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In the case of People v. Vasquez, a horrible crime was committed by the defendant, Jesus Vasquez, because he was upset with his girlfriend, Abigail Ramirez, for leaving him and allegedly seeing her ex-boyfriend. Instead of choosing to talk to his ex-girlfriend, Abigail Ramirez, he decided to forcefully break into her home, push her mother down on to the ground, then chase Abigail to the restroom where he violently and horrendously murdered her. There were many primary and secondary victims in this case and left people in pain from his terrible criminal act. Although the defense tries to prove that it was Heat of Passion and that the defendant did not know what he was doing, the evidence proves otherwise. The video shows evidence of shared …show more content…
His brother murdered his wife’s sister. He was affected by the criminal act emotionally. Angry at his brother for his actions and bereaved that he lost his sister-in-law as well as seeing the pain his wife was going through. There is also Roberto “Crazy Boy” Garcia who is the ex-boyfriend of Abigail Ramirez and spoke to her just a day before she was murdered. Although he had just been released from prison and did not have a close relationship with the victim, he was still affected. Abigail was not only his ex-girlfriend but she was also a friend of his. Secondary victims are not limited to only special relationships such as knowing the victim or being neighbors or friends. These types of victims are the people who are affected, just not as severely as the primary victims. In this case, the secondary victims also include Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg, Judge Hammes, the bailiffs in the court room, the jury members, and the guests in the courtroom. These people are not directly involved or affected by the loss of Abigail Ramirez but are emotionally affected by the facts of the case.
In the video of the case of People v. Vasquez, there was evidence of shared responsibility by two of the victim’s family members. Shared responsibility, by definition, is the perspective that the offender does not bear total responsibility for the criminal act, and that some of the blame falls either on the victim or the social system, or both. Summed up, shared responsibility is a possible explanation for why a particular person was harmed by a certain offender. (Karmen, Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology,
Read the posted case study about Benita Vasquez and discuss the following questions: 1. What are the clinical causes of death in the story? a. Senora Vasquez died because of uncontrolled diabetes, Infected wound and diffusing kidneys. With not well-controlled diabetes and acquiring an infected burn wound makes it harder for the patient to get treatment. Thus with the condition of the patient and her current social status, she is unable to afford the treatment and medications needed to alleviate her suffering.
Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your attention today. [Slide #2] I would like to assert that separation is not the end of a relationship. Divorce is not the end of a relationship. Even an arrest is not the end of a relationship. Only death is the end of a relationship. In the case of defendant Donna Osborn, her insistence that ‘“one way or another I’ll be free,”’ as told in the testimony of her friend Jack Mathews and repeated in many others’, indicates that despite the lack of planning, the defendant had the full intent to kill her husband, Clinton Osborn.
There can be many excuses one uses to justify a single murder. Some may blame self-defense, an act of vengeance, or even an accident. A serial k...
Imagine an elderly man inviting someone into his home to take care of him, but then his caretaker surprisingly creates a scheme that will get rid of him because of his eye. The old man trusted him with his life, and suddenly he takes it from him. The man I am describing is Mr. Heart, who is guilty of committing first degree murder. He was the victim’s caretaker for a long enough duration of time for them to develop a father-son relationship with one another, yet he killed him in the end. Members of the jury, after going over the evidence against Mr. Heart in the State of New Jersey vs. Mr. Heart case, it is as clear as day that he should be convicted of first degree murder, because the facts show proof of premeditation, deliberation, and malice.
On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...
Generally, the study of crime mainly focused on the offender until quite recently. In fact, Shapland et al (1985) described the victim as ‘the forgotten man’ of the criminal justice system and ‘the non-person in the eyes of the professional participants’. A new perspective was brought with victimology, an expanding sub-discipline of crimin...
