Children safer today than compared to the early 1990’s. Richard J. McNally has this “Kids Today” commentary in the Wall Street Journal (free to nonsubscribers for the next 7 days). McNally refers to a review article by sociologist David Finkelhor and psychologist Lisa Jones published last year in the Journal of Social Issues indicating that the homicide rate, physical and sexual abuse, aggravated assaults and robbery confined to children and adolescents has decreased since the early 90’s. Official crime statistics and community surveys have both documented this decrease, indicating that we do have the right policies in place and that they are being enforced.

Retardation. David Savage has this article in the LA Times following up on the Atkins v. Virginia case, which has had less impact than many thought it would. He focuses specifically on Atkins himself. The story includes this gem on the testing that produced Atkins' low IQ score:

Addison, the prosecutor, also poked holes in the 59 IQ score. The psychologist had said Atkins answered incorrectly when asked to identify Martin Luther King Jr. — "Preacher," Atkins had replied. "For civil rights." The psychologist was hard-pressed to explain why that had been considered wrong.

Czech Republic: "More than a half of Czechs believe that death penalty should exist in the Czech Republic, according to a poll the CVVM agency conducted in May and released today." This report is in Czech Happenings.