...death penalty is to serve as a deterrent for other would-be criminals. There have been studies conducted to determine if the death penalty is effective in this regard. There is another point of disparity surrounding the death penalty related to the equality of its application. Are all citizens treated equal? This paper takes a closer look at the equality in the application of the death penalty and its effectiveness as a deterrent. Is the Death Penalty a Fair and Effective Deterrent in the United States? The death penalty came to the United States with the first European settlers and continued until the 1960’s. “The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of the death penalty. Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment, and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.” (Bohm, 1999) Since the 1960’s courts have been battling the issue of the death penalty. Currently there are 38 states that have provisions for the death penalty. What is the purpose of the death penalty? The death penalty is the ultimate punishment for a crime. It ensures that the offender will never commit another crime against society. Some would argue that society has not only the right, but the duty to protect itself from severe criminals by executing them. The other side of the aisle might argue,...
Words: 1575 - Pages: 7
...Name: Instructors name: Course: Date: The Lockdown Analysis and Summary In the introduction, the author Alexander Michelle begins with Jarvious Cottons story, a man of African American decent who was on parole from violation of drugs and thus not able to perform his voting rights. Mr Cotton however, is not the only one or the first ever in his family to be denied democratic participation. His grandfather was also intimidated by the Ku Klux Klan who prevented him from voting while his father was also denied his right to vote due to poll taxes and literacy tests. Alexander contends that during the Reagan administration there was an escalation of drug wars which was a purported response to a crisis of crack cocaine in the black ghettos. The war on drugs had a very devastating impact in the ghettos of the African American communities. Even with the election of Barack Obama, Alexander still feels that there was no triumph over race. In the second chapter titled ‘the lock down’, Alexander Michelle also talks about the legal misinterpretations. She clearly notes that due to the war on drugs, there is an inflow of people into the system of criminal justice. Despite the high influx of people, still there is not enough representation for all of them. Because of the case in Supreme Court Gideon vs. Wainwright, everyone including the poor have a right to legal representation. In many cases, a large number of people never have access to legal counsel or if they do are lucky...
Words: 580 - Pages: 3
...Name: Instructors name: Course: Date: The Lockdown Analysis and Summary In the introduction, the author Alexander Michelle begins with Jarvious Cottons story, a man of African American decent who was on parole from violation of drugs and thus not able to perform his voting rights. Mr Cotton however, is not the only one or the first ever in his family to be denied democratic participation. His grandfather was also intimidated by the Ku Klux Klan who prevented him from voting while his father was also denied his right to vote due to poll taxes and literacy tests. Alexander contends that during the Reagan administration there was an escalation of drug wars which was a purported response to a crisis of crack cocaine in the black ghettos. The war on drugs had a very devastating impact in the ghettos of the African American communities. Even with the election of Barack Obama, Alexander still feels that there was no triumph over race. In the second chapter titled ‘the lock down’, Alexander Michelle also talks about the legal misinterpretations. She clearly notes that due to the war on drugs, there is an inflow of people into the system of criminal justice. Despite the high influx of people, still there is not enough representation for all of them. Because of the case in Supreme Court Gideon vs. Wainwright, everyone including the poor have a right to legal representation. In many cases, a large number of people never have access to legal counsel or if they do are lucky...
Words: 580 - Pages: 3
...Bureau of Justice Statistics at yearend 2012, approximately 6,937,600 offenders were under the supervision of adult correctional systems (2013). Of this number, more than 60% of the inmates in prison are minorities however; they make up only 37% of the United States population. Considering the trends in which minorities commit crimes, such broad statistics conceal that racial disparities pervade each stage of the U.S. judicial system, from arrest to trial and sentencing. The first stage of the judicial system is the arrest made by an officer. Police are given an incredible amount of discretion to use that leads to bias and racial profiling. According to Paul Bou-Habib in his article “Racial Profiling and Background Injustice”, he states, “The main reason in favor of using racial profiling in the context of criminal investigation is that I can increase the chance of catching criminals” (para. 2). A key factor in the imbalance of the arrests on minorities in comparison to whites is that they commit more crimes at higher rates. In the article, “The Correlates of Law Enforcement Officers’ Automatic and Controlled-Race Based Responses to Criminal Suspects” by B. Michelle Peruche & E. Ashby Plant (2006) suggests that: Such responses may be influenced by stereotypic expectations. For example, it is possible that Black men are more likely to be violent and hostile may create expectations that Black people, particularly Black men, are more likely to be violent criminals than White...
