How forensic science can aid the human rights movement

B. Godihal is one of the thousands of communities in Karnataka that have worked to hold clean elections, stirred by a confluence of awareness campaigns by nongovernmental organizations and rising public frustration with candidates’ broken promises.

In the U.S. the electorate skews white, wealthy, and old because such demographics are more likely to vote. Creating mandatory voting laws would increase voter turnout and thus increase voting equity.

In the U.S., arrests for the inability to pay fines increase incarceration rates and discriminate against the poor. Many countries make fines proportional to an offender's ability to pay, lowering recidivism and saving the government money.

El Poder del Consumidor is an organization fighting Coca-Cola's power over health care decisions in Mexico. The organization tried many tactics but only found success after finding friends with enough money to compete with the beverage industry giants.

The media could help countries still affected by Ebola by focusing on Nigeria, where they defeated the virus through effective public institutions that protected the public interest, such as rejecting cash but accepting much needed health workers.

In Iowa, the “redistricting” of the state’s legislative and congressional boundaries is done by mapmakers who abide by nonpartisan metrics that all sides agree are fair — a seemingly revolutionary concept in the high-stakes decennial rite of redistricting.

The Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies provides a "blueprint" for peaceful and democratic revolution, busting myths about the process of nonviolent revolt and helping dissidents in countries around the world to accomplish political goals, such as fighting corruption or protecting the environment.

In Detroit, many business owners and the city itself hope that filing for bankruptcy will help the city start fresh and ultimately become a thriving urban center, mirroring other cities that recovered from near financial ruin.

Neighborhoods in Chicago suffer from gang violence and gun-related deaths. A church leader and a physician trained in infectious diseases created Cure Violence, a program that sends teams of local residents to meet with gang leaders as a means of producing positive behavioral change by re-setting social norms. Their approach has reduced violence between 40% and 70%.

Two columns on how Iran is treating its massive epidemic of injecting drug use by tackling it as a health problem, effectively lowering H.I.V. rates among drug users using an approach to drugs known as harm reduction.