Case Study: Robert William Pickton October 10, 2010 Introduction Serial killers have long astonished people throughout history with their sadistic and disturbing behavior. Academics have researched and theorized the question of what factors or influences foster individuals to become serial killers. In the following paper I will do a case study of Robert William Pickton who faced twenty-six-murder charges in 2002. I will analyze the case of Robert Pickton using a different theory in the areas of sociology, psychology and anthropology. Criminology can be used to reveal how society, police and the media all created a vulnerability that gave Pickton the opportunity to carry out his killings.
The one thing both these laws have in common is that they both try to control the behavior by imposing sanctions on those who violate the law. In the case of O.J Simpson, he was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Nichole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, and found liable for the wrongful deaths of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Under the criminal law, O.J Simpson pleaded 100 % not guilty for these two counts of first degree murder. During all the criminal proceedings there was plenty of evidence that pointed the finger to Simpson. In the end Simpson was acquitted for the murders of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Bundy was a necrophiliac who admitted to beheading 12 of his victims. Biographer Ann Rule described him as "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after". On June 7, 1977, after being convicted for his crimes Bundy escaped jail and was on the FBI’s top ten most wanted fugitives. He was later found and put back on death row where he admitted to his crimes and took full responsibility for his crimes. Ted Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989 in
The Collapse of Enron Barbara Bonnema Post University The Collapse of Enron What led to the eventual collapse of Enron under Lay and Skilling? How did the top leadership at Enron undermine the foundation values of the Enron Code of Ethics? How did Enron’s corporate culture promote unethical decisions and actions? These questions are answered and explained with examples as follows: 1)There are several reasons that eventually led to Enron’s collapse: a) A corrupt leadership at the top. Numerous Enron executives were charged with criminal acts, including fraud, money laundering and insider trading.
This is necessary since law enforcement officers are committed to criminal investigations involving accounting fraud. This is why a growing number of accounting fraud investigations require use of convicts (Mack, Toni, 2010, p. 34). The Enron case turned into a criminal conviction of one of the Big Five auditorsFoss, (Michelle
Your Honour, ladies and gentlemen of the jury and my learned colleagues, I am the prosecuting attorney for this case. Now let me begin as I reiterate the conclusions made so far. The defendant, Iago has been charged with two counts of first degree murder; malice aforethought, and theft. Your honour, the death of three human beings is unlawful. Those individuals being: Roderigo, Emilia and Desdemona.
Brief overview of WorldCom’s case and general discussion of its fraud nature: Beresford, Katzenbach and Jr (2003) stated that, from 1999 until 2002, a few executives at WorldCom perpetrated accounting fraud that led to the largest bankruptcy in history. The principle business strategy of its CEO – aggressive growth through acquisitions underlined its collapse and eventually imposed pressure to management to commit fraud. In fact, WorldCom’s fraud was a consequence of a set of complex factors, including the existence of dominant senior management, structurally weak internal controls, inadequate audits by Arthur Andersen, the poor oversight of the Board, and pressure from Wall Street’s expectation, etc. The large scale collapses of WorldCom and Enron triggered immediate remedies of corporate governance, essentially the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which aimed to solve the issue of “lack of confidence” in the reported financials. WorldCom’s fraud was an intentional misconduct of the perpetrated senior management that results in an $11 billion material misstatement in the financial statements via two principle forms: reduction of the reported line costs and exaggeration of reported revenues, in order to create an image of increased earnings and revenue and hold the line costs lower than the industry average rather than indicate the truth and fairness of WorldCom’s wealth and progress (Beresford et al, 2003).
Capital Punishment and the Deterrence Theory Capital Punishment Deters Crime 11/9/2012 Dr. Ji Seun Sohn Brooke Lee Capital Punishment and the Deterrence Theory: Capital Punishment Deters Crime Jerry Kilgore said in an editorial written for USA Today, “As a former prosecutor, former secretary of public safety and now attorney general, I believe that some crimes are so evil, some criminals so dangerous and some victims so tortured that executing the criminal is appropriate” (Kilgore, 2002). Capital punishment, or commonly referred to as the death penalty, is the most controversial of all of the disciplinary practices. Since it involves taking another human being’s life, this is not at all surprising. Since it is the most severe of all sentences, there have been countless efforts to abolish the death penalty, and in most of the industrialized nations, with the exception of Japan and the United States of America, these efforts have proved effective. In this paper, I will discuss the effect that capital punishment has on deterring criminal activity.
However, the traders were fired once it was revealed that Enron's reserves were gambled away which nearly destroyed the company. After these facts were brought to light, Ken Lay denies having any knowledge of wrongdoing. Needless to say, when required to testify before the U.S. Congress on the reasons for Enron’s collapse, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow, sought refuge under the Fifth Amendment. Andrew Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling, and Kenneth Lay are among the most notable top-level executives implicated in the collapse of Enron’s. Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron was prosecuted on 11 criminal counts of making misleading statements and fraud.
The irregular accounting practices, including manipulating stock prices, caused Enron to have to file bankruptcy in December of 2001 (Thomas, 2002). The scandal is the most significant corporate collapse in the United States since the failure of many savings and loan banks during the 1980s (Hanson, 2002). Enron collapsed for many reasons. .Among the many reasons were the lack of attention shown by members of the Enron board of directors to the books financial entities and the lack of truthfulness by management about the health of the company and its business operations (Hanson, 2002). The firm’s senior managers had engaged in fraud for an extended period through a scheme in which partnerships owned by the managers could receive payment for goods and services never provided to Enron.