The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "criminal statistics" ...
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NYPD: Fighting Crime at All Costs
WABC closely examined the aggressive policing policies of the NY Police Department. A tip from an officer regarding the use of quotas had turned into "a relentless pursuit of arrests and summonses in the city's minority communities that he claimed led to the write up of innocent people."
Tags: police; law enforcement; wrongful arrest; arrest; criminal statistics; crime statistics; crime; New York; NYPD; New York Police Department
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Wrongful Arrest?
On a tip that a viewer's 74-year-old father was in jail for a string of Wal-Mart robberies he did not commit, KCTV investigated the challenge of righting a conviction wrong when found on the wrong side of the law.
Tags: wrongful arrest; wrongful conviction; criminal justice; crime statistics; criminal record; eyewitness testimony
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The Hidden Life of Guns
The investigation details the way guns move through society, from retail sales to street crimes. The Post set out to break the secrecy imposed by Congress and an examination of how gunes are used in crimes. Their investigation included creating a database of more than 35,000 guns traced to crimes; a comprehensive database of 511 police officers killed by firearms; lists from confidential sources of the top 12 gun dealers who have sold the most weapons trace from Mexican crime scenes over the past two years.
Tags: guns; gun laws; crime; gun dealer; illegal gun trade; Mexico; criminal statistics; Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; National Shooting Sports Foundation; Tiahrt Amendment;
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A Horrible Answer
Fire years into massive reforms, Washington, D.C.'s pledge to create a more compassionate juvenile justice system remains unfulfilled, and youth in the custody of the city are killing and dying at epidemic proportions. This series looked comprehensively at the statistics and the stories behind a year's worth of deadly violence among juveniles in the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), in most cases because they had a juvenile criminal record. Reporters found that during the year they studied, one in five homicides in the city involved a youth in the custody of the city as either a victim or a suspect.
Tags: Juvenile; Washington, D.C.; Crime; Violence; Youth; State; Homicide; Ward of City; Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services; DYRS
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True Crime
This story examines the "real impact of crime in Memphis-the city often rated as the Most Violent and most crime-ridden in America in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports". This series was built off of a never before created database, which held every criminal arrest made in Memphis in the past 10 years. It consisted of "about 1 million records from the past decade".
Tags: law enforcement; criminal; police department; statistics; records; victims; crime-ridden; violence; neighborhoods
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Missing Crime
This investigation found that Houston police often don't label crimes as crimes. This means that many crimes never end with a criminal investigation. Not only does this practice mean victims often don't receive any closure, but also that Houston has fewer crime statistics to report to the national government. These low numbers are misleading and make Houston look much safer than it really is.
Tags: crime; statistics; federal government; state government; arrests; FOIA
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What Crime? What Rape?
This St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation the conspicuously low number of reported rapes in St. Louis. It found the St. Louis Police Department engaging in practices to keep the number of crimes down for statistics---especially crimes involving sexual assault or rape. Records show that the department made use of informal, handwritten "crime memos" to document such cases instead of official reports. These memos were frequently lost, and in most cases the investigations were never pursued or followed up.
Tags: crime statistics; crime reports; St. Louis Police Department; sex crimes; rape; sexual assault; DNA testing; criminal records
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Deals and Dismissals
The News reports on how a system of plea deals at the Buffalo City Court has resulted in ill-advised bargaining and few serious convictions. In two years, the report says, the court has made itself out to be one of deals and dismissals, where defendents are far less likely to leave with a misdemeanor conviction. Some statistics will help: nearly three-fourths of those who walk into this court facing criminar charges walk out without a criminal record. Furthermore, the most common sentence for even those who are convicted with severe penalities is a conditional discharge - stay out of trouble for an year and follow court instructions, then there are no punishments.
Tags: Erie County District; State Division of Criminal Justice Services; VOICE-Buffalo; judges; court
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The Drug War Series
The series focused on the execution and impact of the so-called drug war on Chicago's minority communities. Specifically, the stories examined racial disparities in drug sentencing, drug arrests and the number of ex-drug offenders returning to Chicago communities. The Chicago Reporter found that blacks and Latinos were more often sentenced to prison than whites for the same drug crimes, even when they appeared to have similar criminal pasts.
Tags: drugs; drug war; drug crimes; drug sentencing; minority communities; racial disparities; drug arrests; drug cases; drug market; ex-drug offenders; drug activity; drug dealing; crime statistics; Chicago police Department; Illinois Department of Corrections; Cook County
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Prisoner's Vote
Capital News Service reports on a bill that would reverse Maryland law that forbids any convicted felon from casting a ballot. The reporter finds statistics showing that blacks, especially males, are "disproportionately disenfranchised more than any other group of persons incarcerated." The story explains the arguments of the proponents and the opponents to prisoners' votes - that present law perpetuates an injustice, on the one hand, and that voting is a privilege, hence criminals should never be allowed to vote, on the other hand.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; politics; voters; voting; human rights; criminal justice