...Social class and crime Most studies in sociology suggest that the most serious and frequent offenders are young working class males. However, there may be a bias in the statistics that results in the idea that ‘white collar crime’ is underestimated... * WHITE COLLAR CRIME - middle class members of the business world - invisible and complex. * BLUE COLLAR CRIME - working class members in society - often visible and more likely to be punished. Sutherland (1949) first used the term ‘white collar crime’. He challenged the assumption that crime is mostly a working class phenomenon. However, his own definition is not helpful. The problem with it is that he does not distinguish crimes committed for an organisation. Writers have therefore distinguished between crimes: * CORPORATE CRIME - carried out on behalf of the organisation (e.g. tax evasion). * OCCUPATIONAL CRIME - benefits the individual at the expense of the organisation (e.g. embezzling money). White collar crimes are more technical, complex and discrete and often receive more lenient punishments than blue collar crimes. For white collar crimes, there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is not. It is often about what is morally wrong rather than legally wrong. Occupational/Corporate crime: The study of these crimes developed from the work of Sutherland in the 1940s. He used the term white collar crime to refer to crime committed by people who worked in offices. His work overlaps with the interests...
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...protect people from harm by others as well as to guarantee all the parties can keep the agreement. Kant says we need to act out of duty of moral rule. When we treat criminals, the only reason to be regarded as praiseworthy must be nothing else than the crime itself. Then we should consider the 1st form of categorical imperatives, which says “act only on the maxim that you can will as a universal law”. Next, we must take the 2nd categorical imperatives into account. It says “always treat humanity whether in your own person or in that of another, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end”. On the retributivist view, legal punishment is justified as a means of making those who are responsible for a crime or harm pay for it. According to the retributivist view, payment must to be made in some way that is equivalent to the crime or harm done. There are two arguments, proportional equivalency and egalitarian equivalency. For proportional equivalency, one is required to pay back something proportional. Egalitarian equivalency which is another view of retributivist holds that what is required in return is something identical or almost identical to what was taken. 2. First particular case to be examined (Case 1) 2.1 Case description The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) was a military conflict fought primarily between China and Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in...
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...“Crime and Victimization” Ron Graham Strayer University Henrico Campus Professor: Michael Winborne CRJ100 Date: 7, February 2014 1. Victimization The theory I chose is choice theory where peoples behavior evolve around weighing the consequences and benefits before engaging in a crime before a rational choice is made. The individual perceives chances gain outweighs the punishment, this is what triggers people to engage in criminal activity. The research below show that the male offenders are motivated to commit violent crimes with their spouses because they perceive chances of gain outweighs the perceived punishment or loss, they know that their spouses will not tell the police of the violent crimes committed. Information on violent victimization of Aboriginal women in the Canadian provinces, 2009 provides studies on violence against women in Canada, it is an ongoing issue that has not given lead way to resolution and continues to complicate life for the Aboriginal women of Canada (Brzozowski 2006). The study shows that Aboriginal women were more than three times likely to report being a victim of violent crime verses non-Aboriginal women during 2009. Men perpetrators acting alone committed the violent crimes via spousal violence causing injury to the women. The injured victims would only tell of the event to a family member or informal source. General Social Survey GSS show that many Aboriginal female ...
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...A popular quote from Mohandas Gandhi claimed, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. It is not hard to see that in the case of capital punishment that quote can easily be applied to it. Capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s and since then there have been thirty-four states to use it. As of July 1, 2015 there are thirty-one states with the death penalty and nineteen have abolished it. The death penalty should be abolished because there is a better alternative in life without parole, innocent lives are put at risk, and we pay millions each year to fund this process. First off, we have a much better way to punish people for the even most inhumane of crimes and we can find that in using life without parole. With death as a option after they commit such a crime, it is an easy way out of having to truly pay for their crimes. Life without parole is easily a better alternative because no one would want to spend the rest of their life in a prison cell until they died. There is also the option of life with the possibility of parole for an option, even then there is no guarantee for parole. The wait would be...
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...educate criminals and eventually let them free because of the belief that they are changed people and have been rehabilitated. According to the definition from the text “Criminology”, the term criminal justice system refers to “the components of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating criminals, and correcting criminal conduct” (Siegel, 2009, p. 558). According to Siegel, the criminal justice system is essentially “an instrument of social control: society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either strictly controls their occurrence or outlaws them outright” (Siegel, 2009, p.558). Therefore, the essence of criminal justice system is “maintaining social control, protecting the public, preventing crime, preserving order, enforcing the law, identifying transgressors, bringing the guilty to justice, treating criminal behavior, and administering justice in a fair and even-handed manner” (Siegel, 2009, p. 556)....
