More Violence But Fewer Prosecutions on American Indian Reservations

The country's 310 Indian reservations have violent crime rates that are more than two and a half times higher than the national average. But the Justice Department, which is responsible for prosecuting the most serious crimes on reservations, files charges in only about half of Indian Country murder investigations and turns down nearly two-thirds of sexual assault cases, the New York Times reports.

The cases that are turned down by the Department of Justice range from murder to rape and child abuse. United States attorneys say they turn down most reservation cases because of a lack of admissible evidence.

According to the Times, American Indian women are 10 times as likely to be murdered than other Americans and more than one in three have either been raped or experienced an attempted rape but more often than not little is done to prosecute suspects. More details from the NY Times:

The Justice Department...

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