What factors should be considered in determining the length and terms of a sentence? Should a crimes violent or non-violent classification carry the most weight? Frank S. Perri offers that focusing too much on a crimes violent or non-violent nature can lead to a punishment too severe or not severe enough for the crime committed.

I certainly knew it was nefarious, a little wormy, unethical, make no mistake about that but criminal? Fraud?- Jay Jones, convicted white-collar criminal, as quoted in The New York Times Magazine

Jay Jones lived the good life; unfortunately, he bought it fraudulently. As a result of his behavior, he left at least 4,000 people jobless when the debt collection business he helped co-found went bankrupt, according to a June 6, 2004, article in The New York Times Magazine.1 He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud investors and was sentenced to five years in prison. He also owes about $1 billion in restitution to the victims of his fraud, according to the article. Was his sentence too light?

Consider the case of real estate attorney Chalana McFarland, who committed a myriad of fraudulent acts, including identity theft, illegal use of Social Security numbers, money laundering, and a mortgage scam that devastated lending institutions and families who bought homes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.2 She was sentenced to 30 years in prison, even though she could have been sentenced to a life term and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution for the scheme that she controlled with the assistance of her co-conspirators, the press release said. Was her sentence too high?Although its reasonable to have a debate on what constitutes a proportionate and fair punishment to a fraud-based crime, anti-fraud professionals must be aware that the manner in which the debate on appropriate punishment is being framed can be misleading. One of the common arguments made by opponents advocating lenient sentences for convicted white-collar criminals is that their crimes are non-violent property crimes, and many are first-time offenders who dont fit the typical image of a street criminal. In this article, well address:

The inherent dangers of imposing punishment based on the premise that fraud is a non-violent property crime

Misperceptions surrounding the first-time offender argument in determining an appropriate punishment

Why white-collar crime sentencing might have increased over the years

DANGERS IN PUNISHING CRIME LABELSAND NOT THE HARM SUFFERED

I had no desire to live, no prospect of earning a living, no way to pay the bills. Retiree and Madoff fraud victim, as quoted in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law.

This quote exemplifies the voice of thousands recounting the personal and financial losses suffered when a trusted business advisor, professional, employee, business owner or other individual defrauds them. Psychiatrists Drs. Marilyn Price and Donna Norris wrote in their article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, white-collar criminals commit crimes that have victims whose lives are significantly affected and, at times, destroyed by these acts.3 However, there are academicians in law who downplay frauds underlying harm by removing the human element and labeling it a non-violent property crime. They have written extensively on the topic, advocating that white-collar criminals should receive more lenient sentences because of the crimes non-violent distinction, according to law professor Ellen Podgor of Stetson University.4

Yet, whats misleading about their argument is the assumption that only violent criminals inflict harm thats worthy of extensive punishment. In part, the harm that fraud victims incur is downplayed because the majority of the research on victimology has focused on conventional non-white-collar crimes.5

Thus the degree of perceived harm suffered by victims of white-collar crimes is compared to the harms suffered by victims of non-white-collar crimes because theyre the largely accepted conventional construction of crimes in the public conscience.6

White-collar crime is considered a special breed in the criminal justice system because theres a long history of perceived leniency for these criminals; many erroneously believe that white-collar crimes have no victims.7

Also, fraud offenses arent consistently included in crime victim surveys because criminologist might perceive that there are no visible victims, or the social harm is diluted among a number of people.8 Thus, fraud victims whose harm hasnt been captured by surveys would naturally appear to be victimless when compared to victims of non-white-collar crimes.

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White-Collar Crime Punishment - Fraud

Crime is a major part of every society. Its costs and effects touch just about everyone to some degree. The types of costs and effects are widely varied. In addition, some costs are short-term while others last a lifetime. Of course the ultimate cost is loss of life. Other costs to victims can include medical costs, property losses, and loss of income.

Losses to both victims and nonvictims can also come in the form of increased security expenses including stronger locks, extra lighting, parking in more expensive secure lots, security alarms for homes and cars, and maintaining guard dogs. Considerable money is spent to avoid being victimized. Other types of expenses can include a victim or person fearful of crime moving to a new neighborhood, funeral expenses, legal fees, and loss of school days.

Some costs of crime are less tangible (not easily or precisely identified). These kinds of costs can include pain and suffering, and a lower quality of life. There are also the traumatic impacts on friends and the disruption of family. Behavior can be forever changed and shaped by crime, whether it be weighing the risks of going to certain places or even the fear of making new friends.

Inmates led by a drill instructor at an Oregon correctional institution boot camp. About thirty states operate similar facilities, combining military-style workouts, strict discipline, and intensive substance abuse counseling. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Crime not only affects economic productivity when victims miss work, but communities also are affected through loss of tourism and retail sales. Even the so-called victimless crimes of prostitution, drug abuse, and gambling have major social consequences. Drug abuse affects worker productivity, uses public funds for drug treatment programs and medical attention, and leads to criminal activity to support the expenses of a drug habit.

Communities and governments spend public funds for police departments, prisons and jails, courts, and treatment programs, including the salaries of prosecutors, judges, public defenders, social workers, security guards, and probation officers. The amount of time spent by victims, offenders, their families, and juries during court trials also take away from community productivity. By the beginning of the twenty-first century it was estimated that the annual cost of crime in the United States was reaching upward toward $1.7 trillion.

Anderson, Elijah. Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Beckett, Katherine. Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Cook, Philip J., and Jens Ludwig. Gun Violence: The Real Costs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Felson, Marcus. Crime and Everyday Life. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1998.

Gray, Charles M., ed. The Costs of Crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1979.

Madriz, Esther. Nothing Bad Happens to Good Girls: Fear of Crime in Women's Lives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.

Skogan, Wesley G. Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral of Decay in American Neighborhoods. New York: Free Press, 1990.

Welsh, Brandon C., David P. Farrington, and Lawrence W. Sherman, eds. Costs and Benefits of Preventing Crime. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.

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Economic and Social Effects of Crime - Growing Interest In ...

A victimless crime is an activity that the government has decreed criminal even though there is no identifiable victim. A victimless crime is an activity that is performed by one or more consenting people, that causes no harm, injury or violation to anyone outside of the people performing the activity.

One example of a victimless crime is smoking marijuana at home by yourself. You are acting as an individual and no one else is harmed by your activity. Another example is prostitution. When two consenting adults engage in a sexual act in exchange for money, no one is harmed and no ones rights are violated. Nevertheless, the government has labeled these activities as crimes.

A real crime has an identifiable victim and is an activity performed by one or more people that causes harm, injury or violation to someone not voluntarily participating in the activity.

In contrast to the victimless crime examples above, if I jab a syringe of heroin into the back of my neighbor without asking him first, I have caused him harm without his consent; he was not a voluntary participant in the heroin injection. I have therefore committed a crime in every sense because I violated his right to be free from unwanted contact. Similarly, while prostitution involves the voluntary trade of sex for money, rape involves one person forcing involuntary sex upon another and therefore rape is a real crime.

A good universal rule to use when distinguishing between a victimless crime and real crime is Was the activity completely voluntary? For example, lets say I go to Home Depot, pick up a box of screws and walk out the door without paying. That activity was not completely voluntary. My side was voluntary I voluntarily took the box of screws. Home Depots side was not voluntary-Home Depot expects people to pay for items before removing them from the store, and did not consent to me removing the box of screws from the store without paying. I therefore committed a real crime.

Now lets say the government just passed a Nails Not Screws law that outlawed the use of screws because the hammer lobby was concerned about a decline in business. I then go to Home Depot, provide the obligatory secret handshake, and hand over $10 for my box of black-market screws and leave. Under the Was the activity completely voluntary standard, I have committed no real crime. I voluntarily gave Home Depot $10, and Home Depot voluntarily gave me a box of screws. No one was harmed or violated. In fact, Home Depot and I both have a net increase in happiness because I got the screws I wanted and Home Depot got the $10 it wanted. Unfortunately, due to the governments arbitrary law, both Home Depot and I have committed a crime, albeit a victimless crime.

Now that we have covered what a victimless crime is, I will discuss why victimless crimes are bad for society in the next post.

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What Is A Victimless Crime And How Is It Different From A ...

