Link (https://www.pbs.org/video/crime-and-criminal-justice-ora2qw/)

Watch the link above and answer the questions below. Graded on depth, breadth, content accuracy, grammar & spelling (up to 15 points).

1. What percent of the world’s population does the U.S. make-up? What percent of the world’s prison population do we house in the U.S.? Why do you think we have such a discrepancy?

2. Tell me about the Tim Cole case in Texas Link (https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/timothy-cole/) . What went wrong in this case? What could have been prevented if the real perpetrator was found? Do you think a statue and the Tim Cole act (about compensation for exonerated people) is enough to satisfy this error by the court?  Why or why not? 

3. What did Michael Risengrove find in his study of ex post facto DNA exoneration study about the error rate of felony convictions? What is the raw number of felony convictions each year that might be false/innocent person convicted? Were you surprised by this data? What are some of the reasons/factos that make it difficult to know the actual error rate?

4. Tell me how each group has incentives to get convictions (police, prosecutors, and crime labs/forensic scientists).

5. What are some of the issues even with our best forensic sciences (DNA, fingerprints, etc.)? How do budgets link into convictions and how many states have these financial ties to conviction rates?

6. What about public defenders…do they have incentives to do well in the CJ system? What issues do they face doing their job for their client?

7. What are the three reforms that Dr.Rogel Koppl suggests to reform and improve forensic testing and the CJ system?

8. What have been the violent crime trends in the United States vs. Mexico and other Central American countries since 2006? What two factors changed drug cartels from the large monopolies of the likes of Pablo Escobar to the smaller and more diversity (industrial re-organization) of these cartels?

9. What was the “Kingpin Strategy” that Mexico adopted? Do you think this strategy was successful? Why or why not? (see link) Link (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/16/world/americas/mexicos-kingpin-strategy-against-the-drug-cartels.html)

U.S.C. (law) Kingpin laws of the United States Link (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/848)

10. What drug have we seen a decrease in production due to to liberalization/changes in laws? What do you think is the best way to handle the continued drug cartels in Mexico and Central America as well as the supply coming into the U.S.?