...How St. Petersburg represents Raskolinkov’s State of Mind Devvyn E. Rhodes I.B. English, P.2 Woodrow Wilson High School Woodrow Wilson High School Abstract In the book Crime and Punishment the author, Feodor Dostoevsky tells a story about a man named Raskolinkov that struggles with an internal and external decision making that leads him to committing a murder. Changing his state of mind as he dwells in the city of St. Petersburg, the author provides the reader with a suggestion of representation between the main character, Raskolinkov and the city of St. Petersburg. The representation of the city being a ruin, and as well Raskolinkovs mind. I found how his mind struggles, as well the city of St. Petersburg struggles on a loose foundation of poverty, moral decay, and chaos. How St. Petersburg represents Raskolinkov’s State of Mind In the first page Feodore Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, the city of St. Petersburg is resembled as a low down, dirty, and stifling place to be where men squander around bars blatantly drunk, where women sell themselves on corners for a cheap price; where children have looks of despair written across their faces, as they beg on the streets, digging through the trash cans for a chance of finding some food to stay alive (1). This is an example of a city that is falling to its ruins. Ruins are the leftovers of what there once was, and signifies as the situation that had once occurred...
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...Split Personality Rodion’s personality changes multiple times. Rodion’s different personality switches were determined by the variety of Rodion’s different actions and an inner conflict of morals between two sides within him. After the murder of the pawnbroker and Lizaveta, a dark and rational side of Rodion triumphed over his contradicting side of caring and compassion. Immediately after the impression is left that Rodion is a heartless character, Dostoyevsky counters Rodion’s evil feat with multiple actions of good deeds. Rodion’s more darker and compelling side is what makes Rodion a feared and frightening character. Rodion’s thought process is viewed as a side completely driven by an intellectual rationalizing character that can murder in cold-blood. Rodion viewed the pawnbroker with the same opinion compared to the officer at the bar. “Senseless, worthless, spiteful, ailing, horrid old woman…” (Chapter I, part VI) these were the words from the officer that Rodion concurred. Rodion’s questions included, "Why does she live?" "Is she useful to anyone at all?" and the fact that the Pawnbroker beats Lizaveta, all added to the justification of the pawnbroker’s death. In the beginning Rodion was contemplating if he should kill the pawnbroker but coincidental events and self-justifications pushed Rodion to ultimately, murder. After hearing the two young soldiers opinions on the pawnbroker, it crossed to Rodion that “why, just at the moment when he had brought away the embryo...
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...Crime and punishment considered by many as the magnum opus of Dostoevsky, graphically essays the tragic tale of murder, guilt, suffering and redemption, unfolding in an utmost dismal setting of St. Petersburg of the mid-19th century. The central character of the story is Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikoff , a man with little means oftener found lost in reverie gets possessed with an idea, a theory of his own about ‘ extraordinary men being above the law’, and in order to bring ‘’ new thoughts ‘’ into the society they have a moral license or authority to even deprive a man from his basic right to live . He then sets out to put his theory into practice and as a consequence murders an old woman. The story gyrates around this murder. Through raskolnikoff Dostoevsky provides an in-depth exploration of the psychology of a criminal. The inner world of Raskolnikoff, with all of its doubts, deleria, second-guessing, fear, and despair, is the heart of the story. Dostoevsky does not lay emphasis on the actual repercussions of the murder but the way the murder forces Raskolnikoff to deal with tormenting guilt. Indeed, by focusing so little on Raskolnikoff’s imprisonment, he seems to suggest that the actual punishment by law is much less terrible than the stress and anxiety of trying to avoid this punishment. Further through the portrayal of extreme guilt, suffering accompanied with love Dostoevsky paves the way for raskolnikoff’s redemption from the crime committed Not only raskolnikoff...
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...States continue to use capital punishment? When I read “Execution Rules Still Inhumane” it spoke of one particular accident that led to Florida’s death chamber being shut down their activities for a five month period. The Department of Corrections down their used this time set up all new procedures and protocols for the lethal injection in hopes that it will prevent anymore “botched executions”. They say even with these new procedures, things can still go wrong; problems can still arise. The execution of Angel Diaz is what led to the chamber’s closing. They say it took him twice the normal amount of time to die and he appeared to suffer a great deal because it turns out that no medically trained professional had been there to administer the drugs. Should this one epic fail determine whether or not capital punishment continues to be used in this country? I am going to have to say no. There is a reason why we chose to have the death penalty in the first place, because some crimes that are committed are just too horrible and deserve severe punishment. It is true that what happened to Angel Diaz was a horrible mistake but I was not aware that when attempting to kill someone for crimes committed that we were suppose to make them as comfortable as possible? That whole thing seems a bit hypocritical to me. This may seem harsh but if someone is sentenced to death then obviously the things they have done to land them there make them deserving of their punishment but not pity. One big reason...
