White collar crime costs society $1 trillion every year. It is the most common form of crime, far more common than violent crime, and yet is widely misunderstood. Indeed, many people believe that it’s extremely rare.  In part, it’s misunderstood because it’s so arcane. As The Harvard Business Review writes: “It bores us. Complicated financial…

A geofence warrant is a warrant that goes to any company capable of tracking your location data through your cellphone.  Law enforcement gets a warrant from a judge, then serves it to Google or Apple. The warrant specifies a physical location and a time period.  The company then gathers information about all the devices that…

Lying to federal agents is against the law, and the 5th Amendment will not protect you if you choose to do it. Under the 5th Amendment, you have the right to avoid incriminating yourself. At least, that’s the simplified version of the 5th Amendment you read about in novels and see on television. The reality…

This October, PBS reported on a ransomware attack that hit a county health hospital in Wisconsin.  “Campbell County Health reported systemwide crippling of their computers that affected its flagship hospital and nearly 20 clinics located in the city of Gillette. For eight hours, the hospital’s emergency department was forced to transfer patients even though the…

Polygraphs are notorious for being “junk science.” The technology behind them hasn’t been updated since the 1950s, and they are only 80% to 90% accurate.  In fact, some experts say they don’t measure lies. They measure stress. Fear. Anxiety. In fact, the APA would tell you that’s all the machine is. A fear detector. In…

On November 2, 2018, the United States Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Curtis Giovanni Flowers. Flowers was accused of murdering four employees of a Mississippi furniture store.  After three separate trials where he was convicted, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the conviction and remanded the matter back to the lower court, where he then…