Words: 2887 - Pages: 12
...were more minorities (predominantly African American) who found themselves incarcerated. Ninety four percent of the prison growth for drug offenses during the nineties was due to drug related offenses and were predominantly African American arrests. This proves that the justice system is not as fair, or just, as is believed. Given this, then, the argument can be extended to include the statement that the death penalty is even worse in its applications. According to the best estimates last year, thirteen million Americans, which accounts for seven percent of the adult population, have felony records. What this translates to, then, is a lack of voter power. Those who have served time lose their voting privileges. Greg Palast's book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, indicates that, indeed, the justice system in many states is completely biased. In many of these states, additionally, the death penalty is in full force. This is a direct reflection of criminal justice disparities so great that an astonishing one in three black adult males in the United States is either in jail, or has been. Black crime rates have been consistently higher than the white crime rate, consistent with blacks' lower socioeconomic status and related higher stress levels and weaker social and family structures, but there has been no massive upsurge of black criminality that could even remotely explain the skyrocketing black...
Words: 650 - Pages: 3
...Juvenile Offenders Juvenile crimes make up an overwhelming amount of arrests in the United States. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that in 2010, courts with juvenile jurisdiction disposed more than 1.3 million juvenile offender cases. Also in 2010, there were 225 arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses for every 100,000 youth between 10 and 17 years of age (OJJDP, 2012). Violent crime committed by juvenile offenders peaks during the after school hours. Nearly one-third (29%) of all violent crime committed by juvenile offenders occurs between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m (OJJDP, 2010). According to the 2011 Juvenile Offenders and Victims: National Report Series, in 2009, 22% of arrests involving youth who were eligible...
Words: 1457 - Pages: 6
...Essay – Advocating for Adults incarcerated Human rights are for every human; Prisoners are human too. A prisoner is deprived of the human right of liberty though? Essay – Advocating for Adults incarcerated Human rights are for every human; Prisoners are human too. A prisoner is deprived of the human right of liberty though? CHCAD603A – Undertake Systems Advocacy CHCAD603A – Undertake Systems Advocacy Human rights are for every human; Prisoners are human too. A prisoner is deprived of the human right of liberty though? Where is the line when they are deprived of one are they deprived on any other human rights directly or indirectly? This essay explores the issues and basic human rights of an adult who is incarcerated and an analysis of structural, political and social factors which play their part in maintaining discrimination against this group and how they are discriminated against. Issues which affect adults in prison and how these affect the individual, community, society and government policy with examples of issues that have changed and how advocacy has been used to create change. The introduction of policies that have arisen as a result of identified issues and how they relate to Human rights will be another focus in this essay. There is a “Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners” guidelines which are an adaption to the Universal Human Rights charter specifically for those who are incarcerated. An example of this is rule 57 “Imprisonment and other...
Words: 1594 - Pages: 7
...Analysis of Racial Profiling In the Criminal Justice System Police officers today face many challenges. Some concerns include dangers or safety concerns related to being a police officer, questions of the use of force and the public’s perception of officers being corrupt. Additionally, with cases of deaths and accusations that have come to the forefront about police throughout the United Stated, questions about police racial profiling have also come to light. Today’s police are considered to be corrupt and prejudice against minorities. Their image has been tarnished and police are now seen as the enemy. Many compare today’s law enforcement officers to the police officers that were prejudice and brutalized blacks during the civil rights movement. If police are to change the public’s perception of them so they can get back to the business of protecting and serving, they must address issues of racial profiling, police brutality and the criminal just system must partner with the community to reduce crime rates and recidivism rates among minorities. First, racial profiling is defined as “any police action initiated on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin of a suspect; rather than on the behavior of the individual or on information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity (Ramirez, 2008, p.3). Originally, racial profiling was used to combat the issue of drugs and assist with...
Words: 3239 - Pages: 13
...sexual, and emotional) can increase the chances of acquiring externalizing disorders such as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy in adult criminal offenders (Dargis, Newman, & Koenigs, 2015). The study also examines the effects child abuse has on developing juvenile conduct disorder, which is the diagnostic criterion for ASPD. The researchers had three predictions: 1. childhood physical abuse would correlate with all three disorders; 2. emotional and sexual abuse would relate to CD and ASPD, but only the “lifestyle and criminal” aspects of psychopathy; 3. and...
Words: 1503 - Pages: 7
...forms of correctional treatment over 15 years and found that juvenile courts and reformatories were ineffective. They believed that a better understanding of causation was essential for crime prevention and therapy, the present study (Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency) was planned to unravel the complex causes of delinquency. The main objective of the study was to uncover the causes of juvenile delinquency and adult criminality and in assessing the overall effectiveness of correctional treatment in preventing criminal careers. This project was a rather large project especially in the era that the study was done. The Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency study started in 1950 and subsequent follow-up studies were conducted in 1956, 1962, 1968, and 1970 (Sampson and Laub1988; Otto Kleinberg 1951). The study employed specialists in all fields relevant to crime in order not to overlook any promising leads to crime causation. Glueck 50 years study was based on the analysis of 1000 cases, and involved the cooperation of a large staff including social investigators,...
