1. How do the potential consequences differ in civil v. criminal cases? Civil cases are disputes between two businesses or two individuals regarding the legal duties and responsibilities they owe one another and the accountability for the damage he or her causes to the other. Civil cases generally only result in monetary damages for the person or business caused the problem. Criminal cases on the other hand, are a situation where a person or a business, commit an act that is against the law.…
Abolishing Prisons is Wrong Angela Davis argues that the prison system exemplifies white privilege. She claims this is true due to the fact that “more than two million people… now inhabit U.S. prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigrant detention centers” (Davis, 2003, pg. 10). She also states that out of these two million incarcerated people, the largest population per capita is Native Americans, seventy percent are people of color, and the fastest growing population is black women (Davis…
Disney’s film Zootopia could not have come at a better time. Race relations within the United States today are increasingly becoming worse. Especially concerning issues involving the Criminal Justice system. When one looks closely at this film, it tackles these issues head on. Even more, Zootopia takes these controversial topics and turns them into a story meant for not only kids, but also for adults. While Disney has attempted to tackle some very important social issues, this one in particular…
self-report studies claim that this reveals that the other ways of quantifying crime in the United States are flawed. Some have even stated that they prove that there is no correlation between one’s social class and the probability of committing a criminal offense as previous law enforcement statistics have shown. Tittle, Villemez, and Smith claimed in their article that their study showed there was little proof connecting crime and social class (1978). Out of the 363 studies they analyzed, they…
however, there is no “one size fits all” for labeling or dealing with criminals. We need the different disciplines to work together if we are to reduce prison population and reduce crime. Historically experts in different areas have this idea of the “Golden Egg” of crime. Casually discarding ideas if they were not the sole explanation for crime. This mistaken belief that there is one sole reason for someone to become a criminal is naive, outdated, and frankly damaging to those committing the…
inability to adequately conceptualize his theories on criminal behavior are well deserved. He clearly felt structure inhibited criminological thinking and this allowed him freedom to push boundaries within the field when considering human behaviors and how society defines them as criminal or noncriminal. This begs the question of when criminality and behavior have zero defining structural integrity, how may we define any behaviors as criminal when such definition does not exist. Furthermore,…
So you just finished watching an episode of Bones or CSI and now you are wondering how you can get a job in forensic science. Or, even better, you've developed a passion for problem solving and a love for the natural sciences and the scientific method, and you'd like to find a way to use that knowledge towards fighting and solving crimes. If this describes you, then a career in forensic science will probably be the perfect criminology career for you. The term "forensic scientist" does not…
elements be present. (Bohm & Haley, 2012, p. 29) 7. Legal Defenses for Criminal Responsibility In the United States, an offender is not considered responsible or is considered less responsible for an offense if he or she, for example, acted under duress, was underage, was insane, acted in self-defense or in defense of a third party, was entrapped, or acted out of necessity. Those conditions are legal defenses or legal excuses for criminal responsibility. (Bohm & Haley, 2012, p. 30) 8. There are…
Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is part of the UCR. It’s a program that provides a “Nationwide view of crime based on the submission of crime information by law enforcement agencies throughout the country.” according to the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. NIBRS was created in 1988. Before the UCR was “summary based” but according to the textbook it is now “incident driven.” Basically it is a new and updated…
In the United States, the criminal justice system has become an industry that profits off of criminalizing the poor; a practice that perpetuates and worsens the cycle of poverty rather than promote justice as it is meant to do. With the highest Gini rate of inequality compared to all western countries and a record of income inequality last seen a year before The Great Depression, it is apparent that the United States is facing a critical problem with poverty. However, rather than fortify the…