Crime & Law Enforcement

Foreign Correspondent Stephen Handelman He spent nearly six years in the former Soviet Union as chief of the Moscow Bureau of the Toronto Star, where he covered the final years of the Soviet regime. His new book Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya (Yale) examines and uncovers the intricate networking of the post-Soviet criminal underworld. Handelman is also the author of Uncommon Kingdom. He is currently an associate fellow at Columbia University's Harriman Institute.

Rev. Wanda Jenkins. She is the founder and director of the grief assistance program headquartered at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office. Jenkins became an authority on the bereavement process for family of murder victims. Her program helps families cope with the aftermath of homicide. (Interview with Marty Moss-Coane)

Child Advocate and Writer Geoffrey Canada's book, Fist Stick Knife Gun; A Personal History of Violence in America (Beacon Press), provides a look into the lives of children living in violence. Canada is President and CEO of Rheedlan Centers for Children and Families in New York. He is dedicated to serving at risk children in the inner-city.

Margolick is the former author of the New York Times "At The Bar" column. He was recently promoted from the national legal affairs correspondent to San Francisco bureau chief for the New York Times. Margolick is presently covering the O.J. Simpson trial for the Times. His legal columns have been collected into a new book, At the Bar: The Passions and Peccadilloes of American Lawyers.

Dickey is the author of the report What Every Policy Maker Should Know About Imprisonment and the Crime Rate. Professor Dickey of the University of Wisconsin Law School, has a new way of viewing crime in our society. Based on his recent report issued by the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy, he and officials have concluded that incarceration has little effect on crime rates. They believe that there are number of factors which limit the impact of prison on crime.

Investigator Michael Reynolds with the Klan watch Militia Task Force, with the Southern Poverty Law Center. The task force assisted in the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. Reynolds outlines the beliefs of many of these right wing groups.

William Adler is author of, Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest For The American Dream In The Age of Crack. It tells the story of the Chambers brothers, who moved to Detroit from Mississippi in the mid-80's in search of economic freedom. They found it by setting up the biggest drug business in the city -- complete with quality control, discounts, employee bonuses and a dress code.

The two time Pulitzer Prize winning novelist joins us to talk about his new book Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery. Mailer says we must ask "Who was Oswald?" as a prelude to asking "Who killed JFK?" The book profiles Lee Harvey Oswald's life. It's Mailer's 28th book.

Rochelle and Anthony Yates. On July 18, 1988 the Yates' five year old son Marcus was killed in gun crossfire between two drug dealers fighting for turf in a corner store. There were 11 children in the store playing video games, two others were shot but survived; one of them was Marcus' six year old brother. Since the incident, the Yates' have become activists against senseless violence; they lecture to high schools, take in foster children who have lost family members to violence, run a day care center and organize community activities to take back neighborhoods.

Robert Jay Lifton is an expert psychologist on mass social trauma and psychological after affects from anger, rage and vulnerability. He directs the center on violence and Human Survival at the City University of New York John Jay College.