Crime after Crime: A Documentary

Crime is often described as socially constructed, which influences our understanding of who commits a crime. Firstly, labelling theorists argue that crime is a social construction based on the powerful’s reaction to certain behaviour, those who are deviant are people that have been labelled as such. Marxists claim the bourgeoise construct crime in order to criminalise the proletariat, get away with their own deviance and maintain their own dominance. Neo-marxists look at how moral panics create a social construction of crime and can criminalise certain groups. Finally, feminists, argue crime is constructed in a patriarchal way and that the criminal justice system is harsher to female offenders. Whereas others criticise these theories for

Violent crimes happen every day in America, yet the full scope of why and how they happen are not understood by many outside of law enforcement. But within the ranks of law enforcement and the criminal justice system itself, violent crimes are examined and analyzed at length to determine both how and why the incident occurred, as well as what can be done in the future to prevent a similar event from reoccurring. Investigators use multiple methods and seek various explanations as to why a violent crime occurs. This literature will look at some of those things that investigators try to sort out in the aftermath of a violent crime, such as the killer’s modus operandi and signatures, his psychology, relation to his victims, and how the effect of gender, race, or culture might impact his violent behavior.

Within the criminal justice system, officials abuse their power. The officials of the justice system have a duty to protect and perform their duties with unbiased decision making. The abuse of power jeopardizes people’s lives who are not able to sustain oneself and their families. Some people do not understand that poorer people find themselves in jail more and once a person is released, that person is subjected to return to jail for the amount of money owed to the state. There are many obstacles for the poor, especially those of color. People of color are treated unfairly in the justice system, from the arrest, the sentencing, and the release. The criminal justice system is supposed to be just but that is not the case. The criminal justice system allows for the police, public defenders, and judges to bend the laws and not be punished for their actions or that apologizes can fix the wrong that has been done. This paper will discuss the abuse of power from the justice system and the solutions to rectify the damages.

Hillary Clinton said, "We can do better. We can not ignore the inequalities that persist in our justice system that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality." She was correct in her statement, we need to reform our criminal justice system because it is highly lacking in fairness and equality. 2.38 million Americans are in prison, with another five million on probation or parole. 1 in 31 adults in the United States are in jail, prison, or on probation or parole. (Ferner) The populations of our prison are increasing, while trust in law enforcers is declining, and if we want to solve the inequalities we must reform parts of our criminal justice system. We should reform our criminal justice system to fix the inequalities of mandatory sentences, bail, and we should create reentry programs to help released inmates stay crime free.

The Power and Control Wheel is a diagram that was created based on life experiences of 200 battered women (Van Wormer & Bednar, 2002). Ellen Pence surrounded the Power and Control Wheel with different approaches men use to sustain power and control in the relationship besides physical violence. Ellen believed that men not only desired power and control, but also felt they had the privilege of deserving power and control due to their gender (Batered Women’s Justice Project, 2016). According to Ellen’s research through the 200 battered women, the methodologies that men use are: coercion and threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, minimizing, denying and blaming, using children, using male privilege, in addition to economic abuse (Van Wormer & Bednar, 2002).

In today’s society, discrimination continues to affect millions of minorities from inappropriate name calling to being shot by a law enforcement officer because you were perceived to be dangerous. The underlying effects of racial discrimination are seen in all aspects of our society, especially in our social institutions. These social institutions range from the educational system to our government, yet racial discrimination is more evident in the criminal justice system. When analyzing how the criminal justice system discriminates against minorities we are able to do so through the visible disparities within the system. Unfortunately, these disparities display African Americans having the highest population rates in the criminal justice system, therefore, we can immediately conclude this disparity in population is due to the injustices conducted by the system. Thus, there is a need for urgent change not just within the criminal justice system but within all social institutions beginning with our government. This change should create greater opportunities for minorities to enter the political field in our government as well as promoting higher participating in voting. Yet, the criminal justice system within all its aspects practices discrimination due to its deeply interwoven prejudice, institutional racism, and socioeconomic status.

Sentence was passed and in that moment my whole life completely changed. In the background, you could hear the people chant, “Justice has finally been served!” They don’t know me I thought. Everybody makes mistakes, right? But, where was my second chance in life. My luck, the death penalty became legal again and eagerly waiting for me to become its newest member. My palms grew sweaty as always when I grew nervous and scared. There was nothing I could do. These people wanted me to pay for what I put them through.

From Plessy v. Ferguson to Meyer v. Nebraska, to Korematsu v. United States, the criminal justice system the fight for the civil rights of minorities has improved greatly. However, when looking at the statistics and rates of sentencing and incarceration over time, the

While the nation has recognized the significance of having the first African American man as President, clearly societal issues of race are still very prevalent in the United States in the 21st century. What is striking about the discussion of race is how frequent national attention to these issues is focused on race and the criminal justice system. However, people may view the justice issues in these situations, they represent moments in our national life in which it becomes clear that longstanding differences in how we perceive the criminal justice system are still very evident today and, in many ways, continue to define the racial divide in the country. For these reasons, as well as ongoing concerns regarding public safety and the impact of incarceration on communities of color.

Criminal justice as a “man’s field” is evolving, presenting high-paying, flexible career opportunities for women. For example, Condoleezza Rice is the first black woman to serve as the United States' national security adviser, as well as the first black

Since the 1970’s domestic violence against women has been a huge issue in the United States. In fact, battered women flocked to safe havens within local shelters that were created to protect them and their off spring. (Stark,E. 2012). It was determined that domestic abuse had dangerously heighten during the 80’s, and special attention was essential to addressing the spike in cases. With law enforcers being on the front line, it was determined that they needed the training to spot and assess domestic cases. Unfortunately, many cases were not simply cut and dry cases. It appears that the offenders mastered tactics which masked abuse against their partners. Physical abuse that was once an obvious and domineering sign was now replaced with a new type of abuse. This abuse crippled the victim by mentally incapacitating their victims. Such tactics are known as Coercive Control. According to Stark, this type of control uses psychological and emotional tactics in order to control the victim into doing what they wanted. (Stark, E. 2012). In fact, 40- 89% of women are under coercive control in many domestic cases. Some scare tactics used attempt to isolate, degrade, exploit, and control the victim. In comparison, Stark discussed in his article “Rethinking Custody Evaluation in Cases

Crime is a social construction, and behaviour defined as criminal varies across time and place. Crime is an act that violate moral behaviour, but why is that not all behaviours that violate moral behaviour are labelled as crime? This is because crime is defined differently across different societies and different times. Neutralisation and drift theory helps us to explain why people abuse children by showing us how perpetrators rationalise their guilt for these actions before they physically, sexually, emotionally abuse or neglect children. They do this by blaming their actions on other people, higher forces or believing their acts are harmless. In this essay I will begin by talking about crime as a social construction then touch on child abuse in New Zealand followed by a discussion of how my social contract theory helps us to explain this crime.

a. Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal. Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in this video.

A theory is an explanation of why or how things are related to each other (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Additionally, a theory is defined as a plausible or scientifically acceptable principle, or a body of principles, offered to explain phenomena (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2017). Furthermore, crime theories examine and attempt to identify relationships among humans, criminal behavior, and specific factors such as biological factors, psychological factors, sociological factors, and economic factors (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Since we have defined a theory, let us further discuss how theories are created beginning with the components of a theory.

Women of different races, age groups, and lifestyles have dealt with sexual, physical, and psychological abuses from history until today.