In the 18th Century public punishment started to decline and the use of prison grew as a means for punishment. ... It should also be noted that crime rates fell by 43% between 1997 and 2010 with violent crimes falling by 42% whilst under the new government (www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk). ... Do the figures mean that the crime rates have fallen because the criminals are being caught, meaning prison does work or is it just because more serious crimes are being committed and are not being caught? ... The purpose of retribution is to apply a punishment that is proportional to the offender's c...

• Word Count: 3653
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography

Crime and Punishment: Getting Off "The Hook" Repercussions for one's own actions are a common theme throughout literature. Adverse reaction as a result of action takes place in Plato's Five Dialogues, Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, and The Marq...

• Word Count: 2901
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Immediately following the civil war, Black codes created a list of crimes punishable only when committed by black people. ... Fredrick Douglass claimed that many white criminals escaped punishment by blacking their faces during a robbery or a murder. Police always found an innocent black man to blame for the crime since, as Douglass pointed out, all Negroes look alike. ... Davis pointed out that crime has not increased since the 1970s, and that the vast majority of prisoners are serving sentences for nonviolent, often self-destructive crimes. ... The dividends that accrue from investment i...

• Word Count: 3043
• Approx Pages: 12

However, Butler does cite past and contemporary administration of the death penalty, disparities between punishments for white-collar crimes and punishments for other crimes, more severe penalties for crack cocaine users than for powder cocaine users, and the high rate of incarceration of African-American men.2 All arguments regarding Butler's thesis must be framed within the context of these problems, if not directly addressing them. ... First, in 1984 almost 46% of those arrested for violent crimes were Black, while Blacks constitute only about 12% of the national population on the whol...

• Word Count: 3584
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

These motives involved items dealing with pressure from the prosecutor, acceptance of responsibility for the crime, pragmatic reasons, etc. ... Pressure from the prosecutor came in a variety of forms including direct external pressure, intimidating the defendant with several crimes, and severe punishment [Bor851]. Indirect pressure factors such as getting a severe punishment if the defendant refused the plea bargain played a major role, likewise the belief that a guilty verdict was inevitable, and concern of the individual's family [Bor851]. Bordens and Bassett reached the conclusion that...

• Word Count: 3937
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

This law means a 20 year sentence for a person who uses a gun in a certain crime. ... The police searched the crime scene and said that they did not see a gun in the car. ... If an African-American defendant is convicted of harming a Caucasian victim there will be harsh consequences than an African-American committing crime against another African-American. ... Prosecutors and judges make sure that plea bargaining, relative to trial does not give least to the public interest in punishment. ...

• Word Count: 2555
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography

It is therefore to the private companies" advantage to keep the beds filled which brings us to legislation being passed to put more and more people in jail for less and less violent crimes. ... In the 1996 Immigration Reform Act, Congress widely expanded the list of crimes for which a noncitizen must be deported after serving his or her sentence. These crimes, called "aggravated felonies," are now defined to include many offenses that are neither aggravated nor even, in many other jurisdictions, felonies. This has fueled an all-out campaign to find crime-committing immigrants even relatively s...

• Word Count: 3333
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

They committed the crime; they can do the time. ... The political future of problem solving courts will depend on their efficiency and cost effectiveness as a response to crime. ... Stacy Lee Burns states, "Problem-solving courts share the common goal of altering participants' so-called ˜deviant' ways and reforming them into law-abiding citizens, having a future-oriented focus on treatment and recovery (rather than on blame and punishment for past misconduct) " (Burns 2010, p 75). ... The objectives of holding those accountable for the harm while preventing future harm by doin...

• Word Count: 4011
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

What Cops See and Know Criminal investigators have numerous responsibilities when conducting investigations such as following certain procedures and overcoming obstacles to obtain crucial evidence. Jackall describes how officers are required to write a report and research a case. However, Jackall described that in officer Tebbens" situation in researching a quadruple homicide acquiring evidence took extensive time and effort. Officer Tebbens was only given bits and pieces of evidence, an alias, and a few witnesses who were jumbled and confused about their recollection of the event. In c...

• Word Count: 3727
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: Undergraduate