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Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Confusing Mental-Health Intervention and Violence Prevention
There are many ways to prevent some violent tragedies, including high-quality mental-health treatment at all levels. But calling for more involuntary hospitalizations isn’t among them.
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joeflintham/flickr Hospice for My Mother, as an Addict
Caring for my dying parents reintroduced substances into my life.
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Hoffman and the Terrible Heroin Deaths in the Shadows
Narcotics-related mortality in the U.S. has been on the rise for years. Should it be easier for addicts to inject as safely as possible?
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Mark Stehle/AP Photo How to Discipline Students Without Turning School Into a Prison
New guidelines from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education urge schools to abandon "zero-tolerance" policies.
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AP Serving the Poor, Pope Francis-Style
For young, progressive Catholics in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, the new pope is inaugurating a new era: one where the issues that matter to them are back in the spotlight.
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To Stay Out of Jail, Must Nonviolent Offenders Submit to Medical Diagnoses?
In Eric Holder's suggested substitution for mandatory minimum jail sentences, a troubling intersection of public health and criminal justice
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A Philadelphia School's Big Bet on Nonviolence
In a desperately poor, dangerous part of town, Memphis Street Academy decided to ditch its metal detectors and focus on supporting students. Violence dropped by 90 percent.
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Teacher Layoffs Are Bad; Aide Layoffs Might Be Worse
A social worker familiar with Philadelphia's often violent schools says cuts to support staff could be disastrous.
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How the DEA Finally Caught Kermit Gosnell
Amid criticism of America's continued war on drugs, Dr. Kermit Gosnell -- who could have been arrested for murder years earlier if medical oversight agencies had been more vigilant -- was only taken down when he crossed the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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If More Funding Went to Safe, Legal Abortions, Would Kermit Gosnell Have Happened?
The poor women who landed on at the door of a doctor who allegedly performed late-term abortions would not have been shunted into that market if earlier services were safely and freely available.
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Much Ado About Sizzurp
Rapper Lil Wayne's seizures and hospitalization highlight a double standard in hustler culture. Crack cocaine and heroin users are considered junkies. Meanwhile codeine "sizzurp" and pills are less stigmatized, but not necessarily any more benign.
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'Shooting Therapy' Did Not Kill Navy SEAL Chris Kyle
Reintroducing patients with PTSD to whatever triggers their symptoms -- gradually, in a clinical setting -- can be effective. Veterans Chris Kyle and Eddie Ray Routh were not at a shooting range as part of exposure therapy.
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'He Didn't Seem Crazy': Where Violence Meets Health Care
Philadelphia's mental health interventions aim to prevent random acts of violence and misguided jail time.
