...Gun Control Essay 1 Gun Control Essay 06/14/2015 The right to bear arms is guaranteed in the constitution by the Second Amendment. Many politicians are looking to amend the constitution any way they can to ban handguns or at least Gun Control Essay 2 restrict sales. The argument between pro and anti gun control has been debated for years, both with valid points. Many studies and factual data shows that strict gun control only removes guns from law-abiding citizens, but does not actually help reduce crime. Studies have shown that gun control cannot stop people from committing the crime because if a handgun ban were issued, there is evidence that citizens would not comply with the law, strict gun control does not reduce homicide rates, and studies have found that high crime rates have stimulated purchasing of guns rather than high gun ownership stimulating crime. While the Founding Fathers of this country were developing the system of government, as set forth in the Constitution, many feared that a standing army controlled by a strong central government would leave them helpless. The Federal Constitution contained no provisions to prohibit a standing army or allow states to create their own militias. The Constitution was signed by thirty-nine men from the twelve states represented at the Constitutional Convention on September 17 1787; three delegates refused to sign because of the absence of a bill of rights. Two years later, the First Congress agreed on...
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...PRACTICE EXAMINATION ISSUE ANALYSIS CRIMINAL LAW ESSAY QUESTION 1 OF 1 State vs. Fabio Homicide Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. When Fabio shot Nicholas with a gun and he died, there was a killing of a human being by another. Actual Causation Defendant’s acts must have been the actual cause of the victim’s death, i.e., but for the Defendant’s actions the victim would not have died. . "But for" Fabio shooting Nicholas, Nicholas would not have been killed. Fabio is the actual cause of Nicholas’ death. Thus, Fabio is the actual cause of Nicholas’ death. Proximate Causation A Defendant’s actions are the proximate cause of the victim’s death if the result occurred as a natural and probable consequence of Defendant’s act and there was no intervening event sufficient to break the chain of causation Nicholas’ death was the natural and probable consequence of Fabio shooting him with his gun and a foreseeable result of Fabio's shooting. Thus, Fabio is the proximate cause of Nicholas’ death. Thus, Fabio committed a homicide. Murder Murder is an unlawful killing committed with malice aforethought. Malice aforethought can be evidenced as an intent to kill, intent to cause great bodily harm, or through willful and wanton conduct. When Fabio saw his wife Michelle in bed with Nicholas, an old high school friend, he became very angry. After a few days when Fabio felt better, he remembered what he had seen when he...
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...Criminal Law Essay One -Concord Law School Issue What is Hal’s potential criminal homicide liability for the death of Norm? What is his homicide liability for the death of Wanda? Rule Common Law intentional homicide may be reduced from murder to voluntary manslaughter if all the elements are met: 1. the killing was a result of a sudden heat of passion 2. In the same situation a reasonable person would have also been provoked and also would have lost self-control. 3. There was no cooling off period between the provoked anger and the homicide of the first or second victim Model Penal Code lessens murder to manslaughter if the murder is committed during an extreme mental or extreme emotional disturbance. Under the Model Penal Code there are two elements that need to be proven: 1. that the defendant was under an extreme emotional disturbance. 2. That there was a reasonable explanation or excuse for the extreme emotional disturbance. Analysis When Hal decided to come home early and bring his wife flowers he was already in an emotional and easily excitable mood. Then when he pulled up to the house he looked into the office window before he entered the house where he saw his wife in an embrace with the neighbor Norm. This evidence being right before his eyes made him believe they were sex partners and this put him into a rage where he went to the garage to get his gun and bullets with the intention of doing bodily injury maybe even killing Norm and possibly Ronda. In...
