Steve Smith

On November 13, 2022, my daughter and I had breakfast in Moscow, Idaho, a Dad’s Weekend tradition from her years at Washington State University. We drove through the University of Idaho campus before returning to Pullman. Less than an hour later, a 911 call brought Moscow police to a house ...

Recently, California has had some genuinely good crime news. In 2025, violent crime declined 10.2 percent. Homicides fell from 1,666 to 1,374, robberies dropped nearly 20 percent, and property crime continued downward. But one violent crime has proved remarkably resistant to the trend.  Rape has settled into a stubborn plateau. ...

Chammah and Castelleno then paint a grim picture of the state of the death penalty in California. They portray the 570 inmates as the victims of a racist system that is continually fed by prosecutors who insist on continuing to seek the death penalty. It’s a portrayal so lopsided that ...

During the same period, the number of Black Californians killed by homicide fell from 690 to 372—a reduction of 318 victims, or 46 percent. Among Black men, the demographic group at greatest risk of homicide victimization, the number fell from 613 to 310, a decline of 303 victims, or nearly ...

Every year, state agencies, universities, advocacy organizations, and think tanks—including the Pacific Research Institute—publish valuable analyses of crime, courts, corrections, sentencing, policing, and public safety. Those reports shape legislation, influence budgets, and inform public debate. Yet despite this steady stream of research, California continues to revisit many of the same ...

That transformation also raises an important question as Americans reconsider our nation’s role in the world. In 1984, Sarajevo welcomed the world as host of the Winter Olympics. Back then the city represented a modern, multicultural Yugoslavia and an optimistic future. John Denver was there as part of the US ...

A few years ago, a flash mob meant gathering in a public place to dance, or engage in some harmless act of collective absurdity. The goal was novelty. The participants sought attention, but not victims. In May, approximately 200 teenagers gathered at The Pike in Long Beach after a meetup ...

After nearly twenty years without an execution, the more pressing question is whether the state is willing to decide what should happen to the 573 – and increasing – number of inmates already sentenced to death. Executions have stopped while death sentences continue to be imposed, and politicians of both ...

A few years ago, I was one of San Francisco’s harshest critics. Writing for the Pacific Research Institute, I documented rising crime, retail theft, open-air drug markets, and a criminal justice philosophy that often seemed more focused on reducing incarceration and prosecution than on protecting public safety. During recalled district ...