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...federation. The majority of Russians identify with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) religion, but Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are also practiced in Russia. Islam, professed by about 19 percent of believers in the mid1990s, is numerically the second most important religion in Russia. Various non-Orthodox Christian denominations and a dwindling but still important Jewish population complete the list of major religious groups in the Russian Federation. In general, Russians of all religions have enjoyed freedom of worship since the collapse of the communist regime in 1991, and large numbers of abandoned or converted religious buildings have been returned to active religious use in the 1990s. Russia's capital city is Moscow, though St. Petersburg once held that title and now serves as a “second...
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...the tragic century of poverty, poor situations and complex emotional and political stability, Fyodor was able to contradict information and perfectly explain the psychological welfare that people desire. After, entering college at St. Petersburg in Russia Fyodor learned of his father’s murder at the hands of serfs. Although, his father was a cruel man, and their relationship was disharmonizing, this...
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...Supporting a Position There are several problems with capital punishment used in this country. In addition there are several issues with the State of Florida's implementation of Lethal-Injection. Florida's procedure for the use of lethal injections is the principal issue in both the NPR Podcast (Which is incorrectly labeled as a podcast as it is streaming only and you can not download it.) and the St. Petersburg Times article. The State of Florida uses outdated and inhumane procedures when administering lethal injections. They do so without a doctor present to insure that the proper steps are taken to prevent what happened to Angel Diaz from happening again. The excuse that it is hard to find doctors that are willing to violate their ethics is inexcusable. The are more issues at hand then just the correct administration of capital punishment. Many of the people executed in this country are innocent. The legal system direly needs to be reworked. There should be protections in place to protect innocent people from being murdered by the courts. The amount of legal red-tape in the appeals process is excruciatingly high. The case of Leo Jones is one example. On May 23, 1981 patrolman Thomas Szafranski was shot by high-powered 30-30 rifle while he was stopped at a traffic light. Leo Jones who lived in apartment near by was later arrested (Mills, 2008). That night he was beaten until he confessed to the murder (Mills, 2008). Retired police officer Cleveland Smith testified...
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...decision of whether the racial bias that is within the system is the fault of the system or the people who create the system had yet to be determined. There is no doubt that there is a need to eliminate racial bias within the criminal system because it does exist. The question that keeps coming up is whether the changes need to be made within the system or within the society that it is a part of. Does Race Decide Your Sentence Severity? In every state statistics show that the prison population is overrepresented by Hispanic and black people. Many Hispanic and Blacks as well as other ethnicities from lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to be convicted of crimes and more likely to receive more harsh sentences than others (www.answerbag.com). According to a specific instance that was published in the St. Petersburg Times there was Tamara Graham a white female who...
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...The paradox of religion is prevalent in Crime and Punishment and is a major component in describing Raskolnikov as a character. In Russian society, religion, particularly Christianity is seen as illogical and insensible; however, Raskolnikov gradually shifts from possessing a nihilistic perception of life to a viewpoint that includes Christian values and beliefs. Furthermore, distinct parallels can be drawn between the characters in the novel and biblical figures. These characters play irreplaceable roles in the novel’s development and Raskolnikov’s character development. Additionally, it seems as though Dostoevsky uses religious symbolism to make assertions about the importance of religion in an increasingly secular society, and how Russian...
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...Cyber Crime Erika Moore CRJU 5500-02F What is cybercrime and how can someone get caught in participating in a cybercrime? Cybercrime any kind of crime committed via the internet or on a computer network. Cybercrime can be anything from hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet fraud, identity theft, to credit card account thefts. All are considered to be cybercrimes when the illegal activities are committed through the use of a computer and the Internet. How bad could cybercrime really be? “Cybercrime is a type of crime that not only destroys the security system of a country but also its financial system.” (Real Cost of Cyber Crime) Cybercrime is the type of crime that is hard to trace, but once traceable it then opens a whole can of worms. Once our government finds out about cybercrimes usually they find more than what they were looking for to begin with. In the past there have been some cybercrime laws that were insufficient but the law enforcement agencies and government have proposed many plans to help fight cybercrime. Once a cybercrime has been committed and traced back to the hacker punishment is required. “Cybercrime must be dealt with very seriously because it causes a lot of damage to businesses and the actual punishment should depend on the type of fraud used. The penalty for illegally accessing a computer system ranges from 6 months to 5 years. The penalty for the unofficial modification on a computer ranges from 5 to 10 years.”(Real Cost of Cyber Crime) There...