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In the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the victim of a hate crime may be an individual, a business/financial institution, a government entity, a religious organization, or society/public as a whole. In 2016, the nations law enforcement agencies reported that there were 7,615 victims of hate crimes. Of these victims, 106 were victimized in separate multiple-bias incidents.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, 18 U.S.C. 249 required the FBI to collect data concerning hate crimes committed by or directed against juveniles. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement began reporting the number of victims who are 18 years of age or older and the number of victims under the age of 18 in addition to reporting the number of individual victims. Of the 4,876 individuals for which victim age data were reported in 2016, 4,311 hate crime victims were adults, and 565 hate crime victims were juveniles.

In 2013, the national UCR Program began collecting revised race and ethnicity data in accordance with a directive from the U.S. Governments Office of Management and Budget. The race categories were expanded from four (White, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian or Other Pacific Islander) to five (White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander). The ethnicity categories changed from Hispanic and Non-Hispanic to Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. (See the Methodology for more information about this program change as well as others.)

An analysis of data for victims of single-bias hate crime incidents showed that:

Further examination of these bias categories showed the following details:

Among single-bias hate crime incidents in 2016, there were 4,426 victims of race/ethnicity/ancestry motivated hate crime.

Of the 1,584 victims of anti-religious hate crimes:

Of the 1,255 victims targeted due to sexual-orientation bias:

Of the 131 victims of gender-identity bias:

Of the 77 victims of hate crimes due to the offenders biases against disabilities:

Of the 36 victims of hate crime motivated by offenders biases toward gender:

Of the 7,615 victims of hate crime, 62.0 percent were victims of crimes against persons, and 36.9 percent were victims of crimes against property. The remaining 1.1 percent were victims of crimes against society.

In 2016, 4,720 victims of hate crimes were victims of crimes against persons. Regarding these victims and the crimes committed against them:

In 2016, 2,813 victims of hate crimes were victims of crimes against property. Of these:

There were 82 victims of hate crimes categorized as crimes against society. Crimes against society (e.g., weapon law violations, drug/narcotic offenses, gambling offenses) represent societys prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity; they are typically victimless crimes in which property is not the object.

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FBI Victims

Welcome to Immigrations Human Cost, a website that focuses on the fact that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

You can view archives from our original site by following the link in the navigation panel to the right.

Houston mother of five, Tina Davila (picured), was stabbed to death in 2008 when Timoteo Rios tried to hijack her SUV, but she refused to give up the keys because her 4-month-old baby was in the vehicle. The killer was identified by the surveillance tapes from the store near the crime and he quickly fled to Mexico.

He had been arrested earlier for marijuana possession but had not been deported. See my blog from the time, Whyd They Let Him Go? Previously Arrested Illegal Alien Kills Woman In Carjacking Attempt.

Now, more than two years later, the Mexican government has extradited Rios to be tried in Houston. Unfortunately, the extradition come with the usual Mexican requirement that the death penalty not be pursued by the prosecution.

The murder deprived five children of their loving mom, and that kind of pain never goes away. The kids are relieved that some justice may be at hand, but terrible memories are returning. The clip following is from KIAH-TV in Houston, Murder Suspect Faces Extradition.

Illegal immigrant extradited in Houston moms death, Houston Chronicle Blog, December 13, 2010

Tina Davilas youngest child, Kaylynn, was just 4 months old, a chubby-cheeked baby strapped snugly into a car seat, when her mother was stabbed to death fighting off a carjacker in the spring of 2008.

On Saturday, Davilas family will get together to celebrate Kaylynns third birthday. For Davilas older children, the birthday is a reminder of how much time has passed since their mother was buried at a cemetery on the citys east side.

Finally this weekend, her family members saw the main suspect in her murder, 26-year-old Timoteo Rios, extradited to Houston. And as grateful as they are that Rios will have to answer for Davilas death, the extradition has reopened old wounds.

I guess it just brings back too much pain and memories. I think my kids were having a hard time, said Eric Matt, 43, Davilas ex-husband and father of her three eldest children. Each one of them, it makes them angry. It makes them wonder why. With the holidays and everything, it just makes it really hard.

Davilas eldest daughter, 20-year-old Patricia Matt, said the extradition one year and four months after Rios arrest in Mexico brings some relief, but also has dredged up difficult memories. She said she recently saw the video of her mothers April 2008 murder, captured on a surveillance camera outside a Harris County cell phone store, on the news again.

The video shows Davila struggling with a suspect for her car keys before shes stabbed. Witnesses said she screamed, My baby, my baby! before stumbling into the store and collapsing. The carjackers left without taking the SUV, and Kaylynn was unharmed.

We have to go through all of these feelings again, said Patricia Matt, a nursing student who attends San Jacinto Community College. Were pretty much reliving what we first felt.

After Rios was charged with capital murder and fled to Mexico, his case became a high-profile example of problems with Immigration and Customs Enforcement screening at Harris Countys jails.

Rios, an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, had admitted to local law enforcement twice before the slaying that he was in the country illegally, but had not been deported, according to arrest and immigration records.

I just dont think its fair that you can come here without papers and get all of these tickets but not be deported, Eric Matt said. I dont understand why they didnt do anything way back then.

Since spring 2008, the Harris County Sheriffs Office and ICE have taken steps to increase screening at the local jail, which was the first site in the nation to participate in Secure Communities, a federal program that automatically checks inmates fingerprints against an immigration database. The county also participates in ICEs controversial 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to help ICE agents identify and detain suspected illegal immigrants in detention. Continue reading this article

In August 2007, three college students who were hanging out in a schoolyard were brutally attacked and shot to death by six MS-13 gangsters. Another young woman managed to survive, despite her terrible injuries, which have left her with facial paralysis to this day. The two women were raped and hacked with machetes.

See my report on the first trial First Newark Schoolyard Trial Gets Conviction.

One man, Melvin Jovel, confessed to being the only shooter, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Admitted triggerman in Newark schoolyard slayings receives three consecutive life terms plus 20 years, Newark Star-Ledger, November 4, 2010

Of the six young men who authorities say set upon a group of college friends behind a Newark schoolyard, fatally shooting three execution-style and leaving the fourth badly hurt, only one pulled the trigger.

The admitted gunman, Melvin Jovel, 21, was sentenced this morning to three consecutive life terms in prison plus 20 years.

Jovel had pleaded guilty in September to three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and weapons charges in the Aug. 4, 2007 attack behind Mount Vernon School.

Jovel said he alone shot in the head Terrance Aeriel, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harve. Moments later, he walked over to Natasha Aeriel, Terrances sister, and shot her in the head. Only Natasha Aeriel survived.

He tried to take my life. I dont even know what to say, Natasha Aeriel said in court, before Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin imposed his sentence. Aeriel, now 22, made several prayer readings and said she even thanked Jovel for allowing me to get closer to Christ.

She added, he tried to take my life. I dont even know what to say.

Jovel, who listened through a Spanish translator, said little except to tell the judge that one of the other co-defendants, Rodolfo Godinez, sentenced in July to identical counts, had nothing to do with the killings.

While noting that by pleading guilty Jovel spared the victims families another trial, Judge Ravin said he did not believe that was the defendants motivation. Ravin said of the defendant, He was the slaughterer. He was the executioner.

The brutality of the killings Hightower and Natasha Aeriel were sexually assaulted and attacked with a machete shocked the city and became a rallying cry for community groups and Mayor Cory Booker to end the gun violence that has plagued Newark for years.

The six defendants are said to be affiliated with MS 13, a violent Central American street gang.

Jovel is the second defendant to be convicted in the killing. Ravin had sentenced Godinez on the same counts, which under New Jersey law, adds up to 245 years in prison. A jury found Godinez guilty on all charges at his trial in May.

The remaining defendants, Jose Carranza, 31, Shahid Baskerville, 18, Gerardo Gomez, 18, and 20-year-old Alexander Alfaro who is Godinezs half-brother will be tried separately.

The current AP story about the sentencing notes that Jovel is an illegal alien, a fact that was strongly hinted in his first court appearance where he swore innocence:

Newark slay suspect pleads not guilty, Newark Star-Ledger, August 21, 2007

Jovel, who is from Honduras, told the judge he does not have a Social Security number or a green card, but his immigration status remains unclear, prosecutors said. A U.S. passport was found among his belongings when he was arrested Sunday night, but officials are still trying to determine whether the passport is valid, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Thomas A. McTigue said. Federal authorities have placed a detainer on Jovel because his status is uncertain, McTigue said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials participated in Jovels arrest, and a spokesman for the agency said it becomes involved when they suspect a person is in the county illegally.

