Addressing Crime in America in John J. DiIulio's Article, Let 'em Rot
John J. DiIulio, Jr. writes his article, "Let 'em Rot," in response to the State of the Union Address by President Clinton in January of 1994. In this article he focuses on the continually increasing crime problem in America. DiIulio feels that a change is needed in the way this country handles the punishment and rehabilitation of criminals. He makes a claim of policy that criminals should serve their entire prison sentences. DiIulio asserts, "a prison sentence of X years should mean a prison sentence of X years (truth in sentencing)" (563). He directs his article towards people who are concerned with the crime problem in America, specifically victims of crime and the families of criminals. He also primarily targets people who read the Wall Street Journal and support truth-in-sentencing.
Throughout the article, DiIulio's support is primarily based on motivational appeal. He quickly draws interest into the article through the shocking choice of words for his title. He then goes on to provoke readers with the...
The first five chapters of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice by William Stuntz discusses the history of the criminal justice, and it’s flaws as well. He goes in details how things work, and of course the collapse of the system. Stuntz seems to believe although their has been improvements in the constitution, it’s still not perfect. He also suggests some of the things that need to be change.
Jacoby uses many claims about how crime in the United States has grown and the how faulty America’s justice system currently is. One claim said that citizens pay around “$30,000 per inmate each year” (Jacoby 197). This grasps the reader’s attention by connecting their life to the problem; it is their money, a lot of their money, being used to imprison these criminals. The rates have increased on inmates since the 1980s by over 250% (Jacoby 197). Jacoby declares that the prison system is terrible; he uses accurate and persuading evidence.
Jacoby can be easily perceived as an upset and alarmed individual who blames the rise of criminal activity in the United States on the failure of the criminal justice system. He cares about people and believes that the safety of individuals is decreasing because criminals are not punished effectively by imprisonment and that some even receive a “sign of manhood” from going to prison (197). Additionally, he is upset that the ineffective system is so expensive. His concern for his audience’s safety and his carefully argued grounds, which he uses to support his claim, create a persona of an intelligent person of
Mauer, Marc. 1999. The Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press National Research Council. 1993.
Only an act that is defined by the validly passed laws of the nation state in which it occurred so that punishment should follow from the behaviour
Tesla’s career as an inventor started when he was in his late twenties. He displayed his incredible understanding of electricity and physics when he created his first invention, the induction motor. The induction motor is a small, electric motor that has become a very useful machine. In fact, most household appliances run using Tesla’s induction motor (Vujovic 1). Score one for Tesla. Soon after he invented the induction motor, Tesla moved to America to try his luck at living the American dream. While in New York City, Tesla got the amazing opportunity to work for his hero, Thomas Edison. However, Tesla soon quit working for Edison due to some disagreements between the two inventors. And so with Edison and his men biting at Tesla’s heels, Nikola set out on his own to make a name for himself (Vujovic 1). Tesla soon became Edison’s greatest competitor. While tinkering in his lab with one of his inventions called the Tesla Coil, Tesla discovered that he could send and receive radio signals when his coils were tuned to the exact same frequency...
The TV show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, often addresses criminal deviance such as rape and murder. In the episode, “Scorched Earth,” an African immigrant maid becomes a rape victim of a rich, Italian prime minister named Distascio (Wolf). This episode highlights how status can affect perception of certain deviant behaviors. Additionally, it addresses contemporary America’s values toward types of deviant acts, and sanctions that go along with them.
