Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation If laws were not in place, individuals could not hold onto their individual properties. Social life would be impossible without laws to help control the way people behave, think and treat each other while in public and private locations. Criminal laws were designed to reflect the accepted behavior in a community, such as morals and the criminal act itself, or Mens Rea and Actus Reus. Thus when people break the law and are caught, the accused are provided certain constitutional rights. Criminal law consists of bodies of regulations and rules that will specify and define the punishments for the wrong committed against society or the state.
Mr. Beccaria and other members of the Classical School fought for punishment to be set by legislative instead of judges having all of the authority for punishment. The members of the Classical School of Thought believed that preventing crime was more important than punishing the criminal. When criminals know what the punishment is going to be for the crimes that they are going to commit it will help to deter the crimes from being committed. When people do commit crimes the crime is done of their own free will. This procedure of knowing the punishment with it being severe to the
Marxists also believe that the capitalist system creates laws that are seen to favour the working class and make them think the system is fair and just, however, these are only put in place to appease the subject class and give the appearance of fairness. Marxists also recognise that crime happens across all social sections, and they challenge the view that crime is a working class phenomenon. This take on crime can be criticised because there is too much emphasis on class inequalities in policing and law enforcement, they fail to recognise racial discrimination within crime. In addition this theory is also very deterministic, believing that criminals are driven to crime as victims of the capitalist system, and for also believing that all the working class in a capitalist society commits crime, for example Japan is a capitalist society but they have very low crime rates, this opposes the view of the Marxists. Further criticisms come from the Left Realists, they say that most of the working class crime is not committed against the state as the
Criminal Acts and Choices Sandra Garcia Criminal Justice CJA/204 September 14, 2011 Leroy Hendrix, MS Criminals are often categorized or labeled as the bad seeds of society or the rejects and failures. Those are the individuals that make the choice of disobeying the law and decide to live the life of a felon. Those criminal behaviors later on result to becoming habitual and progressive towards severe crimes being committed. However, for every action there is a reason to better understand the mind of a criminal certain theories have been introduced to the criminal justice system to gain knowledge in why people commit crime and what can be done to prevent it from occurring. In this paper choice theories will be identified and how they
The results, of the crime control model are wrongful convictions, being over-turned and this is a major downfall in the criminal justice system. On the other hand the due process model is more concerned with the structure and the efficiency of the law. The due process focuses on evidences and facts in a case and ensures that a person in innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. In addition the due process model goal is the prevention and the elimination of crimes within the criminal justice
In this essay we will assess the usefulness of these functionalist theories, and look at how it helps us explain crime. One functionalist who tried to explain crime is Merton and his strain theory, the strain theory argues that people engage in the deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. Merton explanation combines 2 elements; structural factors- society’s unequal opportunity structure, cultural factors- strong emphasis to achieve goals and weak emphasis on using legit means. Merton uses the strain theory to explain some patterns of crime in society, he argues a person’s positioning in society affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie. Merton gives 5 different types of adaption; Conformity- the individual accepts socially acceptable goal and achieves it through legitimate means, Innovation- Individual accepts the role of success and wealth but uses illegitimate means to achieve them, Ritualism- Individual give up on legitimate goals but still follow strictly to the rules, Retreatism- Individuals reject legitimate goals and means of achieving them e.g drug addicts, the final type is Rebellion- Individuals reject existing goals and means but replace them with new one in desire to bring about revolutionary change.
The approach to crime which is distinctively sociological assumes that the criminal acquires his interest, ability, and means of self-justification in crime through his relationship to others. To commit a crime is actions in which the law set by the government is broken by people in society “Crime is said to be activities that break the law and are subject to official punishment” (Holborn and haralambos, 2008). The crime rate in 1961 was fifteen thousand, 1971 thirty eight thousand, 1981 eighty nine thousand and finally in 1991 it was ninety five thousand, as you can see the crime rate is slightly rising every ten years. Durkheim tells us that all societies suffer with crime. “Deviance is a normal and necessary part of any society” (Durkheim).
My Deviant Subculture Perspective By Alexander Eisemann The prospective thought of a criminal behavior has engrained itself into the court of public opinion. When convicted of a deviant crime within the American culture, the judicial system interprets the crime according to its bureaucratic roles as a formal organization. The inertia that surrounds our judicial department encourages them to get the job done as swiftly as possible. The outcome of the conviction process mostly benifets the bureaucratic role that the judicial branch serves in government, and alienating what is best for the individual, as long as the conviction is proven guilty or not guilty by our cultures standards-(Hofstadter, Richard Sociology in American thought). The ritualism of how we convict criminals usually does not help them in the long run; taking away their legitimate means for obtaining a job.
Armed robbery falls under the title Larceny and is a crime of theft. It is categorized as it is due to the perpetrators use of threat of force and force. This is why often when a suspect is charged with ‘larceny and theft’ along with ‘robbery,’ here robbery would be the crime that would garner the harsher punishment. Laws differ when it comes to sentencing in each state when a verdict of guilty of the crime of armed robbery is
From a Marxist point of view laws are made by the state, which represent the interests of the ruling class. This argument forms the basis of a theory of widespread crime and selective law enforcement. This shows that crime will occur right the way through society, however poor criminals receive harsher treatment than rich criminals. Marxists tend to emphasise white collar and corporate crime, and pay less attention to blue collar variants. They emphasise that crimes of the upper class exert a greater economic toll on society than the crimes of ordinary people.