Comparing Pittsburgh’s Crime Rates to National Rates
Most of us have been victims of crime at some point in our lives, or at least know someone who has been. Yet our country is a safer place to live than most of us think. In fact, Pittsburgh may…
Violent Crime Rates Drop in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has announced that the city has seen a drop in violent crimes over the last year. While the mayor recognizes that this decrease is a result of the hard work of many, the city does attribute…
Violent Crimes on the Rise in Pittsburgh
Statistics from the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show that violent crime has been increasing in Pittsburgh. Acts of violent crime can cause devastation for a community, and local law enforcement officials are…
Teen Who Urged Suicide of Boyfriend Found Guilty of Manslaughter
A Massachusetts woman who sent her distraught boyfriend a series of text messages that urged him to take his own life was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The young woman, Michelle Carter, and her boyfriend Conrad Roy III were both…
Violence in the City of Pittsburgh
Until very recently, violent crime rates in America had been steadily falling since their peak in the early 1990s. When the FBI released its Uniform Crime Report in early 2017, it revealed an increase in violent crime in many of…
Strangulation Now a Standalone Offense
October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Pennsylvania legislatures proved that they are not only aware of the problem, but they are trying to protect victims from further abuse. On October 26, 2016, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law…
Drive-By Shootings
Drive-by shootings are a common scenario often associated with gang violence in Pittsburgh. It might seem like legislators would have written some kind of law that addresses this type of shooting. However, despite the prevalence of drive-by shootings, there is…
Self Defense and Violent Crimes Charges
You always have the right to defend yourself from harm. This is a universally acknowledged principle. Sometimes defending yourself requires hurting another, using violence, or performing an action that would otherwise be considered a crime. That’s why people are often…
Does TV Make Us Perceive More Crime?
It seems like every season there is a new crime-solving show on television. With so much fictionalized violence on TV and even more crime reported in the news, it is not difficult to imagine that the depiction of violence may…
What Does Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law Mean If You Are Charged?
In criminal cases, most testimony that could put the accuser’s testimony in doubt is allowed, but this is limited by law by relevance and factuality. In sexual assault cases, the Rape Shield Law is designed to exclude certain evidence from…
