Introduction
Varying theories such as rational choice theory, trait theory, and social structure theory are commonly used to explain why crime happens. Application of these three theories in discussing the crimes of Richard Speck can help us to better understand which of the theories may apply and perhaps help give us insight into why he committed his crimes. But they are more beneficial when not looking at a single specific crime, but the person and all the crimes they may have committed throughout their criminal careers.
The Crime
Richard Speck is without a doubt what is considered a chronic offender having been arrested over 40 times prior to committing the crime for which he is best known; the 1966 murder, rape, and robbery of eight student nurses. His victims were female students between the ages of 19 and 24 who lived together on Chicago's South Side. Speck forced his way into their dorm at gunpoint, rounded the women up, and ordered them to empty their purses before tying them up. He then proceeded to brutalize them. The women were robbed, raped, beaten, and then strangled or stabbed to death (BIO, 2013). Cooper and Smith (2011), tell us that crimes of this nature involving 3 or more victims represent less than 1% of all homicides committed each year (p. 24) and crimes of this nature are more likely to be carried out by use of a gun (p. 27). Additionally, young adults aged 18-24 continue to experience the highest homicide rates, but homicides across the spectrum have fallen since the early 1990s (Cooper & Smith, 2011). Fang, French & McCollister (2010) estimated the cost to process a murder for our court systems was $390,352, the crime victim costs were $737,517, and the criminal’s activities other than the homici...
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In 2012, there were an estimated 14,827 murders and non-negligent manslaughter crimes reported by all agencies in the United States according to the Uniform Crime Report at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter are defined “as the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.” A 1.1 percent increase occurred from 2011 to 2012. But it should be noted, this is a 9.9 percent drop from the figure for 2008 and a 10.3 percent decrease from the number of murders recorded in 2003. Of the murders that occurred in 2012, it is estimated that 43.6 percent were reported in the south, 21.0 percent were from the Midwest, 21.0 percent were accounted from the west, and 14.2 percent were from the northeast of the United States. There were 4.7 murders for every 100,000 people in 2012. The murder rate went up 0.4 percent from 2011 to 2012. It went down in 2008 by 12.8 percent and dropped 16.9 percent from 2003. The majority of offenders were over the age of eighteen and they accounted for 9,096 of offenders in 2012. According to the Uniform Crime Report, the number of offenders who murdered in 2012 totaled 14,581. The majority of these offenders were male, totaling 9,425. Female offenders totaled 1,098, and 4,058 were unknown offenders. Black males topped the list as far as race was concerned with 5,531 committing murder. White males followed with 4,582 offenders. There were 4,228 classified as race unknown regarding offenders who murdered in 2012. The victim data reported was 9,917 male victims and 2,834 female victims. Of those victims, 11,549 were over the age of eighteen.
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On December 6th in 1941, a boy named Richard Benjamin Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois. He was the seventh child born out of eight children in his family. Early in Richards childhood when he was just six years old his father passed away. Richards mother had gotten remarried immediately to a drunk abusive man and moved everyone to Dallas, Texas. He and his siblings childhood was filled with juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse from his new stepfather. In early November of 1962, he married Shirley Malone and they had one daughter, Bobby Lynn. Their married was extremely short. Speck was sentenced for theft and check fraud, in 1963. He lasted only four weeks free, before being arrested again for aggravated assault, he was then jailed again
Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1999.
"Anybody living in the United States in the early 1990s and paying even a whisper of attention to the nightly news or a daily paper could be forgiven for having been scared out of his skin... The culprit was crime. It had been rising relentlessly - a graph plotting the crime rate in any American city over recent decades looked like a ski slope in profile... Death by gunfire, intentional and otherwise, had become commonplace, So too had carjacking and crack dealing, robbery, and rape. Violent crime was a gruesome and constant companion...
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As discussed in depth, there are all types of crimes that are committed by young offenders these days and the offenders possess a number of different characteristics. There have been many theoretical crime explanations that have been formed over the years that attempt to explain the reasoning behind the question of why certain individuals, both young and old, are more prone to commit crimes. The discussion of punishment practices are also important because it displays the many approaches that have been taken to ensure that juvenile delinquents are being treated fairly, but punished and rehabilitated all simultaneously. Many methods fall under this kind of approach referred to as the restorative justice approach such as neighborhood conference committees, victim impact panels, sentencing circles, and community impact panels which all attempt to rehabilitate the offender, but also to involve members of society including the victims/survivors of crimes (Siegel, 2009). It is believed and hoped with the continuation of processes, practices, and programs in place such as these that juvenile crime will eventually decrease bringing more order to our society as a whole. Overall, this paper strives to bring awareness to juvenile delinquency by
Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased juvenile delinquency? Simply put, we must create a means of measuring juvenile’s level of risk and in turn, form an effective rehabilitation program that will decrease their risk level for future recidivism.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1973–1997 National Crime Victimization Survey data [Web site data files]. Available Online at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/qa125.html. 30 September 1999. Washington, DC: BJS, 1998.
In regard to trying to prevent homicides law enforcement officers have engaged in the broken window theory, or “community policing” where their main focus is to tackle small low-level crimes, in hopes of reducing more serious ones (Roeder, Eisen, Bowling, 65). As stated by Jeffrey Fagan, Franklin E. Zimring, and June Kim, “…broken windows” theories of aggressive enforcement, gun interventions, general increases in police enforcement resources, strategic targeting of police efforts through computer mapping, and precinct-level management accountability for crime trends” (1332). Therefore, the decline in homicide can also be caused by the changes in the drug markets, police response to gun carrying by young males, the economic expansion, and higher gun restrictions, as well as and increase in incarceration (Blumstein, Rivara, Rosenfeld, 505). Therefore, the decline in homicide was a combination of factors that came together, to help the law enforcement authorities prevent and diminish the homicide
Loeber R., and D.P. Farrington. “Serious and violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions.” Thousand Oaks. 1998. First Search. Feb 2007
Federal Bureau of Investigaiton. (2010, December 22). Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January –June, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjs/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s./2010/preliminary-crime-in-the-us-2009
Juvenile delinquency is a problem that affects society as a whole. Understanding Juvenile delinquency is important because it is part of trying to figure out how people in American society should react to it; specifically, in terms of law enforcement officers, their agencies, and State legislators. When deviant behavior becomes "continuous, chronic and widespread it gets perceived as a significant part of the population as threatening to the general well-being of society" (Thompson and Bynum, 2010, p. 44). This is a societal problem that requires attention from various forms of social control. However, a lot of the burden is absorbed by an imperfect Juvenile Justice System. As time has passed, argument has ensued over what should be done with the Juvenile Court System. Should the court system be reformed or simply abolished? Barry C. Feld believes that there are enough factors to support the abolishment of the Juvenile Court System and supports an integrated approach (Hickey, 2010). Others, like Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg, believe that the transfer of kids "into adult court is unnecessary, harmful and racist" (Kelly, 2010, Lecture Unit 3). While reforming the system may seem like the best idea, there are certain factors that inhibit proper changes from being made. Creating a separate court system for juveniles has caused a number of consequences for youth.