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...penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century in Babylon. Death penalty, legal infliction of death as a penalty for violating criminal law. The death penalty was codified for 25 different crimes. Such things carried out the death sentence as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement (Randa, 1997). The practice of the death penalty is as old as the government itself. The death penalty has not been considered controversial for most of history. Since ancient times most governments have punished a wide variety of crimes by death and have conducted executions as a routine part of the administration of criminal law. The Age of Enlightenment was the first significant movement to abolish the death penalty. Britain was very influential in America’s use of the death penalty. The European settlers that came to the new world are the one’s that brought the practice of capital punishment, death penalty. The first execution was recorded in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1608. The Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws were enacted in 1612 by the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale. The death penalty was established for minor offenses such as killing chickens, stealing grapes, and trading with Indians. It was Cesare Beccaria’s 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment that caused policy makers to have a different view of the death penalty. Becarria theorized that there wasn’t any justification for the state’s to take the life of a human being. The essay led...
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...The nature of crime in Australian society is diverse and its occurrence fluctuates over time (Makkai & Prenzler, 2015). This essay will firstly discuss and define the concepts of crime and violence. Secondly, it will define violent crime from a contemporary Australian legal perspective. It will then examine the overall nature of crime in Australia describing its categories and sub categories. Fourthly, the essay will establish the official agencies who collect and collate data that measures the nature and extent of crime in Australia. It will finally use this data and empirical evidence to compare the extent of violent crime with crimes that are non-violent. The essay will ultimately conclude by asserting that the majority of crime in society is not violent in nature. Crime is a complex phenomenon that attracts a variety of definitions (Ransley & Prenzler, 2015). The varying definitions of crime provide broad or limited meanings and are all, to a greater or lesser degree, problematic. This is because crime is socially constructed; thus what is considered a crime, or no longer considered a crime changes over time to comply with the norms, attitudes and expectations existing in society at a given historical period (Brookman, 2005; Howitt, 2012). Violence is also a socially constructed concept that lacks a specific definition (Indermaur, 2000; Papalia, Thomas, Ching & Daffern, 2015), however, in the broadest sense, violence, is typically an action or type of behaviour that...
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...Student’s Name University’s Name Abstract In the United States of America, the law pertaining to crime against persons is complex; due to the principle of dual sovereignty that is a component of federalism. This essay entails analysis of murder as crime against persons. Murder cases are classified by the hierarchy of acts which entails: homicide, murder, manslaughter, and lastly justifiable homicide. English courts formed the body of common law on which United States jurisdictions relied on, in developing their murder statutes. Early English common law alienated murder into two broad categories: criminal and non-felonious. Historically, the intentional and deliberated killing of a person by another person was a criminal homicide and was categorized as murder. This analysis will discuss in details historical common law and current states statute in relation to crime of murder. Introduction Under the early United States law, murder was a criminal act that was punishable by death. It was termed as the unlawful execution of a person with hatred aforethought. According to Siegel (2006) book, Criminology, murder was also defined as a deliberated intent to kill. Currently, United Sates courts and jurisdictions have adopted the English common law. However the court has carried-out some amendment to various conditions that constituted criminal homicide. Modern statutes in general segregate criminal homicide into two wide categories: murder and manslaughter. Murder is further separated...
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... Many people, myself included think gun control is wrong because we know that it is not necessary, since we know that guns were not involved in many of the deaths caused each year. While many other people disagree and think it is good because of the safety for people. In this essay I will tell you why gun control is unnecessary and why there shouldn?t be any gun control at all. There have been many gun control laws established throughout the U.S., but they vary from state to state. For example, in Colorado you can purchase any type of gun: handgun, machine gun, shotgun, rifle, automatic rifle, etc. at the age of 18, while in other places you would need a hunting license.1 I think this is unfair because when I?m at the age of 18 I would want to buy a gun, but I can?t because I?m living in California and another 18 year old could in Colorado. Also, another example is that in some states, they allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, while in other states citizens can?t. I don?t think this is fair at all because I think they should make laws that suits the whole U.S., and not make different laws in different states. Another reason that makes me think that they shouldn?t have different gun control laws in different places is because I knew a person that buys guns in New York, and some how got them over here and sells them to people by tripling the price. I have asked him how he got them over here, but he never told me how he did it. He told me that he has done this for many...
