...Crime and punishment why do we need laws · if there were no rules there would be chaos · if there were now laws about business deals and work, society ould not operate · we need laws to protect the weak from the strong · we need laws to keep everything organised why does there need to be a connection between the law and justice · if the law is unjust, people will feel that it is right to break the law · if the law is unjust, they are not fulfilling their purpose of making sure that people are rewarded for their work. · if the laws dont create a just society , people will think the legal system isnt working and might start a civil war. · if laws are unjust, they will disrupt rather than unite society. theories of punishment 1. retribution is the theory that criminals should pay for their crimes because : · it makes criminals pay for their crimes in proportion to the crime committed . · it make s the criminals suffer for their crimes · it punishes the criminal. 1. deterrence is the theory that the punishment should put people off committing crimes . 2. reform is the theory tht criminals should be taught not to commit crime again.Many people think this is the best way because: · the onl way to stop crime is to turn criminals into law abiding citizens. · most criminals have had a bad upbringing and they do no know how to live without crime. · gives criminals meansto find propper jobs and stay out of trouble 1. protection is the theory that...
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...banned the Death Penalty. The Death Penalty, also known as Capital Punishment, has been a topic that has been debated about whether it should be legal or if it should be banned for years. The Death Penalty is the punishment of execution, ordered to someone who commited a capital crime, like murder. There are many reasons as to why the Death Penalty should be legal but there are just as many reasons for why it should be banned. Death penalty should be legal because it gives closure to families that have been affected by those who have been convicted for a capital crime. In the article “Reform, Don't Repeal, the Death Penalty,” written by The Los Angeles...
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...know is illegal and could ensue death for themselves? Is someone else’s pain and misery worth your life? Would you want to know when your time was up? The death penalty should be illegal considering it is an act of murder, it is inhumane, and that person can be used for other, useful things within jail. Hundreds of thousands of people die each day. Planned or not, it happens. Murder, suicide, diseases, car accidents, or maybe even the death penalty. The death penalty costs tremendous amounts of money and resources, and it doesn’t seem to decrease criminal activity. If you think about it, how many people have been killed as a result of the death penalty? And still, how many people are committing crimes? It doesn’t scare people. Ballaro and Cushman say “Where the death penalty is allowed, it is often used in a racist manner”. As harsh as it sounds, what good is a dead body? There are many of jobs nobody wants. Pressing license plates, military can always use more help, truck driver, etc. Nobody wants these jobs, they want the money and/ or benefits that come with the jobs. If someone has committed a crime, they definatly do not deserve to have a high paying job but if nobody is wanting to take them they could occupy the jobs and be paid minimum ways or even nothing depending on how bad the crime was. Many people have been murdered as a result of the death penalty. That person may have been killed for killing someone else. How is this fair? It is murder. Murder is illegal, why should...
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...these topics come up in all kinds of political debates and rallies around the country. Some of those important topics are; Abortion, Capital Punishment, Gun Control, Immigration, and Sex. In this new day and age, abortion has become possible through medical advances, which has also made it a pressing social topics during presidential debates. Democrats have the more liberal views on this topic believing it is “woman's right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy”. They also strongly believe in funding stem cell research, giving the mother the option to choose if she cannot afford the abortion, choice is a fundamental and constitutional right to all women. The Green Party share a very common outlook as the Democrats on Abortion. Their view is it is always a women’s right to choose, keep abortion...
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...to host the 2002 winter Olympics. This would represent the state of Utah and the United States as a whole. Some might agree that these practices of bribery were illegal and unethical, as they gave gift to the International Olympic Committee IOC. While others might question, was this an illegal act of bribery or just a simple act of lobbying? Lobbying is when someone (in this case SLOC) tries to influence members of a legislative body to vote in favor of something (in this case hosting of the Olympics). So if one were to examine the idea that SLOC were “lobbying” this would mean that they were trying to influence or convince individuals to vote in favor of them hosting the winter Olympics in 2002. Now in order for this act of giving gifts and capital to be legal they would have had to influence a body of people relevant to the decision of who would host the Olympics, proving to them that they are a worthy candidate. This is the difference between lobbying and bribery. Lobbying is proving through facts and experience that the candidate is worthy without the recipient being obligated to act in their favor, while bribery is just paying for a position because the recipient is normally obligated to act in the favor of the giver. Bribery is offering money or gifts for political action. When SLOC gave the gifts and capital it was with the expectation...