Words: 3374 - Pages: 14
...l Race and Juvenile Delinquency by Dubien Tshimanga SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY CAPSTONE PRINCIPIA COLLEGE APRIL 2015 ABSTRACT Throughout history, the struggle of minorities has been seen in many facets of life such as in history, literature, music and film: Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi fought for the right of unrepresented minorities. Books such as Too Kill a Mocking Bird spoke to the prejudices of a community. Movies such as Roots illustrated the hardship of the slaves. From the Roman’s persecution of Christians to today’s rap song lyrics about economic disparities the plight of the minority has been fought for millennium. This research examines the struggle of minorities within the juvenile justice system and the differential rates of adjudication and length of sentencing between the white majority and the black minority juvenile offenders. During the course of this research, additional insights were gained from an internship at a youth correctional center as well as drawing on my own personal experience as a refugee from Gabon. The findings of my research demonstrate that minority offenders do receive harsher sentences than the whites, and that there are several factors contributing to higher rates of juvenile delinquency among African Americans; primarily education and community. To consider the struggle of minorities is important because it creates awareness that the maltreatment of a minority group by the dominant majority often...
Words: 19434 - Pages: 78
...What Works with Juvenile Offenders Juvenile Offenders are categorized differently than their adult counterparts for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that as an offender who is not yet an adult, they are still considered a protected class due to their age and the concern of disrupting their rights to council and the rights of their parents to help dictate the events in their lives. Over the past few decades there have been several studies completed correlating the quantitative analysis in primary research studies with success rates of juvenile offender treatment. Because of the repeated success of certain treatments over others, these studies have lead to an agreement on what programs and intervention strategies work and which have little to no repeated success. By analyzing these treatment strategies as they have been portrayed in academic literature and through the primary research that has been completed, a summary analysis of what plans work when dealing with juvenile offenders will be devised and put forth as the best option for treatment. The first aspect to analyze when dealing with implementing a new strategy for juvenile offender reformation and treatment plans is the idea of quality of the plan versus quantity of sessions required with all individuals in correctional institutions across the United States. In the past two decades, the numbers of individuals within the correctional systems across the United States has skyrocketed. In 2004, the jump in population...
Words: 3477 - Pages: 14
...DOMESTIC CHANGING HEORY CHANGING PRACTICE 1. Introduction Throughout our world, violence confronts us daily. We hear about it on the news. We read about it in newspapers and on the Internet. We experience it subtly and overtly in all cultures and across nations in incidents ranging from ethnic slurs to hate crimes to violence carried out in the name of ideology. Such incidents of violence tend to be easily seen as they fall within the public domain. Less visible, however, but often more devastating, is the domestic violence that occurs within the family and often against women. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) (2001) notes in a summary of research done on four continents that as many as 20 to 50 percent of all women in the studies reported experiencing partner violence. But what are the links among domestic violence, health care profession, nurses, and ethics? In moral philosophy, there is a long tradition of debate on whether true moral dilemmas can exist, some arguing that it will always be possible to decide which obligation should prevail. On this concept regardless of the abstract possibility of an ideal resolution and the pragmatic reality that decisions are made and people have to live with them. An ethical dilemma presents a choice that must be made between two mutually exclusive courses of action, each of which is perceived to rest on a moral obligation that carries significant weight for the actor confronting the dilemma. According to Draucker...
Words: 14007 - Pages: 57
...reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P 0LP. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 335 20427 9 (pb) 0 335 20428 7 (hb) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Croall, Hazel, 1947– Understanding white collar crime / Hazel Croall. p. cm. — (Crime and justice) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–335–20428–7 — ISBN 0–335–20427–9 (pbk.) 1. White collar crimes. I. Title. II. Crime and justice (Buckingham, England) HV6768 .C755 2001 364.16´8 — dc21 00–050174 Typeset by Type Study, Scarborough Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Limited, Guildford and Kings Lynn chapter one Contents Series editor’s foreword Acknowledgements 1 Conceptualizing white collar crime White collar crime and criminology What is white collar crime? Are white collar crimes distinct from other crimes? Varieties of white collar crime Is white collar crime, crime? Researching white collar crime Concluding comments Further reading Exposing white collar crime ‘Counting’ the uncountable:...
Words: 9241 - Pages: 37
...THE EFFECT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT A Thesis by Jennifer Barry Bachelor of Arts, Wichita State University, 2005 Submitted to the Department of Sociology And the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of Master of Arts December 2006 THE EFFECT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT I have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts with a major in Sociology. ___________________________________ Dr. David Wright, Committee Chair We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance. ___________________________________ Dr. Kathleen Perez, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. Brien Bolin, Committee Member ii ABSTRACT This study addresses the increasing importance of student test scores by examining the different factors that influence test scores. Composite test scores of tenth grade students from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 are examined using a four-part model which includes student role performance, school, family, and peer factors. Ordinary Least Squares analysis indicates that the strongest predictor of student test scores is socioeconomic status, resulting in a statistically significant increase in the standardized coefficient of .224 points. These results support...
Words: 10197 - Pages: 41