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...AN ESSAY ON SOCIETY AND DEFINITION OF CRIME BRIAN WENDO Society and Crime Introduction Crime has no ontological reality; it is a ‘myth’ of everyday life. The defiency of any fundamental quality of which to conclusively define an event as crime is shown by the variety of crimes ; robbery, credit card fraud, drug peddling, rape, insider trading, prostitution, bigamy and attempted suicide to name but a few. They should entail punishment in the ideal situation. These situations can and do take place in extremely dissimilar conditions and for conflicting reasons. This stochastic variable makes it hard for the criminal justice system to be foul proof and have a “recognized measuring standard” of crime to a level that incorporates the total outlook of various social groups (Digital Films, 2012). Any action against the word of God, the laws of a country or one intended to cause harm and hardship to an individual or a society is defined as crime (Danny Dorling et al, 2005). ANALYSIS Two parameters determined the public’s perception of crime in most cases; the most reported crimes in the mainstream media and the most likely crimes they encounter in their daily lives. The majority of the interviewees are more inclined to see a criminal in the terms of a “gun – toting street criminal” not as an “immaculately dressed wall street banker”. Time and lack of information insulates the public when it comes to white collar, corporate and state sponsored crimes...
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...see how well that worked, and it most certainly didn’t stop people from drinking. It only made people that would sell it illegally richer. Also, what about illegal drugs, just because it is illegal doesn’t mean that people are doing it. Kids could get their hands on many illegal drugs. So banning guns would not mean that people would not have them. Banning guns would only take them out of the hands of honest citizens that own guns and give criminals more of an advantage over unarmed citizens. Banning guns would do no good because criminals don’t care if they break the law, or they wouldn’t be considered criminals in the first place. Isn’t that the reason why we are trying to ban guns is to reduce crime? That could leave us law-abiding citizen in more harm than good. Their will be no law that can keep guns out of the hands of criminals or to stop criminals from using them illegally. Today we hear more about kids and teenagers killing one another accidentally or for murder with a gun, but this is not because we don’t have enough laws on guns. Kids can get their hands on tobacco, and alcohol or other drugs that there...
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...Death Penalty Essay Those who believe that deterrence justifies the execution of certain offenders bear the burden of proving that the death penalty is a deterrent. The overwhelming conclusion from years of deterrence studies is that the death penalty is, at best, no more of a deterrent than a sentence of life in prison. The sentiment that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime is widely accepted as false. Citing such a reason like deterrence is not even a part of many pro death penalty supporters’ arguments. The Death penalty causes so much controversy due to the ethical and moral implications. However, due to the inherit volatility of trying to ascertain “what is right” the death penalty along those lines has continued and will continue to be a subject of debate. Personal opinion aside, according to statistical data the death penalty is not a deterrent. According to thedeathpenaltyinfo.org, States in the United States that do not employ the death penalty generally have lower murder rates than states that do. The same is true when the U.S. is compared to countries similar to it. The US homicide rate, which has declined substantially since 1992 from a rate per 100,000 persons of 9.8 to 4.8 in 2010, is still among the highest in the industrialized world. There were 14,748 homicides in the United States in 2010, including non-negligent manslaughter .The U.S., with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the countries of Europe or Canada, which do not use the death...
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...Crime Trends Crime trends have changed drastically throughout the years. Criminal activity has always been a challenging task to evaluate and monitor. What is a crime trend? A crime trend is defined as a significant change in the nature of selected crime types within a defined geographical area and time period (U.S. Legal, 2001). Crime trends tend to increase and decrease for different reason throughout the years. The essay will discuss the crime trend in America and the reason for a decline in 1999. In 1999 there were several reasons that could be the cause for a decrease in crime trends. Unemployment rates were low in 1999, in fact at the time rates had not been seen as low since 1969. There was also an increase in new jobs; under President Clinton administration the economy added 245,000 jobs per month. When President Clinton took office in 1992 the unemployment rate was at 7.5%, by 1999 the rate had dropped to 4.0%. Employment showed a promising reason for a decrease in crime (The Clinton-Gore Economic Record, 2000). Throughout the years researchers have been noticing when the economy is good it seem to reduce the amount of crime that happens. In the article Crime and Unemployment, the author refers to a study conducted in the United States that showed unemployment as a reason behind higher homicide rates and suicides; the study was conducted from 1940-1984. The study included five socio economic variables unemployment rates, gross national product...
