Zinn also uses an excerpt from historian Charles Beard to explain his reasoning. Beard basically said that the rich controls the government or the laws the government operates by. Zinn points out that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights shows that quality of interest hides behind innocence. Meaning that Congress completely ignores the freedom of speech. Professor of history Gordon S. Wood views the struggle for a new constitution in 1787-1788 as a social conflict between upper-class Federalists who desired a stronger central government and the “humbler” Anti-Federalists who controlled the state assemblies.
By introducing the history of (crime and punishment) “the American zeal for punishment” (2), Gopnik presents two directions which includes Northern explanation and Southern explanation. The assertion of Northern explanation, Gopnik refers to William J. Stuntz’s issue on Bill of Rights which is that the Bill of Right fails to obtain justice. Gopnik points out that Stuntz argues that the Bill of Rights “emphasizes process and procedure rather than principle” (3). That is, he urges people to realize that rather than focus on how to punish people, human rights should be put first. What is more, Gopnik elevates Stuntz’s issue on justice to Charles Dickens’s idea of the inhumanity of American prisons.
Evan McDonald Prof. Reilly HIST103 Hammurabi’s Code vs. Han Fei’s Legalism Although Hammurabi’s Code, c. 1800 B.C.E. and Han Fei’s, Legalism, c. 230 B.C.E. differed in the consistency of laws among classes, they both relied on the ideas that harsh punishments for crimes will lead to a more orderly society and that people were naturally evil. Hammurabi’s Code was named after the sixth King of Babylon “Hammurabi” who ruled from 1792 B.C.E. to 1750 B.C.E.
Theories on Crime Comparison: Psychological Positivism At the end of the 19th, and into the early 20th century a new school of thought emerged in regard to behavior, called positivism. This theoretical principle maintained that a person’s behaviors, although also the product of free will, were primarily the result of a person’s biological, psychological, and social traits. Modern criminologists continue to use components of the positivist theoretical approach in determining criminal behavior; however, many experts are of the opinion that various aspects of this school of thought are obsolete. This view originates from the knowledge that medical science, psychological research, and sociological studies are far more advanced than they were 100 years ago. Nevertheless, criminologists continue to find useful aspects of old studies even from discredited psychological theories, like psychoanalysis (Williams & McShane, 2009).
The Model Penal Code: Bringing Order to Chaos The purpose of the MPC was to bring about order to the chaos that was American criminal law. It was not the first attempt to codify American criminal law, nor the most ambitious. It was, however, the most successful. To truly appreciate the scope of the MPC, you must understand its historical context. Criminal law arrived in the US in the form of common law, brought by the colonists from their native European, African, and Asian homelands (Robinson, 2007).
The theory of the left realism was originally generated by Jock Young in 1988 where the main aim of the left realism was to be able to avoid what was usually seen as being the worst excesses of both the left idealist and the right idealist approaches to the crime problem which is commonly found in the modern society of today. The right realism was often accused of both the distortion and the dramatization of the problem nature with a sick society talk, crime rates which are out of control and an increase in the moral decay. The left realism on the other hand, was accused of neglecting the crime by not taking the crime seriously by reducing the crime into an ideological distortion on the behalf of the state, where the crime which is committed by the people who are in the working class against other people of the same class is viewed as being a first order problem because of its growing impact on the working class communities
Prisons have been utilized as a means to punish individuals for crimes committed since 1790 in the United States. The philosophy behind how punishment should be administered to inmates has flip-flopped back and forth from the harsher forms of retribution to the milder forms of rehabilitation. Prisons have experienced a booming population, worker exploitation, and medical reform for the inmates. Prisons serve a well needed part of the criminal justice system, yet they are the least thought of part of the criminal justice system. References Banks, C. 2005.
Crime maybe controlled by fear of punishment 4. Punishment that is severe, certain, and swift will stop crime They believed in fast punishment instead of long trials. One of the major parts of criminal punishment reform was for fair and equal treatment of accused offenders. Judges could punish criminals however they wanted to no matter how severe the crime. 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.
Control Theory Sherrie R. Muasau Department of Criminal Justice April 25, 2011 Introduction Control theories take the opposite approach from other theories in criminology. As their starting point, instead of asking “What drives people to commit crime?” they ask “Why do most people not commit crime?” Social control theories tend to demonstrate a view of human nature that reflects the beliefs of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), a seventeenth-century English philosopher who was convinced that humans are basically evil. In Hobbes best-known work, Leviathan (1651), he argued that the desire for money and fame was part of human nature. The scholars who developed control theories see delinquency as a somewhat normal behavior emerging from unmet wants and needs (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990). Their focus is on the control factors that prevent people from committing criminal or delinquent acts (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Hirschi, 1969; Nye, 1958; Reckless, 1967; Reiss, 1951; and Sykes & Matza, 1957).
What are the major approaches that criminologists use to explain crime? Explain each of them. Which approach or approaches would be of greatest practical use to the security manager? Since ancient times, criminologists study various theories of crime in order to place measures that may reduce or eliminate specific crime risks. They are trying to use different approaches to explain crime by different category of theory, such as psychology, biology and sociology.