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
Justifications of Punishments
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
Justifications of Punishments
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
Justifications of Punishments
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
Justifications of Punishments
The deterrence argument has two premises:
Empirical Premise: Punishment deters crime.Normative Premise: Reducing crime is good.Conclusion: Punishment is good.
Deterrence
Justifications of Punishments
Empirical Premise: Punishment deters crime.
Uncontroversially true in general sense
But, does it deter those who are the worst criminals?
Deterrence
Justifications of Punishments
How would you argue for and against rehabilitation as a form of punishment for criminals?
Rehabilitation
Justifications of Punishments
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
Justifications of Punishments
For Rehabilitation
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:Articles 1, 2, 3 ,5, 29.
Assumptions: people are not permanently criminalrehabilitation can reduce criminal
recidivism
Rehabilitation
Justifications of Punishments
“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
Justifications of Punishments
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
Restitution / Reconciliation
Justifications of Punishments
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
Restitution / Reconciliation
Punishment and Controversy
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
Punishment and Controversy
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
Punishment and Controversy
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
Punishment and Controversy
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
Punishment and Controversy
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
Punishment and Controversy
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 and Controversy
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
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