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...Capital punishment is necessary to regulate violence, without capital punishment the civilians live will be unsecure and increase fear of violence in our society. Crime can occur anywhere; individuals that commit crimes become a fragment of our everyday lives; sometime we need to address the issue of crime, and questions that need to be answered of how to reduce crime from further happening and what appropriate punishment should be considered. Some individuals that commit a crime because they have no other option to survive, but some individuals do it for the pleasure of it or for personal gain. If a desperate mother stole bread and butter from the supermarket definitely do not deserve the death penalty. However, a terrorist or a serial killer...
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...Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Death Penalty I remember watching the movie Dead Man Walking; it was about this man named Matthew Poncelet who allegedly raped a girl and killed a teenage boy. Poncelet pleaded not guilty, but was convicted as a murderer and put on death row. He asked for several appeals stating that Carl Vitello, the man he was with at the time, was the one that should be at fault. Poncelet seems very convincing that it wasn’t him, but at the end, the courts had enough evidence to grant Poncelet the retribution of execution. The movie has me questioning America’s justice system; what if someone was actually innocent? Is it right to kill someone as a consequence for their wrong doing? To some, it seems like the right thing to do. If someone breaks the rules you simply punish them. But how should we carry out these punishments? When eight-year-old Billy steals a candy bar from Seven Eleven, you can bet that one of the parents will deliver some whippings. In Texas, when I was in elementary school, I started a fight, and as a result I got sent to the principal’s office and received three licks with a paddle. So where do we draw the line? At a higher level, what happens to me if I kill someone? Since the beginning of time, societies in almost every culture and background have used capital punishment or physical chastisement as a consequence for the killing of others. But, we shouldn’t be doing this anymore; life is too valuable. Even though some people...
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...Stanley Lam | 4/5/2010 | An academic essay written by Stanley Lam for the Applied Law Enforcement class regarding his thoughts and opinions on how to fix the skids located in the Downtown Eastside. | ------------------------------------------------- How to Fix the Skids By: Stanley Lam This paper will be regarding the topic on “How to Fix the Skids” for Applied Law Enforcement class instructed by Al “R.C.” Arsenault. “Skid row” or “the skids” is located on the 100-block of East Hastings Street in Vancouver, British Columbia; right between Chinatown and Gastown. The Downtown Eastside is also where the safe drug injection site called Insite is located. Through this paper, a few solutions will be discussed on what actions should be taken in order to “fix the skids”. A few issues that will be discussed include: the cost of drugs, harm reduction, drug rehabilitation programs, drug importation, revisal of criminal justice system, and criticisms. According to Wikipedia, Vancouver was for many years the main port-of-entry for the North American opium supply resulting in the rise in popularity for the usage of opium and heroin. During the Great Depression, a pattern of social decay became well established in the Downtown Eastside due to the gathering of the unemployed and poor amongst the area. During the 1970’s, the alcohol and poverty problems in the area was made worse by the expansion of the drug trade which included the importation of crack cocaine. Currently...
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...bad, are essential to society; our “communities”, as we know them, would cease to exist outside this fact. Nevertheless, since humans are not perfect, “human laws”, whatever its source or intended impact/ remedy, are intrinsically flawed. History is consistent with this fact. Laws set “appropriate behaviors”, but “appropriate” is subjective to conditions, time, power, and/ or struggles. While we don’t want to live without laws and, God forbid, become animals, there are laws that should be changed. History proves how laws can often unfairly discriminate against particular groups of people based on race, gender, and/ or sexual orientation. The theory of law is far from the reality of its application. There has been gross misconduct on the part of many of the so called representatives of the law. Preferably, everyone should live under a fair legal system, and in court take part in a process that is unbiased and impartial. I have long been against the death penalty; a law which I believe should be abolished across the United States. Laws are enacted because the society as whole benefits, but I am not able to reconcile the...
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...Should Thailand abolish the death penalty? As 31 December 2011, 71 Thai male prisoners were executed by Department of Correction. Most of them are drug traffickers. At least 676 people worldwide were under death sentence in 2011. However, the 676 figure does not include the thousands of people who were believed to have been executed in China. Do you think that is right to put someone guilty to death? Personally, I do not agree with this legal process to put a person to death as a punishment for a crime. I strongly believe that Thailand should abolish the capital punishment. I have three reasons to support my opinion. In my view capital punishment is immoral, cruel, and inhumane. First of all, Thailand is a Buddhism country. Lord Buddha teaches us not to kill any animals. How can kill humans who did something illegal. Is it better to give them a chance to feel guilty and improve themselves by giving them a life sentence? By doing these they can make a social distribution, such as cleaning drains or roads, and so on. Moreover, the Christianity and Bible tell us that no man has the right to decide if another man should live or die. All in all, to kill is sin in all religious. Secondly, death penalty is really cruel because the method of execution. For example, beheading in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, electric chair in the US, hanging in Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. In addition, every body involved can be psychologically affected. Not only the officers who...
