criminal law

Buried in this story on a meeting of American Indian tribes and federal prosecutors is a statistic showing that federal prosecutions of crimes on reservations increased 54% from 2009 to 2012. The lack of resources to pursue law-breaking on tribal reservations, particularly sexual violence against American Indian women, has been a huge issue in recent years. As novelist Louise Erdrich said in an interview about her most recent novel in which a mother's rape by a white man is unprosecutable, "The statistics are one in three native women are raped, about 67 percent of those rapes fall under federal jurisdiction and are not prosecuted.  Something like 88 percent are believed to be committed by non-natives, and the tribes have no jurisdiction over non-natives." The increase in federal prosecutors' caseloads might be showing the tide is turning on this issue.

For the full interview with Erdrich, see: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2012/10/conversation-louise-erdrich...

After a backlog in elder abuse cases grew too staggering, the California Department of Health managed the backlog by dismissing complaints, not seeking increased resources. Now almost all complaints are investigated over the phone, and prosecutors report a dramatic decline in the cases referred to them for investigation.