Below, criminals Melvin Jovel, Jose Carranza and Rodolfo Godinez.

There are many tragic stories about the victims of illegal alien criminals, but it doesnt get much worse than the deaths of Leigh Anna Jimmerson, 16, and her boyfriend, Tad Mattle, 19. The couple died in a fiery crash in April 2009 when their car burst into flames after being struck by illegal alien Felix Ortega, who was drunk at three times the legal limit for Alabama.

The prosecutor put together a deal where Ortega pleaded guilty to two murders in return for a 15 year sentence and eligibility for parole in 12.5 years. It was acceptable to both families who presumably didnt want to go through a trial where the horrific details of their kids deaths would be brought out. Even so, the plea agreement seems weak punishment indeed for the preventable deaths of two young people with their whole lives ahead of them.

Tad Mattles mother to Felix Ortega: I hope every day you will think about them, Huntsville Times Blog, August 30, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL The mother of one of two Huntsville teens killed when illegal immigrant Felix Ortega slammed into their car in 2009 told him in court today that she hopes he thinks about their deaths every day.

Felix Ortega pleaded guilty this morning to two counts of murder for the traffic deaths of Tad Mattle and Leigh Anna Jimmerson and received a 15-year sentence as part of a plea agreement. Ortega entered the plea before Circuit Judge Dennis ODell for the April 17, 2009, crash that killed Grissom High School sophomore Leigh Anna Jimmerson, 16, and her boyfriend, Tad Mattle, 19, a 2008 Grissom graduate.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Whitesburg Drive and Airport Road, after Ortega had fled in his truck from a Huntsville police officer whod been called after Ortega hit another car in his apartment building parking lot.

Mattles Toyota burst into flames after the accident, but police have said the collision caused their deaths before the fire started. Prosecutors said Ortegas blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

After he was sentenced, Ortega, who had an interpreter in court helping translate the proceedings from English to Spanish, asked to address the teens families. The parents of both teens were in the courtroom and Ortega spoke to them in English.

I just want to say I never meant for this to happen, he said. I am really sorry for the pain I caused your family and my family. I just pray to God that you find it in your heart, so you can forgive me. I wish I could change it. Thats all.

Tad Mattles mother, Terri Mattle, then addressed Ortega, questioning whether he was breathing a sigh of relief when the teens parents would never see their children breathe again. She told him that both teens were beautiful and had their whole lives in front of them when he took them away. She questioned whether when he took that first drink that day he realized what would happen.

I hope everyday you will think about them, she said. Its not fair. We hurt everyday. It doesnt bring them back and it never will. [. . .]

[District Attorney Rob] Broussard said hes not concerned about public criticism of the plea agreement, given that the difference in Alabama law between reckless murder and reckless manslaughter can be a somewhat fuzzy standard for juries.

I dont worry about that as long as I know Im doing my duty and the most competent job I can in this county, Broussard said. With a guy like Felix Ortega, under these facts, its my duty to keep him off the streets for as long as I am able.

Broussard was asked how the sentence might affect the families and their suffering.

It is my experience that the families will always suffer the loss, no matter what the sentence, even if the defendant gets the death penalty, which was not an option in this case, he said. They will always have a hole in their hearts for that lost loved one. The plea agreement allowed us to avoid having to relive the horrible facts in this case.

Below is a remembrance video of Tad and Leigh Anna, celebrating their brief lives. Why didnt their country protect them from foreign criminals?

A stiff sentence was handed down to Jaime Alvarado, a serial drunk-driving twice-deported illegal alien, who killed Nashville businessman Robert Benn shortly after he arrived in Austin for a new job.

Benn was driving from the airport when his car was struck by the inebriated Alvarado as the Guatemalan was fleeing police because he feared being deported.

In a cruel coincidence for the family, Benns granddaughter was born a few hours before he was killed, so he never got to meet her. Robert Benn was 64 and had three children.

Repeat drunken driver gets 50 years for fatal wreck , Austin Statesman, September 15, 2010

A drunken driver who caused a fatal accident while fleeing police in East Austin last year was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday by a Travis County jury.

Jaime Bonilla Alvarado, 24, had pleaded guilty earlier in the week to murder in the death of Robert Benn, 64, an information technology consultant from Nashville, Tenn., who was in Austin on business.

Alvarado is a construction worker from Honduras who prior to the Aug. 31, 2009, crash had been convicted of drunken driving three times and deported twice. Some of Alvarados family members cried when the verdict was read in state District Judge Jim Coronados court.

After the verdict, Benns daughter Andrea McKee took the witness stand and told Alvarado that she often thinks of her fathers last moments, alone in a strange city. She told Alvarado that her daughter was born earlier the day of Benns death.

Benns wife, Sherrie Benn, said: I wanted justice for Bob. I think we got justice.

Alvarado faced from five years to life in prison. During closing arguments, his lawyer, Brad Urrutia, asked for 25 years.

He is remorseful, and he is repentant.

Prosecutor Erika Sipiora asked for 50 years. She noted that according to Alvarados testimony, he was warned four times the night of the crash not to drive drunk: by two store clerks, a friend and his wife.

For the second time in the trial, she showed video of the smoky crash, taken by a police officers dashboard camera.

Where on this video does it show that Jaime Alvarado was taking into consideration anyone but himself? she asked.

Earlier in the day, Alvarado took the stand and told the jury about his life. He said he grew up poor and received only an elementary school education in the small Honduran town of Santa Rita Yoro.

He said he first came to the United States in 2005, when he was 19, but was caught on his way to Houston and deported. He said he returned soon after and settled with his twin sister and two brothers in Austin.

All three of his DWI arrests were in East Austin in 2006 and 2007. He did not show up for court each time, and when he was finally arrested, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 80 days in jail. He was later convicted in federal court of illegal re-entry by a deported alien and was deported again.

Alvarado said he returned to the U.S. within a month of his deportation and worked as a construction worker. He testified that he worked on a house near Loop 360 on the day of the crash a Monday. He said that after work, he bought a 24-ounce Dos Equis beer, a 12-pack of Corona beer and a six-pack of Dos Equis. He drank most of the beer, he said, in a park and in his Lincoln Navigator near a disco on East Riverside Drive.

He was heading home when he drove north on Pleasant Valley Road past a police car and the officer noticed him speeding and playing loud music, according to testimony.

Alvarado did not stop, even though officer Christopher Geck turned on his lights and sirens attempting to make a traffic stop. Alvarado said he was afraid of being deported and ultimately decided he would try to drive home before being arrested so his SUV would not be impounded. [. . .]

Alvarado, who had a 0.20 blood alcohol level, 21/2 times the legal limit, suffered only minor injuries.

On August 1, a previously arrested drunk-driving illegal alien killed a nun, Denise Mosier (pictured left), and seriously injured two others. The alien, Carlos Martinelly Montano (pictured right), had twice been handed over to ICE for deportation, but had instead been released into the community pending a deportation hearing (occasions which have notably poor attendance among those invited).

A few days later, the Chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors, Corey Stewart requested information from ICE that would reveal how many illegal aliens are being released by the agency into the county and their crimes.

The rather surprising news is that ICE has agreed:

ICE Agrees to Release Illegal Immigrant Data to Virginia Official, Fox News, August 7, 2010

ICE contacted me this morning, with great news for Prince William County citizens. They have agreed to release to Prince William County the identities and final disposition of every convicted criminal illegal alien apprehended in Prince William County, Virginia and turned over to ICE through the countys 287(g) partnership, Stewart said in a statement.

Stewart said his countys police referred Carlos Martinelly Montano for deportation twice in the past after he served sentences for drunk driving convictions. But immigration officials released Montano, who allegedly killed Sister Denise Mosier and injured two other nuns in the Aug. 1 accident, on his own recognizance pending a deportation hearing.

Regardless of which side of the aisle youre on, or on this issue, we can all agree that if you are an illegal alien and youve committed a crime, that you should be deported afterward, Stewart told Fox News on Friday. But this guy had been twice handed over to immigration officials and twice released back into the community even though there was an immigration detainer on him. And of course hes gone right back out and committed the same crime and killed a nun.

