Introduction Restorative justice is the process of repairing harm resulting from a crime: holding offenders accountable, while allowing them to correct their wrongdoings. In general, restorative justice programs have had a positive impact on both criminals and victims. Criminals, for example, may be given reduced incarceration time in exchange for committing a victim-focused restitution. Studies suggest criminals who participate in restorative justice programs are less likely to commit future crimes. Inversely, traditional incarceration tactics fail to address any harm done to victims, instead ..read more

Consumer interest in cryptocurrency spiked in 2021, with $100’s of billions in total sales taking place. To compensate for this spike in interest, cryptocurrency trading networks and platforms have grown in popularity, allowing consumers to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, this rapid growth in the cryptocurrency industry has led to vulnerabilities in the platforms. Hackers have taken notice of these vulnerabilities and started taking advantage by launching increasingly sophisticated attacks. As a result, over $1 billion dollars was compromised or stolen from cryptocurrency ..read more

The international community, including global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are growing increasingly concerned with cryptocurrencies. In sum, the prevalence and fast-growing nature of cryptocurrencies has created significant concern because governments and international actors across the globe have failed to regulate the industry. According to the IMF, the total market value of all cryptos surpassed $2 trillion in September 2021. This means the total market value multiplied by ten in just one year. In particular, the IMF is concerned that the assets “lac ..read more

Two Florida residents were arrested in Ohio for defrauding banks and the United States Federal Government in a nationwide fraud scheme. On December 14, they pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges. The criminal partnership fraudulently requested, and successfully obtained over $35 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. James R. Stote from Hollywood, Florida and Phillip J. Augustin from Coral Springs, Florida obtained PPP loans for Augustin’s company, Clear V ..read more

Each day in the United States, police conduct over 50,000 traffic stops. This adds up to more than 20 million vehicles being pulled over each year. In general, civilians are safe during traffic stops, however, traffic stops can quickly turn from an uneventful and insignificant annoyance to a more serious threat on your life. In the past five years, police have killed over 400 people while conducting traffic stops, who were not suspected of a serious crime or in possession of a weapon. In 2020, the majority of traffic stop fatalities resulted from stops where police were investigating non-viole ..read more

In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill containing provisions that restructure parts of the tax code for brokerage firms. If past indicators continue, the United States government would stand to yield $2.8 billion a year from taxed cryptocurrency transactions. In an industry circulating over a trillion dollars at any given time, the U.S.’s taxes represent a proportionally very small amount of money. In writing this new infrastructure bill, lawmakers have missed the mark. The crypto tax elements of the law are vague and ambiguous, but tend to be very narrow in focus, leavin ..read more

President Joe Biden has released a 93 second video, outlining ten steps in his plan to reform the United States justice system. The plan claims to focus on brining equality, equity, and justice to the American incarceration system. President Biden’s ten step plan is an assertion of his commitment to altruistic principles, but it is little more than that. The plan falls short according to key-metrics. To briefly summarize President Biden’s ten steps: (1) Passage of the Safe Justice Act (H.R. 4261); (2) Discontinuing of minimum mandatory sentences; (3) Ending the private prison system; (4) Incre ..read more

The Bureau of Prisons (BoP) has been evading the implementation of the First Step Act of 2018 through false justifications, false narratives, and semantics. Core provisions of the First Step Act, including time credit incentives have not been implemented according to the plain language of the First Step Act, a clear violation of Congressional intent. How are they Doing This? Numerous provisions of the First Step Act were drafted vaguely, and some key words are undefined. Some of these terms were susceptible to either conservative or liberal constructions. The BoP was quick to recognize this fa ..read more

Wyoming is best known for its successful fossil fuel industries such as coal, oil, and gas. But the cowboy state has been looking to diversify its portfolio by welcoming businesses dealing in digital assets. In 2019, Wyoming state lawmakers created a special charter designed to attract cryptocurrency platforms. The charter allows banks to facilitate cryptocurrency trading by its customers. For customers, this means seamlessly converting your Bitcoin to cash, without the traditional middleman. This will result in lower transaction costs for users, one of the largest costs associated with crypto ..read more

In October 2021, the United States Department of Justice created a specialized task force to investigate crimes related to cryptocurrency. The task force, known as the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) will handle all crimes committed using virtual currency exchanges, mixing services, and laundering services. This team is the next step in the United States battle against digital criminals utilizing unregulated digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies are implicated in a wide variety of criminal activities, such as electricity theft during the mining phase, tax evasion ..read more