There has been a negative impact on public safety, county jails and state prisons, judge & juror as well as the cost that will be seen by tax payers now and in the future. The Three Strikes Law The habitual offender legislation or better known as, The Three Strikes Law has brought about many different theories. Theories have ranged from a person’s physical attributes to the person’s social interactions as the causation of crime. Policies have ranged from harsh punishments, long incarcerations, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and probation in attempts to stifle the increase of criminal behavior. Recently, conservative theorists have rallied toward “get tough” laws because the consensus is that “criminals are beyond reform and must be incapacitated behind thick walls” (Lilly, et.
Even tough crime is very complex; this paper will go to focus on the category offences against persons, in this case murder offences. As a concern of violence becoming higher in rates among Canadians, the government should reintroduce Death Penalty as a possible penalty of the crime of murder except specific cases to the aim of preventing and deterring crime nowadays. Also in this paper I will examine the arguments against the return of death penalty by analyzing and discussing David Milgaard case. Although is questioned to be and immoral act by faith, and currently a cruel act by Canadian law, Death
This essay will show that whilst the law often has a broad meaning, in the UK for example, “Any hate incident, which constitutes a criminal offence, perceived by the victim or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate” (Stonewall, 2012), being able to identify and punish hate crimes is far more difficult that it would seem. Whilst there has been a significant rise in the number of hate crimes being reported, the actual definition and clarification of the categories of groups included as possible victims of hate crime remains unclear and as a result, application of the law lacks parity across these groups. Johnson (2010) wrote that over 50,000 hate crimes had been reported in the UK in the preceding year, with over 43,000 reported as racially motivated and almost 5,000 incidents motivated by a person’s sexual orientation, either gay, straight or bisexual. When considering groups who would be most vulnerable to hate crime, race and sexual orientation are likely to spring to mind, although as Gerstenfeld (2010, p.2) points out, precise groups that are included as victims in definitions of ‘hate crimes’ can vary from place to place but race and religion always seem to feature – the two oldest reasons for division in society. Gerstenfeld (2010, p.9) goes on to point out that the simplest definition of a ‘hate crime’ is that it is a criminal act that is
In this speech I am going to tell you about the types of insanity defense that are used in court cases, the process that goes into verifying a criminals sanity, and the issues that come about after a plea is entered. Now I’m going to explain what insanity is and the different types associate with it. The insanity defense plea as defined in law journals is a defense that’s asserted by the accused in a criminal prosecution as a way to avoid liability for a commission of a crime because at the time of the crime the person did not appreciate the nature or quality or wrongfulness of the acts. Cognitive insanity is the most common variation of an insanity defense that goes through the court system. This is where the defendant during the time of the crime suffered from a mental disease that impaired his/her psychological ability to see the wrongfulness of the act they committed.
It is hard to disagree with Goulding’s steadfast argument that the characteristics of the murder victims dictated the poor publicity of John Martin Crawford’s crime. He aptly defended his position with relevant quotations and cross analysis comparisons of similar serial killings in Canada that acquired more media attention (Goulding, pg 217). Goulding’s argument is further solidified, though not mentioned in his book, by the work of victimologists. Most victimologists would agree that a prime determinant of the public’s reaction to a crime would be the characteristics of the victim(s) (Karmen, pg 37). As Terry Hinz (the prosecuting lawyer of the John Martin Crawford case) suggested, the public
Beverly West September, 14, 2010 History 320 Critical Analysis One Genocide, mass murder, elimination, and annihilation of selected groups across the globe is an investigation in which Daniel Jonah Goldhagen explores in his book Worse Than War, Genocide, Eliminationism, and the ongoing assault on Humanity. Goldhagen challenges three positions of why genocide, elimination and expulsion occur. These three perspectives of why mass murder occurs, is State centered perspective, another is Society center perspective, and the Individual centered perspective. He first challenges the state centered view and demonstrates that it is correct in the state being the prime mover, but the perspective does not explain why certain groups are targeted, and why others are not. The society centered perspective demonstrates correctly than an animus can motivate a group to kill, but it does not explain once again why some groups are targeted, when they do not affect the social conflict or are not included in cultural prejudices or why the events occur at the designated time.
In the last chapter of Watchmen we are confronted with a moral and ethical dilemma - Should a crime be punished if the punishment itself might result in an even bigger crime? (I'll be writing more about it in a separate article). But according to poor Rorschach "wrong must be punished, no matter what". And here I come to the part that literally turns the whole outlook of Rorschach's character from a mindless-psychotic-killer-Rorschach to
I intend to show how Agnew’s theory of strain describes the murders committed that are later determined to be caused by battered women’s syndrome. Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) argues that strain or stress is the major source of criminal motivation. He expands upon Merton’s Anomie Theory of strain and stress to include several causes of strain or stress. Agnew categorizes 3 types of strain that produce deviance: the failure to achieve positively valued goals, the loss of positive stimuli, and the introduction of negative stimuli. There are several different actions that can be taken to correct the strain in order to curb deviance, including exercise, counseling, and advocacy programs (Agnew, 1992).
Sentencing and Punishment Essay Casey Dempster Justice Spigelman’s comment clearly states that in terms of achieving justice within sentencing and punishment, the judge has a significantly challenging task. The judge is required to consider the reasons for punishment, types of punishment, punishment for specific crimes, as well as aggravating and mitigating factors. In the past, some judges have been heavily criticised on their particular discretionary judgements, resulting in various reforms which have occurred within the legal system in attempt to overcome this. The Crimes (Sentencing and Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) being the primary source of legislation that outlines the law regarding sentencing and punishment. These reforms have also taken place in order to
To what extent have policing deficiencies that contribute to miscarriages of justice been mitigated? For the purpose of this assignment the following essay will be looking at miscarriages of justice and the policing deficiencies that led to them. The cases that have been outlined will show that there are common themes that apply to most injustices which are the police and the way they handle suspects, questioning, detention, human rights and so forth. It will also be taking a look at racism within the law and one high profile miscarriage of justice case that poured racism from every angle and had society screaming for reforms to the law to make sure it never happens again. This paper also looks at two other high profile injustices, the cases