Posts Tagged ‘crime’

Houston Oks Contracts to Process Rape Kits

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

The city of Houston has approved a contract to process over 4,000 rape kits that have been currently backlogged. The contracts will go to four separate companies and cost the city $4.2 million dollars. The contracts will last three years and include two options for one-year extensions.

Unfortunately, the backlogs will have to wait a while, because only $475,000 has been allocated for this fiscal year. For now, the Houston Police Department is expected to prioritize their cases in order to process the most important and pressing matters first, particularly those where suspects have already been identified. Houston criminal attorneys say these are the most critical situations because they also may help release innocent suspects from wrongful accusations.

The huge backlog has been able to pile up as the police forensics department has been understaffed for some time.

To read more about the issue, see the article in the Houston Chronicle. Image via NobMouse [Flickr].

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Study Shows Death Penalty May Be A Deterant

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

For years, researchers have been working to determine whether or not the death penalty has any affect on crime rates. A new study from Houston State University claims they have been able to show that homicide rates drop significantly after the state has performed an execution. Their research indicates that at least 60 lives may have been saved in the state last year due to the 24 executions that took place over the course of the year. The declines in homicides seem to be between .5 and 2.5% for the month following an execution.

Researchers say this data is only valid in Texas, as the state is the only one to perform executions on a frequent enough basis to show statistically significant results. Skeptics are still wary of the data though and claim the results do not take other factors into account and that the number of executions is still not enough to provide accurate survey results. Houston criminal lawyers are among the many people to remain unconvinced of the positive effects of the death penalty. Proponents of the study claim that many people will deny the results solely because they oppose the punishment.

Six people are already scheduled to be executed this year, two just this week.

To read more about the findings, see the article in the Houston Chronicle. Image Via brdavids [Flickr].

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