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...MWF 8:05 AM – 8:59 AM English Composition 2 12/07/12 The Death Penalty Crimes are committed every day. Some of them worse than others. The worst crimes get the worst punishment. That can mean capital punishment. Capital punishment is just another way of saying legal murder. Should it be allowed? This is one of the most debated issues in the criminal justice system. Hundreds of criminals are being killed legally at the hands of the government every day. Why you may ask, because they were convicted of killing one or more people. But the government can do it and get away with it. The death penalty is wrong and should be outlawed in all 50 states. The reasons why it should be outlawed are: the person could be innocent, it is not a good crime deterrent, and it does not cause closure for a victim’s families. The most obvious reason it should be banned is that it is against the law. It says so in our constitution. The Eighth Amendment clearly states that the federal government is prohibited from using cruel and unusual punishment. Most people would have to say that sitting down in a chair and getting electrocuted until your dead or getting poison shoved in your veins is pretty cruel and unusual. Also when you put someone to death for committing murder you are committing an act of it as well, which is an eye for an eye. Evidently the government seems to not think so. Another good reason to ban capital punishment is the person who was charged with the murder could actually...
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...Are people with mental health problems at increased risk of committing violence? Discuss What Is The Link Between Mental Health And Violence? The link between mental health problems and violence is complex. The link between the two needs to assess the circumstances and other influential reasons when deciding whether people with mental health problems are at increased risk of committing violence. This essay will argue that people with mental health problems are modestly at an increased risk of violence but when influenced by substance abuse the risk of committing violence is at a greater risk. The scope of the essay will consider works from academic journals and empirical evidence on mental health and violence, which has influenced the debate of this essay. First, we need to consider that increased risk of violence is modestly greater than someone without mental health problems. According to The Lancet (1997), John Monahan and Colleagues from the MacCarther Foundation Research Network on Mental Health and the Law found the relationship of mental health to be modest contrary to societal belief. They did research with patients in hospital and those released had periodic visits within that year. To compare varying violence they surveyed a random selection of people in the general population. The researchers only found the findings to be modestly greater. They conducted a second survey showing that people with mental health were no more violent than the general...
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...Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates: The Views of Leading Criminologists Michael L. Radelet and Traci L. Lacock Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 2009 https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=6901&context=jclc Radelet and Lacock's study 'Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates: The Views of Leading Criminologists' (Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 2009), compares the deterrence capability of the death penalty to that of long term imprisonment. The article begins by detailing the context of the study through highlighting the declining support for the deterrence hypothesis, due in large part to flawed empirical research. Radelet and Lacock offer a brief history of studies on...
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...Capital Punishment Many distinctive doctrines in criminal law originated in efforts to restrict the number of capital crimes and executions. For instance, in the late 18th century, when all murder in the United States was punishable by death, Pennsylvania pioneered in dividing murder into two categories. The state enacted laws that authorized punishment of first-degree murder by death, while second-degree murder was punishable by imprisonment only. Elsewhere, penal codes uniformly required death for certain serious crimes. In these jurisdictions, discretionary powers to commute death sentences gradually expanded. (A commutation substitutes a lesser penalty for a more severe one—for example, replacing execution with a life sentence.) Today in many nations, including Turkey and Japan, the death penalty remains legal but the number of executions has declined over time. Although many jurisdictions limited imposition of the death penalty, no government had formally abolished capital punishment until Michigan did so in 1846. Within 20 years Venezuela (1863) and Portugal (1867) had formally eliminated the practice as well. By the beginning of the 20th century the death sentence had been abolished in a handful of nations, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Norway, and The Netherlands. Although not formally eliminated, it had fallen into disuse in many others, including Brazil, Cape Verde, Iceland, Monaco, and Panama. The defeat of the Axis powers provided a foundation...
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