This is good news if true. Dependable illegal alien crime statistics are normally hard to find and squishy. The government has routinely covered up, lied about and obfuscated the degree to which predatory foreign criminals have had their way in easy-going America. Authorities like to say they are pursuing the real bad guys, but recent history is replete with multiple cases of dangerous aliens arrested and released without being deported, with tragic results. (One crime that comes to mind is the preventable deaths of Tennesseeans Sean and Donna Wilson at the hands of a drunk-driving illegal who had been arrested 14 times without being deported.)

Some information about illegal alien crime is available, but mostly in limited quantities for local jurisdictions. For example in 2008 the Houston Chronicle did a fine investigative series on alien crime from researching the Harris County records of arrests and releases. The use of 287(g) which checks the status of arrested persons makes the number of aliens arrested available.

A recently released stat from ICEs home office is that 120,000 criminal aliens have been deported in the last three years,/a>. That number is only 40,000 per year, and doesnt count the crimes or classify them regarding violence and deaths. Whats needed is a true picture of the mayhem resulting from open borders and inadequate immigration law enforcement. Of course, all working aliens are job thieves (and may use a stolen Social Security number, a felony), which is not an insignificant crime during this employment depression.

Statistics are lifeless artifacts, which is why I have focused on the individual stories of crime victims for ImmigrationsHumanCost.org, but numeric information is required to develop adequate enforcement policy.

Anyway, the video below has more about Supervisor Stewarts success in getting ICE to reveal local statistics, particularly the number of dangerous foreigners released instead of deported. Obviously the death of Sister Denise Mosier indicates the Obama gang is no more serious about criminal alien enforcement than previous administrations.

From the sanctuary city of Houston: Shatavia Anderson, a 14-year-old girl, was shot in the back and killed by a Salvadoran illegal alien and his Honduran associate, apparently just to rob her.

Suspect in fatal shooting of teen was deported twice, Houston Chronicle, August 12, 2010

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old Houston girl was an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who previously was deported twice by immigration officials, authorities said.

Melvin Alvarado, 22, was convicted of two separate intoxicated driving offenses in Harris County in 2006 and 2007, criminal records show. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail in connection with the last arrest in November 2007.

Gregory Palmore, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said immigration officials removed Alvarado from the country in April 2008 and again in May 2009.

Palmore said it was unclear from his records whether Alvarado was picked up directly from Harris County Jail after the last intoxicated driving conviction.

The second suspect in the fatal shooting of Shatavia Anderson on Saturday, Jonathan Lopez-Torres, 18, was a lawful permanent resident from Honduras, Palmore said. Harris County records show Lopez-Torres was arrested and accused of auto theft in February 2009. That charge was later dismissed.

The two suspects allegedly saw Anderson as merely a target of opportunity for an armed robbery, Houston police homicide detectives said Wednesday.

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Immigration's Human Cost - human consequences of open ...

Many criminological theories often struggle with explaining why people of status commit crimes when, seemingly, they do not need to. There are several schools of thought on this. The Chicago School and The Bell Curve theories support the idea that crimes are committed by those who live in run down areas who are generally poor. These individuals tend to have a low IQ. These theories clearly do not support why high status individuals commit offences.

Classic criminological theories date back to the 1700s, specifically the work of Cesare Beccarias On Crimes and Punishments (1764). Firstly, he states that crime occurs when the benefits outweigh the costs and secondly, when people pursue self-interest in the absence of effective punishments. Although this is very early on in the development of criminological theories, there are clearly aspects of Beccarias theory that may help to explain why all people, including the powerful, commit crimes. Therefore, it can be cogently argued that a person of status and in a position of power is tempted to commit serious offences of dishonesty because the reward is great and often outweighs the cost, potential punishment and the diminished possibility of being caught.

However, in recent years, Law enforcement agencies and the courts have changed. There is more energy in prosecuting these offenders because of the true impact of their crimes on society. For example the Ponzi fraud scheme or the case of Michael Milken who paid $650 million in court-ordered restitution before he was even sentenced is a good illustration of the changing attitude towards these types of crimes. This in itself continues to beg the question, why do they do it when they have so much to lose? It appears that the two aforementioned points from Beccarias work do in fact fail to explain the causes or suggest the prevention of these offences, however, he does assert that crime is a free-willed choice of the party committing the offence, which is relevant to any person committing a crime, including powerful individuals.

Beccaria also supported the notion of rational punishment, whereby the punishment should be proportionate to the offence committed, whilst being served promptly and effectively. He believed this would be an appropriate deterrent to anyone who thinks about committing a crime or reoffending (known as recidivism). Although this seems fairly rudimentary and conservative, one must bear in mind that these powerful individuals are usually intellectual people who have spent years working to achieve such a status. Consequently, it can be argued that they would not need extreme punishment in order to deter these types of offences being committed and therefore as long as there is an expectation of punishment, (often a custodial sentence) that should be enough to prevent the majority from committing these offences. On the other hand, it could be submitted that rich and powerful people may sometimes have an attitude of being above the law and untouchable. Therefore, a harsher punishment with aims of exemplifying the criminals behaviour as unacceptable may be more effective as a deterrent to others. In summary, it may be said that a mixture of more robust law enforcement policies, harsher punishments by the court and the announcement of crime (irrespective of the status of the offender) does not pay, may reduce recidivism.

Edwin Sutherland has long been regarded as a criminological theorist determined to understand white-collar crime, why individuals commit this crime, and the impact these crimes have on the community as a whole. Simply, Sutherland knew that other criminological theories, namely that criminals come from broken homes in impoverished areas, would not stack up when attempting to understand the conundrum of white-collar crime. He noted that many of the law breakers in business were far from poor, but were from happy family backgrounds and all mentally sound. Sutherland makes interesting points in his work, one of which emphasises how moral and ethical codes can become lost in grey areas where the boundaries of right and wrong become hard to distinguish. For example, he explains that these crimes can be justified by others and be categorised as good business ethics, which appears to take the malice out of the act. Yet, regardless of how you try to dress-up or play-down these acts, they are in fact criminal offences and they are not victimless crimes. Furthermore, Sutherland stresses the impact that these crimes have on society as a whole, which according to his research, is large-scale anger and discontent with not only the offender, but at authorities in general who seemingly have failed to prevent these methodical crimes.

The fact surely must be that persons in positions of power have more opportunity (through social status, better education) to commit high value crime with little realistic prospect of being caught and genuinely (but foolishly) believe that there are no victims to their crimes. This mind-set creates a perfect incentive to commit offences by high status individuals.

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Why the Rich and Powerful Commit Crimes. | kdizaei

NEW YORK CITY -- By 2013, the Big Apple's ATM operators were in crisis. According to industry sources, an estimated four to five automated teller machines fell victim to robberies once a week. That number would often jump to multiple robberies a day. As overall crime decreased to record lows in New York City, robberies of ATMs were incongruously soaring to new heights. Even for the city that never sleeps, this was a profoundly distressing pattern.

Jim Shrayef of Everything ATM (Brooklyn, NY) told Vending Times that the robberies took various forms. These included simply removing a freestanding ATM, using a handtruck, from a location during business hours, to well-coordinated efforts that saw machines yanked out of locations with a chain or rope. In several instances, the criminals attacked closed stores, breaking in with the specific purpose of robbing the ATM. Most disturbing, he said, were robberies of route personnel filling machines. Aside from the robberies, there was also a fair amount of vandalism taking place.

Shrayef operates equipment through Everything ATM, which also provides consulting services and support material to those entering the cash machine field. He found the stealing and crime situation particularly alarming. "These were not random attacks, and this was not stealing lunch money," he said. "They were specialized criminals who saw ATMs as easy targets."

Local police were initially less than responsive in the face of the crime wave, often only taking a report without a follow-up investigation. Sometimes suspicion would fall on the ATM operator or location owner. Part of the problem was the age-old view among law enforcement and the general public that ATM robberies, like those of vending machines, were so-called "victimless crimes." As such, they were given low priority status.

The solution came when Shrayef began organizing independent operators to address the problem. Forming the Northeast Regional ATM Association, which unified ATM deployers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The concept behind the new association was not only to create a means of sharing information, but also to offer a way to lobby locally.

A first step for the new association was to educate ATM operators in best practices when it came to safety and security. This begins with identifying suspicious behavior and obtaining details of a robbery. The regional organization, which works osely with the much larger National ATM Council, also began lobbying the New York Police Department, eventually landing meetings with community affairs officers

Calling All Cars

Shrayef recalled that the initial meetings with the New York Police Department were often less than pleasant. "We thought it was going to be just a formality," he said. "And some of the operators made angry comments to the officers. However, our complaints worked their way up to Police Commissioner William Bratton, and he lent an ear. He actually sent people out to do some fact finding."