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...educational background, gender, occupation, or facial features. Serial killers normally have an image of the perfect victim, but will sometimes settle for anyone, if he cannot find his preference. Victims who are from broken homes, runaways, prostitutes, and they who suffer from drug and alcohol abuse normally fall prey to serial killers. Serial murders sometimes share common characteristic; however, their approach to killing might differ. According to Fahui Wang, some serial killers are organized and others are disorganized. Some serial killers are very organized, and they plan their attacks with care; they tend to be very selective in choosing their victims, and oftentimes, follow the same patterns when committing a crime. Their crimes are planned in detail, and they involve various ways in which the murders will occur. Some serial killers normally know what sort of victim they are looking for, and where and when the murders should occur. On the other hand, disorganized killers are careless and sloppy. Their victims are chosen at random, and they tend to move on impulses and the instant need and self gratification to kill. Most serial killers murder their victims close to or at their residence. Ted Bundy,...
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...An understanding of the Russian nihilism of the 1860s begins with an attempt to understand the concept of nihilism. This is naturally difficult because if there is a word that has even more loaded, and negative, connotations than anarchism it would be nihilism. This is particularly because the primary vehicle of our modern understanding of nihilism is through the fiction of Turgenev and Dostoevsky. Neither of these authors were particularly sympathetic to nihilism and provided nihilist characters primarily as a frame with which to drape their morality tales. The version of nihilism offered by these authors is then, primarily, a snapshot of the popular culture in which nihilism dwelt as much as it is a recollection of the trend. This time in Russian history is part of the story of nihilism and will be part of the story in bridging the gap between the mythological Bazarov, Verkhovensky, or Raskolnikov and figures like Nicholas Chernyshevsky, Dmitry Pisarev, and to some extent Sergey Nechayev. What then was nihilism? Nihilism was a youth movement, a philosophical tendency, and a revolutionary impulse. Nihilism was the valorization of the natural sciences. Nihilism was a specific fashion style. Nihilism was a new approach to aesthetics, criticism and ethics. Nihilism was the contradiction between a studied materialism and the desire to annihilate the social order. Nihilism was also a particularly Russian response to the conditions of Tsarist reform and repression. Nihilism has...
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...of three judges, two men and one woman, had an unprecedented opportunity to clarify whether rape during internal armed conflict constitutes genocide as well as a crime against humanity. Nongovernmental organizations worked to "engender" the Tribunal while holding accountable the Hutu leaders who orchestrated genocide. The critical 1998 verdict influenced states negotiating improved standards for the prosecution of sexual violence and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. "Rape and Genocide in Rwanda" addresses current issues of international law, human rights, women in politics, African Studies, judicial procedure, legal and moral reasoning. RAPE and Genocide IN RWANDA: The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict CASE OUTLINE I. An Unprecedented Opportunity Glossary and Map II. Prior Responses to Sexual Violence in War A. From “Time Immemorial” to 1948 B. From the 1949 Geneva Conventions to an International Criminal Court III. Genocide In Rwanda A. A Colonial Legacy of Ethnic Division B. Mass Killing, Rape and the 1994 U.N. Withdrawal IV. The U.N. Creates a Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda V. The Trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu Trial Chronology and Key Individuals VI. Issues for Judgment A. Threshold Requirements B. Distinctive Crimes? VII. The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict A. The Decision and Rationale B. Issues on Appeal Akayesu’s Right to Counsel and an Impartial Tribunal ...
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...International Humanitarian Law – jus in bello 1. Geneva Conventions The law in this area is covered by the four Geneva Conventions, signed in 1949 after the atrocities of WW2 and two additional protocols signed in 1977. 1. Geneva Convention on the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (GC I) 2. Geneva Convention on the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (GC II) 3. Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GC III) 4. Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GC IV) Protocols of 1977 – in response to the conflict in Vietnam 1. Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Additional Protocol I) 2. Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Additional Protocol II) 2. International Armed Conflict – application of the GC’s • International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) states that an armed conflict within the meaning of the Geneva Conventions is any difference of opinion between two states that leads to intervention or action by the members of their armed forces • Common Article 2 of GC (ie in all of them) states that it will apply: o To all cases of war, and armed conflict between two or more parties to the treaty (even if “the state of war” is not recognised by one of them) o To all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory...
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...The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (US), America, or simply the States, is a federal republic[10][11] consisting of 50 states, 16 territories, a federal district, and various overseas extraterritorial jurisdictions. The 48 contiguous states and the federal district of Washington, D.C. are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) in total and with around 316 million people, the United States is the fourth-largest country by total area and third largest by population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[12] The geography and climate of the United States is also extremely diverse, and it is home to a wide variety of wildlife. Paleo-indians migrated from Asia to what is now the US mainland around 15,000 years ago,[13] with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. Disputes between Great Britain and these colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously issued the Declaration of Independence. The ensuing war ended...
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