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...An unknown speaker once said, “Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all”. Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics in the world. Punishment is only effective if it is constantly enforced, and capital punishment can't be enforced all the time. People who commit crimes of personal violence may or may not premeditate the crime. Death is irreversible and there is nothing that will make the victim come back to life. Since 1990, in the United States, there has been an average of more than four cases each year in which an entirely innocent person was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Notwithstanding, it can help control crime and in some cases, it can be just. It also gives closure to the families...
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...through more severe punishments or stricter regulations, the country must understand that there is no clear solution in the short-term. Recent calls for stricter punishments of white-collar crimes may not result in less financial crimes. Throughout history, financial crimes have been punished with severity, at times including capital punishment. The Code of Hammurabi, utilized 3700 years ago, called for anyone who violated a financial contract “shall be put to death as a thief” whereas in Medieval Catalonia, a failed banker was required to live on bread and water until they paid back their depositors. Despite this, financial crimes of varying degrees still occurred. In today’s financial world, it is increasingly difficult to prosecute financial crimes. The issue that routinely arises is whether or not the suspect’s conduct was illegal as opposed to simply greedy. Federal prosecutors have consistently explained that they need to prove intent in order to convict financial crimes. In order to facilitate a more consistent prosecution rate of financial criminals, it is essential that federal attorneys utilize creative thinking in reference to the web of federal statutes that can be brought against financial institutions that violate regulations in their quest for more money.In order to better identify illegal activity, it is essential that the country enact legislation in line with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) to clearly outline what is considered illegal. Thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley...
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...he death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime. A big part of abolitionist’s argument is that the death penalty is not humane. They pull in Amendment 8, “…nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” What the victim went though was indeed “cruel and unusual punishments’.” The murderers’ death is not cruel. The people will demand justice for what he or she has done (Bidinotto 19). Hanging and the electric chair are topics more reasonable to argue, but now because of lethal injection capital punishment has become more humane. The death penalty is not barbaric, the pain and agony that the victim went through is barbaric. Abolitionists were very upset in 1996 when rapist and murderer John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad; they said his death was barbaric (Feder 32). Charla King, the poor 11-year-old girl he raped and strangled with a telephone cord, her death was barbaric! It makes no sense to think that John Taylor’s’ death was barbaric or inhumane. He would...
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...run execution? This has been a controversial issue for a long time, yet no one has come up with an exact answer. Yes, indeed, those people should pay for what they have done; and yes, those people deserve death for killing another person. But is death penalty ethical? Although execution is legal by law in certain areas, there is no doubt at all that executing is murdering as well. Would there not be a better way for punishment rather than death penalty? The answer is yes. In Canada, for example, life imprisonment has been used to replace capital punishment since 1976. Because Canada is a country which takes protection of human rights seriously, it realized that execution is inhumane and immoral. It does not mean we have to kill a person to make him pay for his crime. In addition, the prisoner should have spent the rest of his life revising what he has done wrong. Shooting him to death only frees him from taking responsibility. This does not leave any time for him to think about why he should be regretful. Those countries which execute death penalty also have to consider one thing: if the person being executed is the only one who raises his or her family, then how were rests of the family members supposed to live on their own? This problem would not really matter to people who live alone but it definitely affects the others. Should the family claim compensation from the government or just starve to death? After all, death penalty is theoretically used to punish one man...
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... Four reasons of Racial Disparity The four reasons for the flourishing continuance of racial disparity in the criminal justice sentencing process are ineffective assistance of procedural bars, and council, jury selection and venue, prosecutorial discretion, and juror racism (Tabak, 1999, p. 6). Research documenting states like New York and California prosecutions have board spectrums concerning discretion seeking capital punishment; however, these four reasons apply to cases, which capital punishment is sought. “Capital punishment can be sought for intentional murders which individual may commit during the course of a felony and the intent to commit murder can be formed instantaneously before the killing without premeditation” (Tabak, 1999, p. 6.) Ineffective assistance of procedural bars and counsel is a reason for the existence of racial disparity because “proving the ineffectiveness of procedural bars and counsel is extremely difficult to prove with the system that lawyers are ineffectual” (Tabak, 1999, p. 6). An individual facing capital punishment or life with parole may seem...
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