Bratton's investigation discovered what equipment owners and operators had long suspected: ATM robberies were not random. Neither were they "inside jobs" committed by operators or storeowners. They were the work of organized criminal gangs operating throughout New York City's five boroughs.

"Commissioner Bratton took the time to hear what we had to say," Shrayef said. "And he understood how dangerous it was. He understood how our industry is necessary to neighborhoods underserved by banks." In many New York neighborhoods, an ATM that goes out of service at the local grocery store can prove disruptive for the storeowner and the community at large. The ATM crime spree represented a quality of life issue.

A police taskforce was formed that soon led to arrests. Robbery incidents of ATMs began to drop quickly once the NYPD took action and allocated resources to the problem. "After some arrests were made, it was clear these were gangs that had knowledge of the industry," Shrayef explained. "The criminals also realized the police were on to them, and they were taking a major risk by robbing ATMs. Within a year, there was a marked drop from the height of 2013, and within two years a major improvement."

Present incidents of ATM robberies, as Shrayef reported, have dropped dramatically from the 2013 highs of several a week to one or two a month throughout the city. "Some months have been completely robbery free," he added.

While Bratton may have left office in 2016, his successor, Commissioner James O'Neill, has kept up the proactive approach that has seen ATM robberies drop to new low levels that reflect the city's historic low crime rate. And all it took was a group of dedicated operators who wanted their voices heard.

TEAMWORK CONTINUES: George Sarantopoulos (l.), chairman of the National ATM Council, Jim Shrayef (second from l.), president of the Northeast Regional ATM Association, and Danny Frank (r.), NRATMA's executive director, meet with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill, who succeeded Bill Bratton last year.

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Operators Join Forces With Law Enforcement, Driving Down ATM Crimes In New York City - Vending Times

Fake designer clothes and bogus perfume were among a staggering 250,000 counterfeit haul seized at Glen Park Market in Ingoldmells .

Amongst the items were: Adidas trainers, Superdry jackets, The North Face coats, Hermes bags, Chanel perfumes and watches.

The swoop was part of a joint operation between Lincolnshire Trading Standards, Lincolnshire Police, Immigration Enforcement, Brand Enforcement UK, Surelock, WRi, Adidas Group, REACT UK, IPMS, Cath Kidston and Deckers, alongside the market management .

Emma Milligan, principal trading standards officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: By working together with the market management and the local neighbourhood policing teams to tackle these sellers, we are sending out a strong message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

Lincolnshire Police Sergeant Kathryn Odlin said: This enforcement is a fantastic example of successful partnership working to investigate the counterfeit world.

The raids took place following intelligence from our partners and we hope it will remind people that fakes are illegal and will not be tolerated.

People often see selling knock-offs as a victimless crime, but buying fakes may help to line the pockets of criminals which can often fund more sinister crimes.

Graham Mogg from the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, added: The large scale availability of counterfeit goods at markets, as weve seen today, seriously undermines legitimate businesses and in turn impacts on the UKs ability to grow the economy through creativity and innovation.

A multi-agency collaborative approach is the only way that we can effectively undermine this criminal activity and to that end we are extremely grateful for the time, effort and professional approach by all the partners involved to tackle this problem.

Investigations are ongoing.

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250000 of fake goods seized at Glen Park Market in Ingoldmells - Lincolnshire Today

Fifty cases of shoplifting in the Dudley borough were reported to police in May, and that is compared to 24 in the Walsall borough.

In Sandwell there were 39 and in Wolverhampton 33. Meanwhile, in Solihull, there were just 18 offences. The figures, from a Freedom of Information Act request to West Midlands Police force, by the Lib Dems do not surprise traders in Dudley.

Mohammed Sagir, chairman of the Voice of Dudley Businesses, said about the new figures released: It is a subject which is raised increasingly by members. There are CCTV cameras all around Dudley, but too often we report crimes, get a reference number and then do not hear anything more, Mr Sagir added.

We want confidence that these people doing it are getting caught.

Mr Sagirs shop, which he wishes not to name, was targeted last month. A 500 Samsung S7 was taken during the incident. He said of how the offence was committed: They came in and they snatched the phone before getting in a get-away car.

I passed the CCTV on to the police, but havent heard anything since.

That was in January.

West Midlands Police did charge 561 in connection with shoplifting offences over the same month.

Sixty six others received a caution during the same period.

For those reported crimes where the value was reported to the police, 24 incidents were for 1 items. The highest value item stolen in a raid was 1,400.

Chief Superintendent Keith Fraser, force lead for business crime, said: Some people think of shoplifting as being a victimless crime but the impact it has on everyone should not be underestimated. In addition to the actual cost, these offences can have a detrimental and long-lasting impact on staff who work in shops and stores, the economy and also communities.

We are involved in a number of initiatives to target shoplifters in the West Midlands, including retail radio schemes which link officers with shopkeepers, shop security marking goods with invisible ink to help trace stolen goods and a robust offender management programme. We also put those found guilty through the courts.

We continue to work with the local business community and the Police and Crime Commissioner as part of a business crime partnership. This follows a force-wide consultation which has recently taken place to get views and opinions from the local business community.

The partnership gives us a strong voice. We take this crime seriously and will work with businesses and others to prevent and detect offences.

Earlier this year, a prolific thief, Gavin Garratt, who is 29, was jailed for 18 months after going on a shoplifting spree in Dudley town centre. He struck nine times in two months all in stores from which he had been outlawed taking food, cosmetics and even pens to feed his drug habit.

It started on January 5 and continued until his arrest on March 1 a period of almost two months.

CCTV was used to prosecute the criminal by the authorities.

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Postcode lottery for shops scared of theft | Express & Star - expressandstar.com

A photo of the suspect. (Photo: Surrey RCMP)

GUILDFORD Surrey RCMP hope the public can help them identify a suspect in an attempted bank robbery.

Police say on May 5 shortly after 11 a.m., a man entered a bank in Guildford, in the 10400-block of 152nd Street.

According to police, the man handed a teller a note demanding cash but for some unknown reason quickly left the bank empty handed.

The suspect is described as a Caucasian man in his late 20s, 160 pounds, five feet four inches tall, with blond hair.

At the time, the suspect was wearing black pants, clog-style plastic shoes, a reflective vest, a zip up fleece jacket, and a white and black Nike baseball cap.

Police say the suspect also has a tattoo on the left side of his neck, and on his wrists and fingers.

Surrey RCMPs Robbery Unit is leading this investigation.

If you recognize this man, call your local police right away, said Corporal Scotty Schumann. Bank robberies are not victimless crimes, as, staff can be traumatized by these events.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502.

If they wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or solvecrime.ca.

A photo of the suspect. (Photo: Surrey RCMP)

A photo shows the suspects tattoo. (Photo: Surrey RCMP)

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PHOTOS: Help Surrey RCMP ID suspect in attempted bank robbery ... - Surrey Now-Leader

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DENVER -- Colorado's crime rate went up 5.5 percent in one year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The 2016 Crime in Colorado Reportshows the number of major crimes that were reported, includinghomicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, other (simple) assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

There were increases in every category, with notable upticks in the number of homicides, rapes and aggravated assaults.

The category that saw the biggest increase wasmotor vehicle theft, which went up 22 percent in one year.

(Colorado Bureau of Investigation)

As the overall crime rate went up 5.5 percent, the number of arrests went up 0.4 percent. With 203,765 major crimes reported, there were56,430 arrests.

There were 155 arrests made for homicides compared to 189 reports.

For rape, assault and auto theft, the number of arrests is significantly lower than the number of incidents reported, according to the report.

In 2016, there were 480 rape arrests compared to 3,512 reports; there were23,504 assault arrests compared to 46,833 reports; and there were 2,705 auto theft arrests compared to 19,430 reports.

Police say an increase in vehicle thefts helps fuel other crimes. Most of the vehicle thefts -- 4,784 -- happened in Denver, followed by Colorado Springs (2,062), Aurora (1,538), Pueblo (1,169) and Lakewood (1,010).

"So often we think of auto theft as kids out joyriding, a victimless crime. We are seeing all these serious violent crimes involved with auto theft," said Carole Walker with Coloradans Against Auto Theft.

