"If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be

punishment- as well as the prison."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment,

Ch. 19

Where are we ??

Paper 1 Morality in the modern world (40)

(Ethical theories - 10 Crime and Punishment - 30)

Belief and Science (40)

Paper 2 Buddhism/Christianity (40)

Crime and PunishmentCrime and Punishment

Think

• What do you think are the causes of crime?

• Why do we punish?

• What are your thoughts on Capital punishment?

Nature or NurtureNature or Nurture

Since the beginnings of the Since the beginnings of the study of genetics many have study of genetics many have argued that criminal behaviour argued that criminal behaviour could be explained by the could be explained by the presence of certain genes.presence of certain genes.

Do we have any evidence?

Genetic?Genetic?

Tony Tony MobleyMobleyFebruary 1991, Tony February 1991, Tony

Mobley walked into a Mobley walked into a Pizza store in Pizza store in Gainesville USA, Gainesville USA, emptied the till and emptied the till and put two bullets put two bullets through the back of through the back of the Managers neck.the Managers neck.

He had been out of control He had been out of control since the age of 11.since the age of 11.

He had been to a series of schools and psychologists and none of them could do anything with him.

By the time he murdered the bank manager of the Pizza store, he had already done six other robberies and had a history of theft and stealing cars.

In court, Tony’s cousin stood up him his defence. She said Tony never stood a chance,

•His grandfather was violent and abuse.

•A great uncle went to jail for murder.

•His cousins were also violent. One beat up his wife with a gun and one let his friends rape his two daughters.

His great grandmother was also violent and beat up her daughter in law!

• Therefore it was argued, Tony’s violence was inherited from his relatives and his action could be blamed on genes. There was nothing he could do…

He was a Natural Born Killer !

Stephen Anthony Mobley

Executed March 1, 2005 08:00 p.m. by Lethal Injection in Georgia

Can Tony’s violence be blamed on his Genes?

Do you believe that he inherited his violence from his family?

Do you think there are people who are natural born killers?

Any other evidence?

Perhaps it is our experiences as we grow up?

Feral Children

Feral children, also known as Feral children, also known as wild wild children or wolf childrenchildren or wolf children, are , are children who've grown up with children who've grown up with minimal human contact, or even minimal human contact, or even none at all. They may have been none at all. They may have been raised by animals (often wolves) raised by animals (often wolves) or somehow survived on their or somehow survived on their own. In some cases, children are own. In some cases, children are confined and denied normal social confined and denied normal social interaction with other people.interaction with other people.

Isabel Quaresma, the Chicken Girl of Portugal

Confined to a hen coop

Isabel Quaresma was born in 1970 in Tabua, Portugal, to a mentally deficient mother, Isabel was the only one of three children not fathered by a family member. When she was found in January 1980 at the age of nine, she had spent the last eight years shut in a hen-coop.

Isabel Quaresma: rescued but returned

Neighbours had been aware of the situation, but no one had deemed it necessary to interfere in what was seen as a family matter.

It appears Isabel Quaresma was eventually taken at the insistence of a neighbour to various hospitals, where she underwent some tests, but was subsequently returned to live with her mother and the man with whom she co-habited.

How was she affected by these conditions?

• Her growth was seriously stunted,

• She was not toilet-trained,

• She couldn't talk.

• She held her arms in the position of hens' wings, and the palms of her hands were calloused.

• She had been fed on scraps; the same food as the hens received.

• One eye was affected by a cataract and there was some speculation whether that had been caused by a hen scratch.

Isabel makes very little progress

Eventually she was taken to an institution for handicapped children.

18 years later…

• Isabel had not grown much and made little progress generally.

• She could understand simple orders, but if asked to fetch two items, would only understand one request and return with one item.

• Her mental age was estimated at about two.

• Physically, she had learnt to walk, but still suffered a delicate stomach. Not surprisingly, she still couldn't talk.

What do these examples imply about …

• People and their behaviour?

• Crime, Punishment and Society?

The Human Genome Project• In Feb 2001 Scientists discovered that there

were not enough genes to “programme” us.

• We are more likely to be formed by our experiences.

• This scientific discovery supports those who believe that “criminals” can change because they were not born like that.

• It throws us back on ourselves to create a crime free society.

So, what about crime in our society?

• Street crime ,muggings, violence, gangs, juvenile crime, murder and theft have always existed, and some crimes are actually less common than they used to be.

For example murder has been declining since the middle ages.

• In the 20th century, the murder rate was 20 per 100,000 of the population, now it is 1 per 100,000

Crime figures need very careful analysis

• Do crimes such as rape, child abuse, and domestic violence, appear to be rising simply because people are more willing to report them?

• Do crime figures fluctuate because the police change the way they record them?

• Do crime figures rise in wealthier societies just Do crime figures rise in wealthier societies just because there is more to steal?because there is more to steal?

Many believe the media is to blame sensationalising crime and causing fear.

InequalityInequality

• Most “criminals” are young men from lower socio-economic groups

• Many have been brought up in run-down inner city areas, where dreadful housing , under-resourced schools and hospitals , organised crime, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and violence are the order of the day.

