Technology is harnessed to promote efficiency, accuracy, and accountability in all manner of professions. But even as it introduces new benefits, it can bring a variety of new concerns and controversies. Such is certainly true of the recent technological advances in policing. Here we’ll discuss a few types of technology used in the modern criminal…
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The FBI reported that in 2017, violent crimes occurred every 24.6 seconds in the United States, including a murder every 30.5 minutes, a rape every 3.9 minutes, and a robbery every 1.7 minutes. Not to be overlooked are property crimes, which were happening at an astonishingly rapid rate—every 4.1 seconds. So, what drives individuals to…
When you live in one country your entire life—or even for just a few years—you begin to feel accustomed to how its justice system works. In the United States, for example, there are two types of legal cases: criminal and civil. In addition, all defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty and have the right…
In a recent poll centered around true crime, half of participants gave the chilling genre their nod of approval. If you can’t get enough of these gritty stories, consider yourself among the 13% of respondents that claimed it’s their favorite genre. While it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason true crime has become such a…
Welcome back to our exploration of serial killers, featuring an interview with Dr. John Fisher, coordinator and assistant professor in UT Permian Basin’s criminal justice program and author of Profiling crime: Exploring serial murder and other crime. (See part 1 here.) Read on to discover what serial killers really want, how they can live undetected…
If you ask Dr. John Fisher, assistant professor and coordinator for UTPB’s criminal justice program and author of Profiling crime: Exploring serial murder and other crime, he’ll tell you that the term “serial killer” is a misnomer. “We need to change the nomenclature on that because it’s murder. It’s serial murder.” While the terminology may…
If you work in Texas law enforcement and are interested in pursuing a criminal justice bachelor’s degree—or are currently doing so—you may be eligible to earn your universally respected education credential at little to no cost. For more than 50 years, the Texas Education Code has exempted our valued law enforcement personnel from tuition and…
If you work in the criminal justice field and are seeking new career advancement opportunities, earning a master’s degree may be your best path forward. For insight on the topic, we spoke to someone who knows both criminal justice and higher education intimately. Dr. John Fisher, whose background includes work in private corrections and state…
Watch any televised trial and you’ll hear terms like “discovery,” “objection,” and “subpoena,” being thrown around, but what do they mean? That’s what we’re here to find out. Here are 10 of the most common criminal justice terms. We hope to provide some insight into the complex legal system and the essential roles performed by…
Laws are designed to protect people, organizations, and their property by codifying the “do’s and don’ts” of society. While many laws clearly state their purpose—at least to attorneys, who speak legalese—some are nebulous, confusing, counterintuitive, or otherwise open to (mis)interpretation. These are the “buts” to those “do’s and don’ts,” and we’ll be discussing them below….