"So as we are seeing an increase in drug trafficking, opioid use, gun involvement."

She said eventually motor vehicle theft drives up costs for everyone.

"It's contributing to what we pay for car insurance. It really is something we want to engage the public on," Walker said. "We want them to see these numbers and do everything they can to not make selves an easy target."

On Nov. 19, Kole Silz said surveillance video captured a thief stealing his customized F-250 from underneath his nose at work in Wheat Ridge.

"I couldn't really believe it, until I looked at the cameras," he said.

Silz, who ended up finding his truck on his own a month later, now has it alarmed to the hilt.

"Once the truck is armed, if you touch it, it sets the alarm off," he said.

The thief had spray-painted over a blue stripe on the truck to disguise it and put about 1,000 miles on it in one month.

"They could have been running drugs or maybe using my truck to steal another truck with a trailer. I definitely think it was not for driving around," he said.

Walker said people can avoid being a victim by doing common sense things, including locking vehicles, not letting it run when it's vacant not leaving a spare key in it and parking it in well-lit, well-traveled areas.

The 2016 Crime in Colorado report includes statewide crime statistics reported by 244 law enforcement agencies across the state.

The report provides statistics on major crime trends, but the CBI does notoffer analysis as to the reasons for changes in the crime rates.

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Murder, rape, assault, vehicle theft rates up in Colorado | FOX31 ... - FOX31 Denver

Chad James Eckel

A North Branch man was among a group of people charged as a result of two-day sex trafficking sting conducted by the Anoka County Sheriffs Office last month. Chad James Eckel, 31, made his first court appearance on the charge June 30. His bail was set at $5,000 with conditions or $50,000 with no conditions. According to the Anoka County Sheriffs Office website, Eckel was released July 1 after posting bail. Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter said one of the conditions of his release was that he have no contact with anyone under 18 years of age. His next court appearance is July 24. According to a press release from the Anoka County Attorneys Office, a total of 19 people were arrested in the sting, and the office has levied charges against 11 of them. Six more cases are under review by the office, and charges are likely. The defendants were arrested after soliciting sex acts from undercover officers who were posing as children. Each defendant is charged with one felony count of electronic solicitation of a child (engage in sexual communication). Earlier this week, law enforcement from multiple agencies executed a well-organized initiative targeting those with desires to prey upon the youth of our community, said Paul Young, chief of the Anoka County Attorneys Office Criminal Division. Simply stated, this will not be tolerated. Kudos to all of the law enforcement experience and labor channeled for this investigation. While this investigation and these crimes did not involve any real children, we know these are not victimless crimes. This type of crime predatory conduct in search of exploiting children has no geographic boundary and impacts our whole community.

Criminal sexual conduct charge Eckel was charged in Chisago and Hennepin counties with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony, in October 2015 related to an incident where he allegedly touched a girl under the age of 13 an act that included sexual penetration. However, prosecution has not moved forward on those charges. In December 2016, counsel for the defendant made a motion in the Chisago County matter to examine the defendants competency to stand trial, Reiter said. The defendant was found incompetent to stand trial in both the Hennepin County and Chisago County matters earlier this year. By rule, the prosecution of these matters is suspended. Prosecution may be reinitiated with a new evaluation of his competency. The Anoka County charge could lead to a reassessment of Eckels competency to stand trial. With the new charges in Anoka County, there will likely be additional reviews of the Mr. Eckels mental and cognitive status, Reiter said.

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NB man charged in sex trafficking sting - ECM Post Review

Since being arrested for possession of stimulant drugs on June 2, it is assumed that 30-year-old actor Ryo Hashizumes career is over. As Mark Schilling wrote in the June 15 Japan Times, Hashizumes latest film, in which he played a supporting role, was pulled from theaters. It reopened June 17, but with Hashizumes scenes deleted. For all intents and purposes, he had become a nonperson in show business.

And I mean that literally. Owing to the way drug busts are covered in the media, anyone even accused of using illegal substances is presented as not just a criminal, but something subhuman. This idea was established in the 1980s with an anti-drug public service announcement that used the slogan, Ningen yamemasu ka?, meaning, Will you stop being a person? By taking drugs, that is.

Media critic Chiki Ogiue mentioned the campaign on his Session-22 radio show back in January.

But do you stop being a person when you have cancer? he asked rhetorically, emphasizing that drug addiction should be treated as a disease rather than as a mortal sin. The stigma is built into the vocabulary used to talk about people with drug habits. Invariably, those who have kicked their habits through whatever means have been corrected (ksei), a word that stresses incarceration, whereas Ogiue thinks a better verb is recover (kaifuku), as if from an illness.

But ksei represents the reality in that drug convictions lead to time in prison rather than time in hospitals, and prisons arent designed to cure addicts of their dependencies. The radio show and other sources mention that in Japan, more than 60 percent of those who do time for drug crimes end up being rearrested for drug crimes after they get out of jail.

The public thinks drug users deserve hard punishment because drug use is seen as a lapse in moral rectitude that can have a bad effect on the community. Ogiue thinks the opposite is actually the case; that downplaying a drugs health-abating properties can make the drug attractive to certain people.

For these reasons, Ogiue, working with experts, former addicts and listeners of his program, came up with guidelines for the media when covering drug-related stories, since such coverage will affect addicts in treatment programs and their supporters, including families. The media should always stress that drug use is an illness requiring treatment rather than a crime that needs to be punished. It should incorporate coverage of people who give and receive such treatment, including recovering addicts. It should also show links between drugs and social problems, such as poverty and abuse, whenever applicable.

More significantly, the guidelines tell reporters what to avoid, including images of white powder and syringes, comments that express disappointment in the accused as either a person or a professional, extreme coverage using helicopters or hidden cameras, suspicion of drug use as the basis for a scoop and creating beautiful stories out of anecdotes of drug recovery with the help of loved ones.

For these efforts, Ogiues show received The Galaxy Grand Prix Award for excellence in broadcasting, though, given the usual overblown tone of the Hashizume coverage, those efforts dont seem to have had the desired effect yet.

In fact, the authorities seem to be moving in a progressive direction faster than the media is. On another radio show, Bunka Hosos (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting) June 13 edition of Golden Radio, writer Maki Fukasawa reviewed Ogiues guidelines and talked about how the government was now considering switching the impetus of drug sentencing from punishment to treatment in line with other countries approaches. Recently, Japans judicial system has expanded its use of suspended sentences for certain crimes. In the case of drug offenses, convicted persons spend part of their sentence in prison and part in a recovery program. The main purpose of the new law is to prevent repeat offenses, and as Fukasawa points out, the program will also need to ensure that ex-offenders can secure jobs once they are back out in the world, since unemployment is a strong incentive for falling back into a drug habit.

That includes show-business people. Fukasawa used the example of Robert Downey Jr., who was a serious drug addict at one point and even did jail time for his habit. He eventually got sober and is now one of the highest paid actors in the world, but as Fukasawa said, that couldnt happen in Japan because the media would never allow the public to forget about his drug use.

What Fukasawa didnt mention is that while Downeys career has been rehabilitated in the U.S., he is still persona non grata in Japan. Some years ago when he came here to promote one of his Iron Man movies, immigration officers detained him for six hours because of his felony drug conviction. Eventually, he was allowed in, but hes never been back since.

Drug convictions leave an indelible mark, and while the Japanese media perpetuates the stigma due to its proclivity for sensationalism, its the law and the rationale behind the law that creates the stigma in the first place. In his quest to change media behavior, Ogiue makes the age-old argument that personal drug use does not directly harm anyone else, but he doesnt go so far as to say that drug possession is a victimless crime. The victim is the user and, by extension, his or her family.

Given the examples he used, Ogiue was obviously talking about methamphetamines, but he doesnt distinguish between stimulant drugs and other kinds, because the police dont either. (There are different laws for stimulants and for narcotics, but no appreciable difference in how theyre prosecuted.)

Marijuana users in Japan are also branded as criminals, but can they also be described as being ill? In many countries now, pot itself is used to treat certain medical conditions. The demonization of drug users is a function of the demonization of recreational drugs, regardless of whether or not they lead to addiction.

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Once a drug user in Japan, always an outcast - The Japan Times

Calgary police say they've apprehended 11 youth who were being sexually exploited so far this year and helped another 11 adults exit the sex trade.

The statistics for the first half of 2017 are not up significantly from the same time last year, but Staff Sgt. Jason Walker said the numbers only scratch the surface of what's actually going on in the city.

