Tressie McMillan Cottom, 10/16/12

PhD student, Department of Sociology, Emory University, OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow

To charge a parent with "stealing" public education is to admit that not all schools are created equal. Do we really believe that school districts would hire private investigators if the parent were enrolling her student in a school poorer than the one in her home district?

Bibiana Ferraiuoli Suarez, 10/16/12

Executive Director, Ricky Martin Foundation

Human trafficking is one of the most vicious violations imaginable against our most basic human rights. I soon learned that it also has no boundaries. It is not confined to far away countries, it happens every day in most developed countries.

John Bradshaw, 10/16/12

Executive Director, Enough Project

The next administration needs to consistently send the message to the public and Congress that preventing genocide and mass atrocities is in the national interest.

Dr. Faheem Younus, 10/15/12

Muslim, Professor, Doctor, Philanthropist

As if flogging adulterers, executing civilians, and selling women were not enough, on Oct. 8, the Taliban attempted to assassinate a 14-year-old girl for her public advocacy for education.

Daphne Eviatar, 10/15/12

Senior Counsel, Human Rights First's Law and Security Program

It didn't take long for the word "torture" to rear its ugly head in the September 11th terrorism case, as pre-trial hearings began today with a slew of procedural issues.

Gary Hart, 10/14/12

President, Hart International, Ltd.

How will you know when the "cyber Pearl Harbor" has occurred? When the lights and heat in your home go off. When you can't make a phone call. When no ATM works. When your flight cannot land.

Diane Dimond, 10/14/12

Television journalist, author, syndicated columnist

I completely understand the need for airport security. But does the TSA have to treat all of us like we're new arrivals at a prison camp?

Robert Weiss, 10/13/12

Founding Director of The Sexual Recovery Institute

Anyone who's had the good fortune to spend a few days in this part of America's idyllic Northeastern coastline would likely acknowledge this as a pretty accurate description -- except they left out the bit about the Zumba-workout-gym-turned-prostitution-ring.

Jarrah Hodge, 10/13/12

Feminist blogger

Calling Amanda Todd's case "bullying" or even "cyberbullying" doesn't do it justice. "Bullying" erases specific social factors and makes it seem like something that you age out of. Adding the "cyber" prefix doesn't necessarily make it more accurate. Technology was a catalyst, but webcams, cellphones, and the Internet aren't the key to understanding what happened to Amanda; systemic sexism was.

Justin Hernandez, 10/12/12

Writer and author, 'Inside the Vortex'

I'm grateful to have beaten the odds. I wish the same for Sandusky's victims, because he robbed these men in the worst possible way: He stole all the childlike qualities that these boys possessed. There is no amount of jail time he will serve that can heal their souls.

Tamar Birckhead, 10/11/12

Associate professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, criminal defense attorney

Practicing criminal law is not rocket science. It's also not open heart surgery. But it's more than just slapping a slice of cheese between two pieces of bread and calling it a sandwich.

David Protess, 10/12/12

President, Chicago Innocence Project

Earlier today, an Oklahoma judge handed a 23-year-old African-American basketball player at Oklahoma State University two one-year suspended sentences for sexually assaulting a pair of Caucasian women at an off-campus party in 2010.

Joseph Rauch, 10/11/12

Student, NYU

I agree that the death penalty is flawed in its implementation but I support it in principle and believe having good morals and supporting the death penalty are not mutually exclusive.

Rep. Jackie Speier, Rep. Susan A. Davis and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, 10/10/12

The Lackland sex abuse scandal is now the most horrific in recent times with more than 40 young patriotic women trainees falling victim to as many as 19 instructors. The Air Force would like to believe the problem is the fault of a few bad apples. It's so much more than that.

Andrew Papachristos, 10/10/12

Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Yale University

The discrepancy between the reality of the numbers and the reality of lived experience raises a critical question. If we are at a low point in a longer history of violence, why don't people feel safe? Not all crime is alike.

Sharon Greenthal, 10/10/12

Blogger, Empty House, Full Mind

It was just by chance that my appointment was scheduled for Thursday, October 13 and not Wednesday, October 12, the day eight people were killed at Salon Meritage.

The Morningside Post, 10/11/12

TMP is the student-run news and opinion site for Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

Besieged with daily reports of brutal rapes, murders, and violent robberies, Americans still love stories of criminal slapstick. But the most recent episode of "America's Dumbest Criminals" ended in tragedy, not farce, exposing grotesque failures in the American criminal justice system.