The Major Crimes Act was an important piece of legislation regarding the jurisdiction of Indian tribes on U.S. soil, and was passed on March 3, 1885. It was one of the concluding sections of the Indian Appropriations Act of 1885, which sought to deal with Indian American relations of the latter-19th century. The Major Crimes Act law was passed by Congress, following the General Crimes Act of 1817. The Major Crimes Act expanded on the General Crimes Act by detailing what could constitute as a crime under the federal jurisdiction of the United States if they were to be committed by a Native American in a Native American territory. It also added the caveat that crimes committed between two Native Americans would also count under federal jurisdiction
Today, half of state prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes. Over half of federal prisoners are serving time for drug crimes. Mass incarceration seems to be extremely expensive and a waste of money. It is believed to be a massive failure. Increased punishments and jailing have been declining in effectiveness for more than thirty years. Violent crime rates fell by more than fifty percent between 1991 and 2013, while property crime declined by forty-six percent, according to FBI statistics. Yet between 1990 and 2009, the prison population in the U.S. more than doubled, jumping from 771,243 to over 1.6 million (Nadia Prupis, 2015). While jailing may have at first had a positive result on the crime rate, it has reached a point of being less and less worth all the effort. Income growth and an aging population each had a greater effect on the decline in national crime rates than jailing. Mass incarceration and tough-on-crime policies have had huge social and money-related consequences--from its eighty billion dollars per-year price tag to its many societal costs, including an increased risk of recidivism due to barbarous conditions in prison and a lack of after-release reintegration opportunities. The government needs to rethink their strategy and their policies that are bad
Since the police officers have a lot of say in dealing with calls and crimes, they all vary in their approaches to doing so. For instance, one officer may think a call is not as important as another, while a separate officer may decide the first call was more serious and he/she may respond to that one first. This is the same problem with whether or not to use force. There are many factors that affect not only the officer’s decision to use force, but also the criminal’s choice of actions. If an officer is being rude or discriminating against a suspect, then that suspect may act in a more vicious manner. This could result in the officer deciding to use force. All officers may see a threat differently, resulting in different disciplinary actions. The use of force rules vary in different police departments. This is concerning to some because the citizens may feel that they are not being treated as equal as others. Other issues include illegitimate investigations, spying, which could result in an unfair judgement of individuals that result in the officer’s use of force (Walker 1993, 24). Some officers will report an unfounding crime, which affects the true data of lowering the official crime rate (Walker 1993, 24). These issues are occurring in society today and are common topics in the news. Citizens want to know how we can better our systems to create a safer environment for
All over America, crime is on the rise. Every day, every minute, and even every second someone will commit a crime. Now, I invite you to consider that a crime is taking place as you read this paper. "The fraction of the population in the State and Federal prison has increased in every single year for the last 34 years and the rate for imprisonment today is now five times higher than in 1972"(Russell, 2009). Considering that rate along crime is a serious act. These crimes range from robbery, rape, kidnapping, identity theft, abuse, trafficking, assault, and murder. Crime is a major social problem in the United States. While the correctional system was designed to protect society from offenders it also serves two specific functions. First it can serve as a tool for punishing the offender. This involves making the offender pay for his/her crime while serving time in a correctional facility. On the other hand it can serve as a place to rehabilitate the offender as preparation to be successful as they renter society. The U.S correctional system is a quite controversial subject that leads to questions such as how does our correctional system punish offenders? How does our correctional system rehabilitate offenders? Which method is more effective in reducing crime punishment or rehabilitation? Our correctional system has several ways to punish and rehabilitate offenders.
Although much of the current scholarly information dichotomizes justice into two schools of thought, it should be realized that true justice encompasses both punishment-centered and rehabilitation-centered ideas. Often times, these ideas co-occur to create a more realistic depiction of justice in practice. Furthermore, a more honest approach toward policy should be examined and openly discussed by the Department of Justice. This way, the citizenry who participate in the democracy of the United States can have a better understanding of the issues regarding the type of punitiveness towards offenders. Doing so would encourage a better understanding and more agreeable state of the justice system, one that should be characteristic of the democratic process.
Before I start on his inventions, I will give a bit of history on the man that lit our world. Tesla was born July 10, 1856. He was born in an area that is now known as Smiljan, Croatia. It is said that while his mother was mid-birth, there was a fierce lightning storm. The maiden called this a bad omen and Tesla’s mother responded with, “No, this will be a
Nikola Tesla was Serbian-American and was born Smiljan, Croatia on July 10, 1856, and died on January 7, 1943, in New York City (Encyclopædia Britannica). He had three sisters named Angelika, Milka, and Marica and one brother named Dane. His parents were Milutin Tesla and Duka Tesla (Nikola Tesla
Tesla was one of five children by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who was an inventor of small household appliances in her spare time as well as his father, Milutin Tesla, who was a Serbian orthodox priest and a writer. Nikola’s interests still laid in the sciences despite his father pushing