"These activities are beyond under-reported. They are, by their very nature, intentionally suppressed and hidden," Walker said Wednesday in a release.

"Victims are often reluctant to self-identify or seek helpand, in some cases, research indicates that many cannot self-identify, as they are vulnerable and limited in their capacity to recognize that they are in fact being trafficked and sexually exploited to begin with."

He said human trafficking and sexual exploitation remainhigh priorities for the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

In the summer, especially,with more people outdoors and in public places, police are nowasking the public for assistance in "recognizing potential signs" of victims being exploited.

Police said victims often don't speak English, are kept isolated or guarded when in public and may be coached by others when they are responding to questions.

Victims may also be unaware of what city they are in and be scared to seek help because they fear it will bring harm to themselves or their families. They may even try to protect their traffickers from being detected, as they develop loyalties toward them as a coping mechanism.

"The illicit elements of the sex trade are not victimless crimes," Walker said.

Traffickers cannot claim ignorance of an exploited victim's age to avoid being charged with child sexual exploitation, he added.

For adults looking to exit the sex trade, theCPS Prostitution Exit Initiativeoffers immediate help and is available by calling 403-428-8585.

Anyone with information about human trafficking activity is asked to call police at 403-266-1234.

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Calgary police ask for help in identifying potential victims of sexual ... - CBC.ca

Washington, D.C. -Illegal immigrant crime is facing new opposition with the launch of the Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime (AVIAC).

The group was founded by Mary Ann Mendoza and Don Rosenberg, who both lost their children to illegal immigrant felons. The founders are joined by more Americans whose children and loved ones have been killed by illegal immigrants. AVIAC aims to be a resource for victims of illegal alien crimes, such as assault and battery, identity theft and rape; the organization also seeks to serve families of these victims.

Representative Steve King (R-IA) is one of the organizations strongest advocates, promising to push legislation such as Sarah's Lawand KatesLaw. Rep. King is a proponent of strong immigration policy and was the keynote speaker at AVIACs launch event. He cited a heavy amnesty time period under President Ronald Reagan:

In 1986, Ronald Reagan was honest. He called his legislation amnesty. Now, they just call it comprehensive immigration reform. We know it means amnesty...I thought he would veto it [amnesty] because I thought he understood that we have to uphold the rule of law.

Were on the cusp of restoring the rule of law, he said on the new administration.

Rep. King rightfully pointed out the sad truth that is often untold about illegal immigrant crimes: that each and every one is avoidable.

Every one of those lives that have been snuffed out by someone who is unlawfully in America, illegal aliens, is a preventable death, he said.

Rep. King brought up that although illegal immigrants commit more crimes than American citizens, the most crucial offense is executed on arrival by illegal immigrants. Coming to America illegally is a federal crime. He criticized Democrats for overlooking the immigration problem, and using it for political capital.

Hillary Clinton would fast track citizenship to anyone who would vote as a Democrat, King said.

Attendees of the event had the opportunity to hear from the families who lost their children and loved ones at the hand of illegal immigration. The group gathered from across the country, from California to Massachusetts, in support of the same cause, and with losing loved ones in common.

Michelle Root, who lost her daughter Sarah, who is the namesake of Sarahs Law, spoke to the support aspect of AVIAC:

When my daughter Sarah was killed last year, I wish I had an organization like this to turn to...AVIAC is important to me and the rest of the families standing here today, and many Americans...because we share the same grief. All of our loved ones would still be here today if it werent for the person who was here illegally.

We stand here today to speak truth, standing up for loved ones we lost, for other victims who have been silenced and for future generations of Americans who deserve to be safe and secure, she added.

The rest of the families shared their stories and passion for taking action on illegal immigration. The unique variety of tragic stories and diversity of the group proved that everyone is affected by illegal alien crime; and illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

Watch the launch video for Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime here:

Kate's Law Passes House

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"These Deaths Are Preventable:" Grieving Families Join Together To ... - Townhall

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AUSTIN (KXAN) A three-month long surveillance operation of a 53-year-old man suspected of running an illegal gambling ring in the Austin area culminated in his arrest by SWAT officers in Hutto on Monday.

The Austin Police Departments Human Trafficking/Vice Unit began their surveillance of Chong Pak in late January 2017 and, after several search warrants at various game rooms and the cooperation of people involved, detectives were able to identify Pak as the alleged owner of the operation.

On Monday, APD and Williamson County SWAT teams searched Paks home in the 1200 block of Augusta Bend in Hutto. Detectives say they found several documents linking Pak to illegal gaming operations.

They seized $724,736 in cash, believed to be income from the game rooms, three vehicles worth $94,550 and around $7,500 in gold and silver ingots, similar to gold bars.

Pak has been charged with first-degree felony money laundering and a state jail felony for engaging in organized crime. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Troy Officer, commander of the APD Organized Crime Unit, says there are about 80 illegal game rooms operating in Austin. Just one small game room can make at least $1.2 million a year, he said.

Anyone who says these game rooms are a victimless crime and people are willingly taking part in this, have no idea what the ultimate pocket is for the illegal activity, Cmdr. Officer said, estimating the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash confiscated from Paks home is just a drop in the bucket.

The commander says game rooms are a breeding ground for robberies and violent crimes, and he wants to put their operators on notice. We may not get you today. We may not get you tomorrow, but we will get you, we will put you in jail, and we will come after your money and take what you covet most about doing these operations: your illegal games.

Cmdr. Officer says the money could be used for anything from financing drugs to terrorism. He says Paks game rooms were strictly running 8-liner machines, which are video slot machines.

The police department saying illegal gaming operations are bringing in millions of dollars every month citywide. Cmdr. Officer says theyve arrested around nine suspects related to Paks operation leading up to the arrest of the alleged ringleader himself. Investigators believe he owns six to eight game rooms and leases the machines for many of the other game rooms in the city, located in warehouses, homes or storefronts.

Police still consider this to be an active investigation and, with the help of the Internal Revenue Service, they expect to issue additional search and arrest warrants.

Heather Crawford lives two doors down from Paks home in Hutto. Its real quiet, everyone kinda keeps to themselves but everyone is real friendly with each other, Crawford said.

That quiet turned to a bit of chaos Monday morning for her and her family.

We heard another explosion and it shook the house and we thought, Oh my goodness whats going on? So my husband came outside to the front porch and he saw the police, he saw guns drawn. It was scary. Crawford said.

When the family found out hours later what the raid was for, Crawfords gut feeling kicked in.

Weve always kind of been suspicious of maybe illegal activities going on in the house, she said. There were always a lot of cars parked in the area and a lot of cars coming and going.

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Alleged leader of Austin gambling operation faces up to life in prison ... - KXAN.com

Rhona Vessey, 50, claimed she 'could only walk 20 metres without getting out of breath'

A BENEFITS cheat who swindled more than 6,000 by claiming she could barely walk was caught out after appearing with a marching band.

Rhona Vessey, 50, said her physical impairments meant she could only walk 20 metres without getting out of breath and could not carry a shopping bag.

SWNS:South West News Service

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But after receiving a tip-off, investigators carried out undercover surveillance and saw Vessey marching as a drummer with the band on three separate occasions.

She had fraudulently claimed for6,251.04 in disability benefits between October 3, 2014 and October 26, 2015.

Vessey, of Little Eaton, Derbys, admitted one count of fraud and was handed a ten-week community order at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court yesterday.

District Judge Jonathan Taaffe said: This is not a victimless crime because there is no bottomless pit of money that people can fraudulently claim from.

You claimed benefits you were not entitled to and the reality is that society and the courts take a serious view on crimes like this.

You made the claim and then participated in marching activities with others.

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Prosecutor Lynn Bickley said: We say this was a claim that was dishonest from the outset.

She made the claim saying she was virtually unable to walk, needed attention to her leg three times during the day and prolonged attention during the night.

In her claim she said she could only walk between 20 and 50 metres without getting out of breath.

She said often she could not go outside her front door, or go to shops and supermarkets on her own.

She said she could often not use shopping bags and felt anxious if people looked at her when she was outside.

But information was received that she was a member of a marching band and regularly took part in lengthy and complex marching routines.

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Miss Bickley said investigators for the Department for Work and Pensions went to investigate Vessey and used secret cameras to catch her playing in the Derby Midshipmen Band.

