and other beckoning titles with the indifference of a hardened vice cop. "Victimless crime -- crap," he whispers. "Follow me." The white-haired Hurlbut eases his 225- lb. frame through an entrance marked PEEP SHOWS and into a darkened warren of viewing rooms. In each of the empty plywood cubicles, VCRs still hum, and the trappings of recent sexual activity abound. "The average guy has no idea what scumbags these places are," he snaps...