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...individual lives and the society around them. The process of interpreting your individual life in the context of your community or the society in which you live is called the sociological imagination. In this research paper, I will discuss how being a homeless person have an impact on society, I will explain how being homeless can affect a person mental and physical health, it can have an impact on the crime rate, and it can have a major impact on the taxes that are paid by citizens. Sociology is the study of society and the human social interaction. Sociology is also the way of studying the social status and the social structures of society, social change, and social movements, and the breakdown of society through crime and through revolution (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). Scientist who study Sociology do research on this subject to get and understanding on how and why people live the way they do and is it a result from the environment they live in. The study of Sociology can establish a balance between theories and facts successfully using scientific methods to study social actions, its outcomes such as social institutions and social groups which are subject to both continuity and change (www.sociologyguide.com). Homelessness is increasing each and every day in today’s world. This social problem is on the rise and has yet to be resolved. How does being a homeless person affect society and how does society affect the homeless? In the year 2011, the ending count...
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...considered discrimination? Discrimination is the practice of unfairly treating an individual or group differently from other individuals or groups of people. (Merriam-Webster.) Discrimination is not right or fair to the individuals that are being targeted. We have seen in the last few years that law enforcement officials have been accused of discrimination against minorities especially African-Americans. We will be discussing and comparing three forms of discrimination used today by our policing agencies; institutionalized, contextual and individual acts of discrimination. Our discussion group discussed growing up what races targeted who when committing crimes. The discussion and the data provided by the Department of Justice is almost the same when discussing crimes and what each ethnic group targets to commit the crimes. Institutionalized Discrimination Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unwarranted and discrimination mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and within the institutions as a whole. (Flat World Knowledge) At times when someone is being discriminated against it can be mindful and intentional by the individual that is doing it. Institutional discrimination is already built into the culture or institution and the individual that is perpetuating the discrimination may not even know that they are doing it. Institutional discrimination is already found in the normal everyday relationships within institutions...
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...One person targeted: - consists of a situation with personalized or individual form of victimization whereby an individual or group selects a specific person to target for victimization. A typical victim of this could be a hate crime where a specific person is picked out for victimization on the basis of their race or skin color. Domestic abuse case is also an example where the husband or boyfriend targets his wife or girlfriend. Domestic violence typically occurs within the household involving spouses or former spouses or some people in a current relationship. This is even possible among blood relatives. Regarding hate crime, this could be directed at a person or even property, the motivation stemming from the offender’s bias towards the victim. Secondary Victimization: Impersonal Target – involves an impersonal target being victimized. This could consist of a business or corporation victimizing an individual. An example of this could be a customer using their credit card in a department store only to find out that their personal information was sold out to a third party. Also, a person could use their social security number in applying for a loan only to find out that such information was sold to a third part and the customer is now being harassed to pay a loan that they may not have received to begin with. Secondary victimization involves an indirect act stemming from an organization to the victim. Tertiary Victimization: Public is victim – involves the general public as being...
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...including social welfare plans, availability and ease of access to health services, formal education and job opportunities. Debates on how to handle this issue on political platforms is an enough illustration of the problems political leaders undergo in looking for a lasting solution challenged by increased pressure from court orders and rigorous financial crisis. It is therefore evident that it is much easier to have overcrowded prisons than it is to develop and implement effective and efficient ways to manage overcrowding in prisons. Overcrowding in prisons is a broad problem that is centered on issues of policies and crime research. These issues involve criminal sentencing, the role of correctional facilities and sentences, accommodation of prisoners with access to health care and rehabilitation services and causes of crimes. Moreover, issues of which crime attracts what sentence, prison budgets, economic hardships and criminal policies in determining the kinds of punishment are all attached to overcrowding in prisons. Overcrowding in Prisons is a challenging issue due to its complexity in determining how all these issues affect it. Lack of clarity on how various issues interact and under what conditions...
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... Barry Preston December 2, 2013 Other than the conventional Criminal Justice process there is a new way to handle crime; it is called the Restorative Justice program. This program is used only in certain cities throughout the United States. The Restorative Justice program is intended to reduce crime. This program has several steps and during the course of the process it is intended to set things right between the criminal offender and the people affected by the crime that occurred. A crime committed does harm to many others not just the immediate victim. The Restorative Justice Program process starts with victim support: which supports the victim immediately following the crime with things such as crime scene cleanup and repairs. Volunteers aid the victim throughout the whole process to give support to them the whole time. Restorative Justice Program conferences are usually facilitated by two members and attended by the offenders that committed the crime, all the people that were harmed by the crime committed and the individual support groups of both the offender and the victim. The offender has to except responsibility for his or her action and involvement in the offense. The facilitator keeps the victim informed with what is happening with the investigation. If the offender takes reasonability for the crime and all parties agree to a restorative circle it will be arranged by the facilitators at a central location to where it is convenient for...
