The And Clarke 's Theory Of The Criminal Justice System

Biological Theories have been related to crime for a long time. The Biological Theory talks about how one’s brain has an impact on committing crime or not. Dr. Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist from California talks about the biological influences in a brain. He believes that the combination of three major aspects can determine whether someone is psychopathic or not. Fallon states a combination of genes, damage to the person 's brain and the environment surrounding the individual will have the biggest impact on a person (Fallon, 2009). A real world example of the biological theory in full effect was the crimes of David Berkowitz, aka “Son of Sam. Berkowitz was accused and found guilty of killing over 6 people in New York City. After being convicted and locked up for a few years, studies had shown that Berkowitz had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Berkowitz also claimed that his neighbor’s dog, Sam had told him to do the killings as well (Biography). Comparing the Biological theory to my own life was pretty simple because there is a genetic factor that runs in my dad’s side and that is tempers. Tempers tend to flare fairly easy, and luckily so far there has no issues with the law, however like Fallon had said, with the right combination, anyone is possible to commit a crime at any time. I feel like in a biological theory, this would have a major impact on my life

The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.

The legal right is with the officers which allows them to search passenger compartments which are found in the suspect’s vehicle. If officer feels that adequate suspicion exist, they have every right to conduct limited suspect search. Vehicles can be searched by the officials without a warrant, if they have the probable cause with them as per the fourth amendment.

A conspiracy theory is a theory that argues that the rich and those with power seek the make sure the criminal justice system fails because they benefit from that failure. Conspiracy theories are hard to be proven and for it to succeed, it has to be kept a secret. There’s no credibility in the sources due to the degree of secrecy. Conspiracy theories are invalid because it doesn’t correspond with how people behave most of the time. The Pyrrhic defeat theory isn’t a conspiracy theory because the theory bases itself on why the criminal justice system fails and that’s due to our own shortcoming of not trying hard enough to prevent it.

It is unfortunate that crime exists in our daily lives. There really is no way to stopping crime completely, no matter how many laws or punishment are present, people will continue to keep breaking rules. There are many theories of why that may be the case, for example, Caesar Lombroso and his “atavistic” theory with the Positivist School theory and how people were “born criminals”, or the Rational Choice Theory, devised by Cornish and Clarke, described that people could think rationally and how people will naturally avoid pain and seek pleasure referred to as “hedonism” (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 4). Since it is apparent that crime will continue to exist, it is not only important to understand the study of crime and the feedbacks to it,

There are more people incarcerated in the United States of America than any other country in the world willing to count their inmates (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016). How can this be? Foremost, the criminal justice system in the United States of America (which is made up of the police, the courts, and the corrections) is not working toward reducing mass incarceration the way it should be. The criminal justice system is set up strategically to accomplish two goals: to bring in money and to gain power. The byproducts of achieving these two goals are mass incarceration, ethnic and racial profiling, and minimal justice. The system needs to change its goals to: reducing crime and doing justice. The police, the courts, and the correctional system all feed off of one another and affect each other. Therefore, if real change is going to be made, it needs to happen in all three branches of the criminal justice system. A system that seems to be working well is in Norway. Norway’s criminal justice system does not look like America’s system. The criminal justice system in Norway has different philosophies concerning crime, justice, and the corrections. "We don 't look at our inmates as criminals, but rather as regular people who have committed a crime." (Skulberg, 2010, p. 73) This is a quote from a Norwegian prison guard giving an example of the ideology in Norway. In order for the United States to reduce crime and to have true justice, first, the policing model needs to change

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

“13th” is a documentary directed by Ava DuVernay. It is named after the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution which outlawed slavery unless you are being punished for a crime. The film focuses on racism in the United States’ criminal justice system. According to DuVernay, the part of the 13th Amendment that says “unless you are being punished for a crime” is a loophole that has been used to allow slavery to continue in the early days during reconstruction and even now. This loophole coupled with the criminalization of the black man has led to mass incarceration of minorities. The United States which has only five percent of the world’s population but has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. The prison population of the United States has exploded from 300, 000 in 1972 to 2.3 million now. Each component of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, the courts and corrections, has contributed to the perpetuation of slavery through its contribution to mass incarceration.

The Whites’ family is a crime-bred family from West Virginia, Boone County. This family struggles with addictions to alcohol and drugs, is in and out of prison and jail, and also depends on illegal means to acquire what they want and need. All these decisions lead to separate facets of the criminal justice system allowing for separate theories to set into and take place in the families. I choose Cornish and Clarke’s rational choice theory, general strain theory, and Sutherland’s differential association theory.

With the exception of probation, imprisonment has been the main form of punishment for serious offenders in the United States for over 200 years. Americans can be said to have invented modern incarceration as a means of criminal punishment. Although Europe provided precedents, theoretical justifications, and even architectural plans for imprisoning offenders, Americans developed the blueprints for the typical prisons of today and devised the disciplinary routines, types of sentences, and programs that prison systems of other countries subsequently adopted or modified (Rafter & Stanley 1999).

Theories of crime causation get to the fundamental characteristics of human nature. Theories of crime causation can be separated into trait theories and choice theories. Both types of theories make valid points about the causes of crime, yet they are have different implications for preventing the causes of crime. Thesis: Trait theories and choice theories both assume that humans are self-interested, but their conceptions of self-interest limit the applicability of each to certain types of crime. Trait theories appear more suited for explaining the causes of violent crime, whereas choice theories are more appropriate to property crimes or economic crimes.

The article seeks to address the question of why there is so little criminal justice theory. The thesis of the article is that disregarded associations between the inconvenience of political power and authoritative structures in the criminal justice framework hold a vital component to understanding the tasks of this framework, in regular and additionally atypical circumstances. The article begins by discussing the absence of theoretical initiative in criminal justice research.

According to Cesare Beccaria, crimes occur when the potential pleasure and rewards from illegal acts outweigh the pains of punishment. Otherwise known as the classical school of criminology. The positivist school of criminology founded by Cesare Lombroso believed that criminals were born with traits and did not commit crimes on free will, as the classical school of criminology would suggest. Both schools of criminology impacted the criminal justice system that we live currently and that have occurred in the past. These two ways of thinking have very few, if any, similarities but their differences are more obvious.

Therefore the reason for their urge to kill is critical when considering the effects society has on them. When analyzing A Control Theory of Delinquency by Travis Hirschi, he states that “Control theories assume that delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken.” (Hirschi, 172) Here he analyzes elements of the bond which include Attachment, Commitment, Involvement, and Belief. With respect to Attachment it is clear that with lack of attachments to others comes the freedom from moral restrains. It is also important to consider that alienation when there is interpersonal conflict. With this in mind those that do murder others, especially individuals discussed above, have endured this lack of attachment and as a result, because he is not bound by the social norms he is free to deviate. Another element of bond is involvement. Here Hirschi states that “a person may be simply too busy doing conventional things to find time to engage in deviant behavior.” (Hirschi, 175) Involvement in society is crucial but when taking into account socioeconomic backgrounds not everyone is presented with the same resources and opportunities, therefore not everyone can count on the same methods to become involved. Therefore without these opportunities certain individuals are more likely to fall into juvenile delinquency which later leads to more serious crimes.

The criminal justice system of the United States is based on a system fragmentation and operation. This system consists of overlapping powers between the state and federal laws that creates a conflict with regards to criminal justice. Consequently, this generates a dysfunctional and inefficient system that a times fails to produce credibility in criminal justice. The rationale behind this is that there is no clear interpretation concerning where federal law ends and where state law begins.