"For the past 8 years from 1999 there has been a 5% decrease in the rate of crime among Canada's three largest provinces and 9 largest metropolitan areas." This was quoted by Statistics Canada on July 18, 2000, in a publication of The Daily. Crime can be defined as " any act or omission regard...
Due to the overwhelming caseloads processed through the court system, the needs of the offender for additional treatment (i.e., drug addiction, mental illness, alcohol abuse) find themselves incarcerated in an already overcrowded jail or prison with little or no treatment programs to address their i...
Before the 18th Century prisons were just a means for holding prisoners before trial rather than for use as 'punishment'. Sanctions for criminal behavior tended to be public events which included whipping, branding, physical torture and even execution. This was designed to shame the criminal and deter others. In the 18th Century public punishment started to decline and the use of prison grew as a means for punishment. However reformers such as John Howard attacked the prison conditions stating they were inhumane and full of disease (http://www.howardleague.org). ...
While most Americans believe that the justice system is comparable to CSI, Criminal Minds, and Law and Order, the real American justice system does not work in such a fashion. As one may know, on these television shows, most cases get solved and are brought to justice through a court trial. However, in reality most cases are solved or ended in a plea bargain. Plea bargaining in the United States is one of the most controversial issues due to the fact that the practice of plea bargaining is necessary because of the United States high crime rates, and insufficient facilities and personnel to try...
Annotated Bibliography The Death Penalty for Juveniles The following research draws upon different opinions and perceptions for and against the further enactment of the death penalty for juvenile offenders. The various articles that are presented draw conclusions on the pros and cons of using t...
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 whole. 5 Overall, Blacks are twice as likely to be arrested when compared to whites.6 This data could be construed to mean simply that Blacks commit more crimes than whites. ...
How media portrays crime and the effect it has on the public In our everyday life, we rely on many different forms of media for both information and entertainment; from news channels, to television, even the video games we play all fall into the category of media. Since we have such a social connect...
"Broken Windows Theory" was introduced in the "Atlantic"" 1982 social science article, by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. Since the "Broken Window Theory"" was presented it has been an issue of great debate. The main idea of the theory was policing and maintaining order. Signs of disorderly a...
America has always prided itself on being the land of the free. Our national Constitution and Bill of Rights have ensured that the people of America maintain their basic rights, and more. Nevertheless, many of the rights guaranteed in these historic documents are often the subject of heated debate. The right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination, the First Amendment's protection of speech and petitioning activity, all of these issues has been subject to contentious arguments in cour...
Capital Punishment: Is it right or wrong? The death penalty has not remained constant throughout American History . It has undergone numerous changes and reforms in the past two centuries, falling in and out of public favor. The death penalty has been in our legal system since our legal system was created, but still remains one of the most controversial punishments in United States history. Each person can form their own opinion on the death penalty, but ultimately the government sees the death penalty as a just form of punishment for those who commit such horrible crimes as murde...
The Declaration of Independence states, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". But how much of this is true? Since the very beginning of the legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. Appearance has held such precedence for Americans. Now, with the threat of terrorists, many use racial stereotypes to determine who is accountable for our unsafe environment. ...
Capital Punishment: A System of Error Since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated, eighty-seven men and women have been taken off death row and freed because they were proven innocent. Since the turn of the century, 343 people have been wrongly convicted. Of these, 137 were sentenced to d...
Current research into this difficult and pressing issue reflects a vast range of theories about, and predictors of delinquency as well as a multitude of strategies to control and reduce overall delinquency. ... Multiple strategies will have to be employed concurrently and optimally all members of the family will have to be involved in improving the overall quality of the home environment. ...
All of my life I've wanted to be an officer of the law, more specifically an R.C.M.P. Though as my life went on and I grew older I realized that these goals maybe unreachable. So I set out in the world of finding a career that would satisfy my financial and family needs, and personal goals. In the next few paragraphs I will try to describe how my work history never compared to my goals and expectations of my dreams, and hopefully come to some conclusions on where they lead me. My dream of being a police officer started at a very young age, as a child playing I was always a cop, never ...
The past century has been one of sensational crimes that have amazed many Americans. Form the Lindbergh baby to the exploits of Al Capone, to serial murderers like Ted Bundy. Crime has become a cultural phenomenon that has captured the interests of academics and the causal reader alike. To look back at the last century we can see an explosion in books on true crime and a growth in the fields of psychology, sociology, and criminology. This growth in book sales as well as academic research has shown that the crime wave of the twentieth century has caught the attention of the average citizen. ...
During the eighteenth century, piracy began ruling the waters surrounding the American colonies. For many people piracy adds an exciting thrill to maritime history with its adventure, romanticism, mysteriousness, and its alluring nature. However, piracy is just the practice of a pirate: these pirates conducted robbery or illegal violence at sea; violence and crimes that killed, hurt, and affected the lives of others.1 Legally, crime is broken into three different parts: mens rea, the mental state of mind the criminal had during the crime; actus reus, the acts that are criminally committed; an...
Deterrence Leslie Cantu: Fear of death deters people from committing crimes, proponents say. They also believe that if attached to certain crimes, the penalty of death exerts a positive moral influence by placing a stigma on certain crimes like manslaughter, resulting in attitudes of disgust and horror to such acts. Furthermore, retentionists insist that the deterrent influence of the death penalty reaches across state lines into jurisdictions that have abolished it, and so all benefit by its continued use. Perhaps this is the intended goal of the Violent Crime Control And Law Enforcement Ac...
Presented Problem- Gangs As defined by Sgt. M. Longo's website on "Gang Information" of the Huron Valley Mens, "a gang is a group of people that form an allegiance to the exclusion of others, for a common purpose of engaging in violent, antisocial, or criminal behavior" (www.geocities.com/rainfore...
On balance, they show that there is nothing to be gained from reducing the general level of gun ownership. (3) A thorough review of 18 studies of the effects of gun availability among potential victims and criminals found that the overall effect on criminal violence was zero. (4) In one study, researchers found no significant differences in total robbery rates between cities where guns were widely available and cities where they were not; in cities with fewer firearms, armed robbers simply used other weapons. (5) The best available evidence, based on at least eight national surveys of the gene...