• More crime is committed in very unequal societies where some groups are discriminated against or feel that they have little to lose by embarking on a life of crime.

• It is true that some crime rates are rising but the increases affect the poor much more than the wealthy.

• For instance in some parts of London an Asian person is 50 times more likely to be attacked than a white person.

• Most crime involves poor people robbing other poor people.

““Bang up” CultureBang up” Culture

• Britain imprisons more of its people than any other in Western Europe.

• In 2001 the chief inspector of British prisons condemned the “degradation and immorality of the way British prisons were run, saying that he was no longer prepared to keep apologizing for the “hell holes” of modern prisons.

Nature or Nurture?

• What do you think and why?

Is it in a persons genes how they behave or do we learn from our environment?

Punishment… Why?

In any society there needs to be rules/laws

No point in laws if they can’t be enforced

What happens when people break laws?

System of punishment.

Severity of punishment reflects the seriousness of the law that is broken

Punishments can vary

FinePrisonProbationCommunity service order

The Purpose of Punishment

Retribution or Retribution or revengerevenge- for a past wrong, the lex talionis.

(The simplest expression of lex talionis is the biblical injunction of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" in Exodus 21:23. )

Backward-looking

• Deterring others from breaking laws• Protecting society from law breaker

Forward Looking

• Reformation – to bring about a change in character

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/452614.stm

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/265558/Ian-Brady-get-8k-legal-aid-to-fight-for-right-to-die-

• Reparation- making up (clean slate)

Capital Capital PunishmentPunishment

"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders." -Albert Camus, French philosopher

"To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice." -Desmond Tutu

“If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life.” Kant Philosopher

An eye for an eye… Exodus OT

Capital Punishment Methods Used Worldwide

There are 7 main methods of execution in current use worldwide: • Hanging: if properly conducted, this is a humane method. The neck is broken and death comes quickly.

•However, if the free-fall distance is inadequate, the prisoner ends up slowly being strangled to death. If it is too great, the rope will tear his/her head off.

http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/alaska.jpg

• Electric chair: Nobody knows for sure how quickly a person dies from the electric shock, or what pain they experience.

The internal organs are burned. It can often take a few charges of electricity before the person is killed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4B7JfYECNc

•Firing squad: The prisoner is bound and shot through the heart by multiple marksmen. Death appears to be quick, assuming the killers don't miss. In the U.S., only Utah used this method. It was abandoned in favour of lethal injection on 2004-MAR-15, except for four convicted killers on death row who had previously chosen death by firing squad.

•Poison gas: Sulphuric Acid is dropped into potassium cyanide producing Hydrogen Cyanide, a deadly gas. This takes many minutes of agony before a person dies.

• Lethal injection: Lethal drugs are injected into the prisoner while he lays strapped down to a table. If properly conducted, the prisoner fades quickly into unconsciousness. If the dosage of drugs is too low, the person may linger for many minutes, experiencing paralysis. Executions in the U.S. are gradually shifting to this method.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=dfiaDkK_sY8

• Guillotine + Be-heading: A famous French invention. It severs the neck. Death comes very quickly (but very messy). (Be-heading in many Muslim countries).

• Stoning: The prisoner is often buried up to her or his neck and pelted with rocks until they eventually die. The rocks are chosen so that they are large enough to cause significant injury to the victim, but are not so large that a single rock will kill the prisoner. Used in some Muslim/ African countries as a penalty for murder, adultery and other crimes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIaORknS1Dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPqNCr8KKdU

From Times Gone by

• Burning at the stake in public was used in Britain to punish heresy and in some cases witchcraft, committed by either sex, but latterly for women convicted of High Treason or Petty Treason.

The garrotte (or garotte) was the standard civilian method of

execution in Spain.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pov2ZtgO_r4

•Hung, Drawn and Quartered - This was the ultimate punishment available in English law for men who had been convicted of High Treason. Women were burned at the stake instead, apparently for the sake of decency.

The full sentence passed upon those convicted of High Treason up to 1870 was as follows :

“That you be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution where you shall be hanged by the neck and being alive cut down, your privy members shall be cut off and your bowels taken out and burned before you, your head severed from your body and your body divided into four quarters to be disposed of at the King’s pleasure.” So not for the faint-hearted then!!

Status of the death penalty worldwide as of 2005-NOV:

Status of the death penalty worldwide as of 2006 Oct:

Colour scheme:

Blue- Abolished for all crimes

Green- Abolished for crimes not committed in exceptional circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war)

Orange- Abolished in practice

Red-Legal form of punishment for heinous offences.

It is important to realise that the definition of heinous offences varies greatly around the world. In some states of the U.S., the death penalty is restricted to multiple murderers. Engaging in Pre-marital sex or changing one's religion can be a capital offence in other countries.

 

• What is the purpose of punishment? 4 KU

• “Capital punishment is still legal in the United States of America”

Describe in detail two methods of execution in the USA. 4KU

For Monday 22nd Aug