Statistics have shown that crime is down on a national and statewide level. I suppose this is good. On the other hand, I have noticed an unfortunate side effect to lower crime rates: people who commit minor crimes or crimes where the evidence is not very strong may get charged. In a higher crime era, these types of crimes might simply not warrant precious police and prosecutorial resources. But when things are "slow" on the crime front, it seems that more people get charged with things that seem rather silly.
For example, I have noticed that domestic violence charges seem to have gone up. Also, I have noticed a lot of criminal sexual conduct cases recently. With that one in particular, I know that the evidence in some of these cases is fairly weak. But, for whatever reason, the state is taking more chances charging these people and hoping they plea out. That is frightening for the defendant and his entire family.
It is a very sad flipside to the coin of lower crime overall. Be careful out there.
Ryan Maesen
www.maesenlawfirm.com
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