She said: The result of the surveillance was that on three occasions she was observed marching in the band with a drum strapped to her shoulder and there were no limitations on her mobility.

Judge Taaffe ordered that she pay 85 costs, an 85 victim surcharge and handed her a ten-week curfew, confining her to her address between 7pm and 7am each day.

Peter Jones, defending, said Vessey had lost her husband relatively recently and is currently jointly claiming employment support allowance with her new partner.

He said: This is a lady that feels great shame that she before the court.

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A benefits cheat rom Derby who said she "was virtually unable to walk" was caught out - when it was discovered she was a drummer in a marching band.

Rhona Vessey told the Department of Work and Pensions "could only walk 20 metres without getting out of breath" and "felt anxious if people looked at her" when she was out.

The 50-year-old, of Little Eaton, also said she often "could not carry a shopping bag" because of her physical impairments.

But, following a tip-off from a member of the public, investigators carried out undercover surveillance on Vessey and on three occasions watched as she banged a drum with the marching band.

Handing her a 10-week community order, District Judge Jonathan Taaffe said: "This is not a victimless crime because there is no bottomless pit of money that people can fraudulently claim from.

"You claimed benefits you were not entitled to and the reality is that society and the courts take a serious view on crimes like this.

"You made the claim and then participated in marching activities with others."

Lynn Bickley, prosecuting at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court said Vessey submitted a benefits claim on October 3, 2014 and continued receiving money, which totalled 6,251.04, until October 26 the following year.

Our reporter with the case details:

She said: "We says this was a claim that was dishonest from the outset.

"She made the claim saying she was virtually unable to walk, needed attention to her leg three times during the day and prolonged attention during the night.

"In her claim she said she could only walk between 20 and 50 metres without getting out of breath.

"She said often she could not go outside her front door, or go to shops and supermarkets on her own.

"She said she could often not use shopping bags and felt anxious if people looked at her when she was outside.

"But information was received that she was a member of a marching band and regularly took part in lengthy and complex marching routines."

Miss Bickley said investigators for the DWP went to spy on Vessey, of Church Lane, to see if the allegations were founded.

She said: "The result of the surveillance was that on three occasions she was observed marching in the band with a drum strapped to her shoulder and there were no limitations on her mobility."

Vessey was interviewed and claimed her claim was genuine and that her condition was getting worse.

But she later pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and the court was told she is currently paying back the money she illegally claimed.

Judge Taaffe ordered that she pay 85 costs, an 85 victim surcharge and handed her a 10 week curfew, confining her to her address between 7pm and 7am each day.

Peter Jones, for Vessey, said his client had lost her husband "relatively recently" and is currently jointly claiming employment support allowance with her new partner.

He said: "This is a lady that feels great shame that she before the court."

He said she understood that it was wrong for her to not reveal she was playing in a marching band.

The rest is here:

Benefits cheat who said she was 'virtually unable to walk' was drummer in marching band - Derby Telegraph

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein recentlyintroduced the Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues (SITSA) Act of 2017. This act would create a Schedule A classification, banning importing new synthetic drugs deemed substantially similar to existing illegal drugs before testing their safety. If passed, the SITSA Act will be another step down the unfruitful path of prohibition.

Prohibiting a drug causes more problems than it solves. When a substance is banned, people can no longer rely on the government to enforce contracts for the sale and transport of the substance. This means that the only way to protect property and selling rights is through violence. Drugs dont cause violent crimeprohibition does.

Two years after Colorado legalized marijuana, the stateexperienced a 12.8 percent decrease in homicide rates. Colorado prosecutors charged 11,000 people with marijuana-related crimes in 2011 and charged only 2,100 people for marijuana crimes from January to October of 2015. It seems obvious that the number of charges would decrease when the drug became legal. What is less obvious, though, is the time, energy, and money saved when police arent wasting time on victimless crimes.

Prohibition often makes drugs stronger and more dangerous. In 1971, just before President Richard Nixon started the official War on Drugs, overdose deaths rates in the United States were slightly above one in 100,000. By 2008, this number jumped to 12 in 100,000.

If possession of a substance is a federal crime, many dealers and users cease using the drug in low concentrations. The more potent the drug, the more worthwhile the risk, versus potential profit. This is why we saw aspike in hard alcohol consumption during prohibition while beer and wine consumption dropped significantlyand why all these consumption rates returned to normal after the 21st Amendment was ratified. The War on Drugs makes drugs deadlier.

The SITSA Act is an attempt by Congress to ban substances before the government can even identify them. Substances could be banned for a predicted physiological effect on the human body. Grassley and Feinstein want to restrict drugs that they think might have an adverse effect on human health with no substantiated evidence.

The governments role is not that of an overprotective babysitter or frightened parent. Americans should be able to decide for themselves what substances to use if no federal testing has found them to be harmful.

This is reminiscent of the hilariously frightening pass it to see whats in it Obamacare debacle. Government officials want the power to ban substances without even knowing what they are. Dont worry, though, the government will figure out how harmful the drug is after its off-limits for an indefinite amount of time. Federal regulation has stopped U.S. scientists from researching medical uses for marijuana, MDMA, LSD and other illicit substances. Prematurely banning the transport of new drugs will keep them unavailable for private medical testing.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the man who just asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana companies, claims the U.S. is in the throes of a historic epidemic of drug use. He predicts more violent crime and a huge public safety risk if medical marijuana operations arent shut down. Sessions doesnt understand that the danger, violence, and public health crises caused by drugs is not in their use but in their prohibition.

Portugal faced a similar situation in the late 1980s. At first, the country tried a rigorous conservative approach to drug use including social vilification and harsh legal penalties. It didnt work. By 1999, almost one percent of the population was addicted to heroin.

In 2001, the country decided to tackle the problem in a different way. Portugal decriminalized all drugs and focused on harm reduction measures. Since then, drug-induced deaths, AIDS diagnoses, and overall drug use have fallen significantly.

The U.S. government is actively harming its citizens with its predatory drug policy. The SITSA Act insults Americans, implying that the government knows what we should and shouldnt put into our bodies without any research to back up its claims. To curb the drug problems in America, we need to realize that prohibition invariably makes things worse.

Dylan Moore is currently a Young Voices Advocate.

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Congress Proposes Outlawing Drugs Before Knowing What They Are - Observer

The Scottish Borders has joined a national two-month campaign to help prevent child sex abuse.

Police Scotland and local authorities have launched the initiative with the charity Stop It Now! Scotland.

The charity provides confidential support to people who are having sexual thoughts about children and young people, supporting them manage these and control any associated behaviour.

1,600

people sought help to stop looking at sexual images of children online in 2016.

14

crimes of possessing indecent images of children in Scottish Borders between 2015/16.

The campaign is being supported by the City of Edinburgh Council, West Lothian Council, Scottish Borders Council, East Lothian Council and Midlothian Council with partners in NHS Lothian and NHS Borders.

Stop it Now! Scotland has worked with hundreds of men arrested for viewing sexual images of children.

For many, being arrested was a real wake-up call. Many knew what they were doing was wrong, but struggled to change their behaviour on their own. Thats where our work comes in.

We make sure these men understand the harm they have caused the children in these images, and also the serious consequences for them and their families if they dont get to grips with their online behaviour. Once they understand this, they become far less likely to reoffend.

But there are thousands of men out there viewing sexual images of under 18s. We need to get to them too, to help them understand what they are doing is illegal and incredibly harmful to the children and young people in the images and to get them to stop."

Stuart Allardyce, National Manager of Stop it Now! in Scotland

Our ultimate goal here is to protect children.

Accessing these images is not a victimless crime. A child is re-victimised every time an image of them is viewed and this creates further demand for these appalling materials.

We have a highly experienced and dedicated Cyber Crime Unit with access to extensive investigative techniques to pursue perpetrators of these crimes.

The consequences of this behaviour for an individual are life-changing and can include losing your job, being imprisoned and registered as a sex offender.

Id urge anyone who is having inappropriate thoughts about children to seek help from Stop It Now! Scotland. Otherwise, expect a visit from officers.

Detective Chief Inspector Brian Stuart of Police Scotlands Cyber Crime Unit

To get help, call Stop It Now! Scotland confidentially on 0131 556 3535 or visit get-help.stopitnow.org.uk where further advice, including a self-help section, is available.

Last updated Mon 26 Jun 2017

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Borders joins national campaign to stop child sex abuse | Border ... - ITV News