Crime and Punishment Lecture

Crime and Punishment

Types of CrimeJustifications of Punishment

Punishment and Controversy

Types of Crimes

Crimes Against PersonsCrimes Against HabitationCrimes Against PropertyCrimes Against MoralityModern CrimesConsensual Crimes

Types of Crimes

Also known as “violent crimes”

There are five major types that the FBI measures:Battery: Unlawful application of force by a person on another.Homicide: The killing of one human being by another.Hate Crimes: Can be defined as an offense motivated by hatred against a victim because of his or her race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, handicap, or national origin.Rape: Unlawful sexual intercourse without her /his consent with the intent to rape.

Crimes Against Persons

Types of Crimes

The fifth type of crime against persons is assault.Two different types:

Attempted Battery: Engagement in conduct that comes reasonably close to committing a battery, having the present ability to succeed in committing the battery, and intending to commit the battery.Intentionally Placing Another in Fear: The placing of another person in fear that he or she will receive an immediate battery; the victim must be in fact apprehensive; the conduct must be sufficient so as to create apprehension in a reasonable person; and the defendant had the intent to create that apprehension.

Crimes Against Persons

Types of Crimes

These crimes are against the place where a citizen sleeps regularly.

Two major types (Territo 2004):Burglary: which is the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony therein.

Arson: The malicious burning of a dwelling house of another.

Crimes Against Habitation

Types of Crimes

These crimes include (Territo 2004):

Larceny: Taking and carrying away the personal property of another with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property.

Robbery: Same elements as Larceny but adds that the taking of property must be in the presence of the victim by the means of either violence or intimidation, or both.

Embezzlement: Fraudulent conversion of the property of another by one who is already in lawful possession thereof with the intent to defraud the victim.

Crimes Against Property

Types of Crimes

Includes:

Bigamy: Marrying another person while one’s spouse is still living.

Incest: Two people either marry or have sexual relations when they are closely related by blood.

Crimes Against Morality

Types of Crimes

The most frequent modern crimes include:

Computer Crime (case in point: online gambling in SG)Identity TheftCredit Card Fraud

Modern Crimes

Types of Crimes

Also known as victimless crimes, because it is an act that all involved parties choose to be involved.

These crimes include gambling, drug use, and prostitution.

However, some people argue that these crimes are not victimless crimes, because social norms are violated.

Consensual Crimes

Types of Crimes

Think about this:

Two main arguments are made for decriminalizing activities such as marijuana use, pornography, and prostitution. What might these be?

Consensual Crimes

Types of Crimes

Think about this:

Two main arguments are made for decriminalizing activities such as marijuana use, pornography, and prostitution. What might these be?

Criminal sanctions against these activities constitute an unwarranted intrusion into individual privacy and an indefensible extension of the government’s authority.

Some argue that enforcing laws against these activities overburdens the police, the courts, and the prisons and increases congestion problems in the criminal justice system.

Consensual Crimes

Types of Crimes

Territo, L., Halsted, J.B., & Bromley, M.L. (2004). Crime and justice in america: A human perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

For further reference

Justifications of Punishments

Retributive Theory / Backward-lookingRetribution

Utilitarian Theory / Forward-lookingIncapacitationDeterrenceRehabilitationRestitution / Reconciliation


Lex talionis, “an eye for an eye,” “a tooth for a tooth”Core concept: the offender should suffer at least equally to the victim

Retributivism


Is Retributivism just revenge?

Critics of retributivism have argued that it is just revenge dressed up in nice clothing.

However, proponents of retributive justice argue that retribution is not simply vengeance. Retribution is directed at the crime and not personal. It involves no pleasure at the sufferings of others.

Retributivism


Further criticisms of Retributivism

Lex talionis offers little guidance in specific cases of punishment

Can lead in particular cases to punishments that are cruel and that have no morally good effects

Retributivism


The deterrence argument has two premises:

Empirical Premise: Punishment deters crime.Normative Premise: Reducing crime is good.Conclusion: Punishment is good.

Deterrence


Empirical Premise: Punishment deters crime.

Uncontroversially true in general sense

But, does it deter those who are the worst criminals?

Deterrence


How would you argue for and against rehabilitation as a form of punishment for criminals?

Rehabilitation


Against Rehabilitation

Some have objected that prisons are training schools for prisonersMay conflict with demands of retributionMay result in longer sentences in some cases, much shorter in othersMay be very costly to administer

Rehabilitation


For Rehabilitation

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:Articles 1, 2, 3 ,5, 29.

Assumptions: people are not permanently criminalrehabilitation can reduce criminal

recidivism

Rehabilitation


“The Scales of Justice”

Fundamental metaphor: an underlying balance which must, if upset, be put back in order

Punishment is seen as resetting the moral balance by punishing the offence

Punishment of elderly Nazis

Restitution / Reconciliation


How, after a rupture in society, do we reestablish harmony?

Nazi war crimes trials

Peace and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa

Truth commissions in Latin American countries such as Chile after overthrowing dictators

Persecution of Khmer Rouge regime



Proponents of restitution and even some retributivists argue that victims have a right to see their perpetrators suffer their just desserts

E.g. families of victims at executions


http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/29/sdexecutionlegalities/?rsssource=1


What counts as a crime or a valid form of punishment depends on societal choices. Some of these appear to vary from one society to another.

Drug useSexual orientation and practicesVandalism

Punishment is a social construct


Many theorists are concerned that too great a concentration on punishment detracts from solving the social conditions—such as poverty--that give rise to crime.

In the United States, there is a disproportionately large percentage of people in prison (716 per 100,000)Blacks – 3161 per 100,000Whites – 487 per 100,000

Singapore – 230 per 100,000Japan – 54 per 100,000

Punishment and social conditions


Consider punishment other than prison so that the offender

May gain insight into the pain and suffering caused by the crime

Drunk drivers going to accident scene

May be more effectively rehabilitatedAvoids prison as a school for criminals

Punishment and imagination


In many places in the United States, children had been tried as adults even though they were less than 18.

In Florida, a 14 year old boy was given a sentence of life without parole for killing a 6 year old girl when he was 12 years old.

On March 1, 2005 the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for crimes committed when the offender was less than 18 years old. This affected 72 persons on death row:

The younger the perpetrator, the greater the reason for trying to rehabilitate rather than simply punish.

Punishment of Juveniles


Data on repeat offenders released in 1994:

Released prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were robbers (70.2%), burglars (74.0%), motor vehicle thieves (78.8%), those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%), and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%).

Within 3 years, 2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape, and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for homicide.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rpr94.htm

Chronic Offenders




How do we deal with chronic offenders who will very probably commit further crimes as soon as they are released?

Three strikes law

Chemical castration

Approved by California legislature in 1996 for chronic sex offenders on parole, also in Montana

Indefinite sentencesConfine to mental institutions after sentence is served—ok’d by Supreme Court in 1997

Chronic Offenders


Punishment is a major growth industry in the United States.More and more prisons are being built by private firms.

What’s the problem here?

Privatisation of Punishment

Punishment and ControversyPunishment and Torture

Juvenile Justice Project

Refer to handout!

Crime and Punishment Lecture

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Transcript of Crime and Punishment Lecture