There are many myths when it comes to the topic of crime and crime prevention. For example, one of the more pervasive myths has always been that the presence of too many trees, bushes or other greenery in urban areas results in higher crime rates. However, a recently released study by researchers at Temple University actually serves to dispel this myth once and for all.
In the study, published in Landscape and Urban Planning, researchers gathered comprehensive crime data for areas throughout the city and compared it with satellite photographs of the same areas outlining its greenery.
Here, they determined that those areas with more well-maintained greenery had much lower overall crime rates than areas with lesser amounts of greenery. Even more fascinating, they discovered that this trend was evident in all areas under study regardless of such factors as wealth or education.
The uptick in school-related violence over the last decade has lead many school districts around the nation to implement additional safety protocols and more stringent codes of conduct outlining so-called zero tolerance rules. While many have praised these rules as being absolutely necessary to protect students and staff, others have criticized them for perhaps being too rigid and unfair to students.
In an attempt to help prevent crime, college campuses across the nation have implemented new emergency notification systems designed to deliver both warnings and advice to students, faculty and staff instantaneously via emails, automated phone calls, public address system announcements and, of course, text messages.
There is no question that politics can inspire people to do great things from organizing rallies and collecting signatures to writing letters to politicians or even considering a run for office. However, there is also no question that politics can be prove to be incredibly divisive, and sometimes cause people to engage in inappropriate or even criminal conduct.
State Representative Jim Ott (R-Mequon) and State Senator Alberta Darling (R- River Hills) made headlines earlier this legislative session when they each introduced an identical set of six drunk driving bills in their respective chambers calling for much harsher consequences for those caught 
The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court to suppress the blood test results. Here, the justices relied on a 1966 Supreme Court case, Schmerber v. California, which held that warrantless blood tests of DUI suspects are permissible where the officer "might reasonably have believed that he was confronted with an emergency, in which the delay necessary to obtain the warrant, under the circumstances, threatened 'the destruction of evidence.'"
Last week, nearly 300 people -- including judges, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, social workers and law enforcement personnel -- gathered in Appleton for the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Association of Treatment Court Professionals. For those unfamiliar with this group, its stated purpose is to "reduce substance abuse, crime and recidivism by promoting and advocating the establishment and funding of treatment courts."
Back in 2010, the state's Joint Legislative Audit Committee formally requested that investigators perform an audit of the state's FoodShare program amid reports of widespread fraudulent activity.