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...COST OF CRIME [First-Name Last-Name] [Course number] [Instructor’s Name] May 25, 2016 Determining the cost of crime to the society is a vital task that many have tried to decipher. A quick research unveils many crime costing literature that employ different approaches to approximate the losses due to crimes committed and the cost of crime prevention. Statistics from the U.S. department of Justice show that billions of dollars are used in crime prevention and related legal activities in addition to the billions of dollars that are incurred in economic losses. Studies have shown the cost of crime in developing countries to be approximately ten percent (10%) of their GDP, a figure which agrees with findings that the US spends $1 to $2 trillion annually on crime prevention. McCollister and colleagues categorizes the cost of crime to the society into four groups: victim cost, costs incurred in the criminal justice system, crime career costs and intangible costs. Victim costs are the losses that the victim faces such as loss or damage of property, hospital bills and loss of money. The criminal justice system costs include the money the government spends on crime prevention such as police protection and correctional programs while crime career cost is the opportunity cost that results from the choice to engage in crime rather than sticking to the straight and narrow. Intangible costs, unlike the other three crime cost categories, don’t have a particular cost...
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...injustice that goes on in America. Trails and Verdicts Court cases can be very complicated. Depending on the severity of the crime will dictate if it is a federal court case or state court case. Besides trying to figure out what kind of court case it is there are multiple variables that can determine the outcome of the case. Sometimes people will take a plea bargain instead of going through with the court hearing process and some people actually get wrongfully accused of crimes that commit. Even if some gets wrongfully accused they can still be trailed and found guilty for the crimes they did not even commit. Boston Marathon Bombing On April 15, 2013 a very tragic event happened in the United States. A man named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As people started finishing the marathon the brother set the bombs off killing three people, leaving seventeen people legless, and wounding over another two hundred and forty more. The cause of these young men wanting to do what they did has been identified, as they were Islamic terrorists from the Middle East. With the charges that Dzhokhar was being faced with put him in a federal court hearing in the state of Massachusetts. Dzhokhar was being trailed as a domestic terrorist and eventually he was sentenced to death. The victims of this tragic event are in a split decision in if the outcome fits the crime. Some people are saying an eye for an eye, while others are stating...
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...As a crime scene investigator, there are many different specializations you can branch off into. For example, one person in this job field could specialize in photography and their job would be to take pictures of the crime scene and of the evidence, and another person could specialize in computer science and they would try to collect data based on factual information. The focus of this essay is someone specializing in science. This person would collect and analyze evidence, prepare reports, interview suspects and witnesses after examining the crime scene and more along these lines. Some skills that are necessary to complete these tasks are attention to detail, great oral and written communication skills, knowledgeable, strong stomach, problem...
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...punishment and the crimes that fit in that category. In Roman 6:23 the Bible says the wages of sin shall be death. Does that mean that everyone that sins, the smallest of sins, should die or be put to death? Who doesn't sin in some way. In John 8:7, Jesus says “If anyone is without sin let him throw he first stone.” What is He saying here, we all have sin; confusing isn't it? For years the confusion will continue; Capital Punishment will always be an issue of should or should not. With the problems this system has you would think it would be a clear cut answer. Our morals should tell us a human should not take another human's life. Why would a system, so scared with the blood of the innocent, riddled with mistakes that can not be corrected, want to continue to exist? To allow the taking of lives under a law called Capital Punishment is to allow the following mistakes, that can not be corrected, to continue. Capital Punishment should have been abolished many centuries ago for these reasons; 1. Executions are carried out at staggering cost to the taxpayer. A report done by New Jersey Policy Perspectives Department concluded the states death penalty has cost the taxpayers $253 million since 1988. This amount goes a over and above the amount it would take to keep a prisoner for life without parole. 2. There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Studies have consistently failed to show that executions stop people from committing violent crimes any more than...
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...seen a movie and automatically thought after now I know their crime story? When people talk about crime, most people are just basing there story off of something they saw in a movie or something they saw on television. Most of the crimes in movies are; assault, bribe, armed robbery, manslaughter, or racketeering, just to name a few. For example the movie “Public Enemies” starring Johnny Depp, it portrays a rough outline of the infamous John Dillinger and his gang. When I first saw this movie I was amazed because the story that they showed wasn't at all what I expected, I expected to see all major crimes take place one after another and grueling shootouts the whole movie but they showed his kind and calm side and it actually turned out to be a great movie. Another example of crime and the movies but on the other side of the law would be any of the “X-Men” series. These people may be mutants but most of them use their gifts for good rather than break the law. A classic example would be “Robin Hood”, he broke the law only to help those in need. (rottentomatoes.com) There are other examples where crime and the movies coexist on both sides of the law, whether it would be cheering for the good guy or cringing when a killer kills their victim, movies cannot show you the whole story and cannot show you the real justice system. During my research I came across this essay called “Does Movie Violence Increase Violent Crime?” (Dahl & DellaVigna, 2006) an excerpt from the essay caught my...
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