Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the Facebook live “torture” video. The video, which was broadcast live on Facebook, showed four teenagers beating, gagging, and torturing a teen with mental disabilities. The four were arrested after a neighbor made a noise complaint, and police believe the victim was tied up for four to five hours that day.

Currently, the accused teens are being held in jail without bail. Earlier [...]

It’s no secret that Chicago has a serious problem with violent crimes, but certain neighborhoods have a history of being more dangerous than others.

This year, the city has witnessed a particularly high rate of assault and battery crimes, with a majority of these crimes concentrated in certain areas. In Illinois, assault is considered to be behavior that creates the threat or fear of bodily harm or unwanted physical contact, while battery is conduct that actually causes bodily harm [...]

Self-defense and defense of others are two arguments that are sometimes used to prove that an individual is not guilty of assault. However, the effectiveness of these defenses depend heavily upon the circumstances of each unique case and the defendant’s ability to show that any reasonable person would have perceived a threat in the same situation and that the only way to stop the threat was by using force. When it is not likely that the defendant will be able [...]