In recent years, police brutality and questions over excessive use of force have been heavily featured in local and national news. It seems like hardly a week has gone by without a new video of a citizen being shot, beaten, or otherwise assaulted by an officer, with “he said, she said” stories to go along.

 

One recent video from Colorado involves a 22-year-old student being body slammed to

No parent wants to face that moment where they have to pick their kid up from the police station because they were caught drinking or carrying marijuana. It’s scary. It’s embarrassing. You’re mad at your child and worried for them at the same time. What is this going to mean for their future?

 

Obviously, breaking the law in any way is not a good move for your child, but

 

There are many motives behind assault and other violent crimes: uncontrollable emotions, a verbal altercation, intoxication, and so on. Some motives can be at least partially justified in court (i.e. a “crime of passion”), but when race or other types of biases are a factor, the case can go in the opposite way: penalties and charges may increase.

 

In other words, by arguing that you hurt someone due

When someone goes to court for sexual assault, the victim often tells their side of the story. Sexual assault can be traumatic, and reliving the horror of the incident can bring further trauma, especially if the victim is telling the story to a room of strangers under great pressure.

 

Just retelling their story in one court can negatively impact a victim… but this doesn’t always happen just once. Cases

 

Imagine this. You get charged with shoplifting at a Denver shopping center. You plead guilty and get two years of probation. Then, a few months later, you don’t show up for a review hearing. The court puts out a warrant for your arrest, but you don’t care because you’ve already moved out of state. What are they going to do, chase you down over a shoplifting charge?

 

Not