It is important that they feel that the offender is being punished for the crime they have committed. There have been several arguments that victims input into cases may propel the different objectives of sentencing. Vengeance is improved when the degree of the harm caused to the victim is revealed so that the punishment distributed can be measured against the level of damage created. Victim contribution improves prevention since it increases prosecutorial effectiveness, which greatly improves the odds of the offender being found guilty. Victim cooperation may likewise advance recovery as the offender stands up to the truth of the harm caused to the victim. (Hoffman,
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
The basis of successful prosecutions comes from cooperation of the witnesses and victims. Victims of crime play an important role with making the justice system work. Without cooperation or participation, an adequate outlook on the case would be impossible. There are constitutional safeguards provided by the government. Any accused person is allowed legal representation, confront accuser, and have guilt or innocence proved. The Victims’ Rights Amendment of the Florida Constitution also gives rights to a victim. The Florida police department ensures victims’ rights are kept and assists in meeting obligations in the process (University of Florida Police Department, 2014).
... it. For example the cases of Phillip Williams and Michael Ortaliz: Williams’s girlfriend had broken up with him. He became enraged and wanted revenge. Williams hid behind a car in the parking lot of his ex’s workplace, ambushed her and stabbed her to death. Ortaliz was waiting at home for his wife when she pulled up with another man in the truck. Ortaliz, out of anger shot the other man to death. Williams is guilty of premeditated murder because although he acted out of rage, the fact that he hid and laid in wait for his ex to walk past showed a clear case of premeditation.
Alcohol, drugs, lifestyle, and location can also play a role in victim precipitation. A robbery/mugging victim could be at fault if they are intoxicated, on drugs, in a bad part of town, or walking alone at night. Even though they may not take into consideration that these things can play a role in being a victim of a violent crime, it is their responsibility to take precautionary measures to avoid finding themselves in the situation given. In this way, the victim has some contribution to the crime but the offender is the one with more or most
“No one can victimize us, it can only be a projection of our inner milieu,” Joe Jennings says. Anything that we as humans have possibly experienced, we as individuals have to take full responsibility. Another point made my Joe Jennings “We also cannot be responsible for anyone’s happiness.” This touches me deep inside, we truly spend all this time to make someone happy, but we can’t truly know if they are happy and can’t do anything about it. You can be the most caring person to everyone around you and how they treat themselves has a lot to do with how they see themselves. You can’t make yourself feel responsible for things that happen in someone’s everyday life; things happen and you can’t save everyone, all you can do is give love to them. Responsibility has so many different meanings and perceptions, I think this is my favorite way to look at
While this may be true in some cases, not all victims are blameless. There is a clear distinction between someone who is an actual victim of a crime and someone who ended up as a victim due a series of poor choices. For example, someone decides to leave his/her car running with the keys in the ignition while he/she goes into the store to buy a few supplies, and the car gets stolen. Although what the thief did is unethical, the individual’s irresponsibility opened an opportunity for the criminal to steal his/her car. On the other hand, an actual victim would be someone who parks his/her car in the driveway at night, locks it, and sets the alarm; however, in the middle of the night, it gets broken into and stolen. Here’s the critical difference between the two scenarios: the first person is a victim of his/her conscious, reckless decision to leave the car running; while the second person took responsible measures to prevent car theft, yet ended up in an unfortunate situation. The first person can be held accountable for his/her careless decisions, but the second person cannot be blamed because he/she took responsibility for his/her
... one deserves it. Most importantly, the victim blame approach is neither effective in resolving problems of violence, nor in protecting the victim from further victimization, nor in protecting future generations from continuing the cycle of abuse. Therefore, it is important that we shift the focus of our blame from the victim of the crime to the perpetrator, in order to ensure that the offender takes responsibility for the crime that they have committed. One way of assuring that an offender is held accountable for their actions is to have a community response. This can occur through the police, courts, schools, clergy, health care providers, and social service agencies. The justice system and social agencies need to work together in order to promote offender accountability, while at the same time helping victims of violence to recover from what has happened to them.
A writer from Southernct stated a fact that “ men, women, and children of all ages, races, religions, and economic classes have been victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault occurs in rural areas, small towns, and larger cities” ( “Southernct” 1). We have all seen on the news a case where a female has been raped and somehow the world makes us believe that it was her own fault that it happened. This is due to victim blaming. Victim blaming occurs when the victim of some sort of crime or wrongdoing is held partially or fully responsible for what happened to them. It is not always easy to identify though. Some people would be considered to be victim blaming over every day situations in life. For example, someone making the