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Biological, sociological and psychological crime
Psychological and sociological theories of crime
The reason why people commit crimes
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Recommended: Biological, sociological and psychological crime
Abstract
In chapter 3 of the Crime and Justice in America textbook, Joycelyn Pollock provides information about the three theories of crime. These theories help us to explain the motivation behind different criminal acts. The reasons why one would commit a crime may be due to biological, psychological, or sociological influences. This paper will explore the high profile cases of The State vs. Casey Anthony and The United States vs. Enron, and link them to one the theories of crime causation detailed by Pollock in chapter 3. We will explore the evidence of what motivated these people to commit the crimes they were charged with.
The State vs. Casey Anthony
On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony contacted the Orange County Police Department
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Casey Anthony. Throughout those six weeks, there were claims that the Anthony family had dark family secrets which included that Casey was sexually abused by both her father and her brother. The defense made claims that Caylee’s death was caused by accidental drowning in the family’s pool. The prosecution told the story of the days after the las day Caylee was seen. They highlighted Casey as a party girl who possessed new found freedom once Caylee was out of the picture. There were also claims that the meter reader who found the body moved it from its original …show more content…
The Anthony family’s home computer hard drive had searches of “chloroform inhalation,” and “home weapons” on it. Both sides vigorously addressed the location and condition of Caylee’s decomposed body, as well as the odor that came from Casey’s trunk. Casey’s parents took the stand to testify and her father denied all sexual abuse allegations. For closing arguments, both sides pointed out the gaps in the other’s story. On July 5, 2011, after just one day of deliberating, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of the murder of her daughter, Caylee Anthony. She found guilty of four counts of providing false information to the police. After factoring in time served, Casey had 10 days of jail time left.
The theory that best fits the Casey Anthony case is the Psychological Theory of Crime. Although George Anthony and his son claimed that the allegations of them committing sexual abuse on Casey were untrue, her behavior mimics that of someone who experienced childhood trauma. Casey’s lawyer, Jose Baez, went more in depth about the abuse in his book Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story. David Lohr, a writer for the Huffington Post
Casey was arrested on July 16th, 2008 and charged the following day with giving false statements to law enforcement, child neglect and obstruction of a criminal investigation. Casey was interviewed by officers regarding the disappearance of Caylee and claimed that she “felt that Caylee was still alive” (YouTube, 2008). Casey remained calm, emotionless and flirty throughout the interview with the police officer and continued to claim that she did not know the whereabouts of Caylee and insisted on disc...
They found Casey Anthony, who was charged with first degree murder of her 3-year-old, not guilty. While she was not guilty of murder, she was convicted on counts four through seven for false information given to the police. The judge sentenced her to one year in county jail for each one of the four counts, but she was released 10 days after she received 1043 days credit. If I was part of the jury I would have said she was guilty of murdering her daughter. Even if she did not kill her, she is still part of the reason why she died. Casey neglected her child either way and did not report the crime to the police until someone else did. I am shocked that the visual evidence did not convince the jury that she was guilty. From the strand of hair in the trunk that matched the past child’s hair, to the extensive research on chloroform found on all web browsers, it was very evident that she did or was at least part of murdering her
There is no doubt in my mind that Casey Anthony fascinated people much more than she would have if she had not been an attractive, young woman. While everyone had an opinion on the case, that they felt obliged to talk about, and give the same recycled, regurgitated opinions on, at the end of the day you can't really blame them. The media is really just an extension of the masses. What gets reported is based upon what interests people, and this case sure did interest people. I think this level of exposure oftentimes benefits the defendants because evidence becomes over saturated to a point where it blinds the jury from seeing the basic points of the case, and the foundation for a guilty verdict. Casey Anthony's trial is often compare to the O.J. Simpson trial for reasons similar to this. The trials are among the most high profile cases to take place during the new media era, and the not guilty verdict created public outrage and calls for Anthony to be punished. Media figures discussed why prosecutors failed to convict in what seemed to be a can't-miss trial. One reason the guilty verdict fell through could be the lack of Casey Anthony's DNA or fingerprint evidence at the scene of where the body was recovered. This is known as the CSI effect, and involves a jury's desire for forensic evidence, even when a clear picture of the crime is created, and a logical motive is present (English). Many criticized
Even though the prosecution presented evidence to the court, the only clear-cut hard fact the prosecution had against Anthony was that she failed to file a report for her missing daughter Caylee and that when she finally did a month after her daughter had gone missing, she proceeded to lie profusely to the authorities on the events that took place. The prosecution focused highly on the forensic evidence of decay located in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car. The use of a cadaver dog to search the vehicle led investigators to be able to determine that a decomposing body had been stored in the trunk of the car. The forensics department used an air sampling procedure on the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car, also indicating that human decomposition and traces of chloroform were in-fact present. Multiple witnesses described what they considered to be an overwhelming odor that came from inside the trunk as it where the prosecution believes Caylee’s decomposing body was stowed. Several items of evidence were ruled out to be the source of the odor, as experts were able to rule out the garbage bag and two chlorine containers located in the trunk as the source. The prosecution alleged that Casey Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then used duct-tape to seal the nose and mouth of Caylee shut, inevitably causing her to suffocate. Based off the
On July 15th, 2008, Caylee Anthony was reported missing by her grandmother Cindy Anthony. Cindy Anthony in the report stated that she hadn’t seen her grand-daughter Caylee for a month and that she and her husband were suspicious because their daughter Casey’s car reeked of decay, as if a dead body had been stored inside the vehicle for days. Caylee and her mother resided with Casey Anthony’s parents. However, Cindy Anthony claimed that Casey had given different explanations about Caylee's whereabouts before telling Cindy that she hadn’t seen her own daughter for several weeks. When questioned by authorities, Casey told the detectives several lies: stating the child had been kidnapped by her nanny on June 9, and that Casey had been trying to contact the nanny to find her daughter. Preceding this information, Casey Anthony was convicted and charged with first degree murder in 2008, but pleaded not guilty ...
Billy Joel once sang, “Only the good die young”. In life, it is true, the young and innocent seem to touch more lives around us than anyone else. In the Casey Anthony trial, Anthony was a suspect in the murder of her daughter Caylee. Caylee’s life shouldn’t be counted in years, it should be counted by how many lives she affected, the love she has gained, and the support the country has given her to find out what really happened. In the play, Twelve Angry Men, a boy killed his father; however, both cases were challenged by the obvious and the abstruse evidence. Large cities towards the east coast, in 1982, Twelve Angry Men, and 2008, Casey Anthony Trial, affiliated with two major trials able to modify the lives of the living and the dead. For that reason, during the Casey Anthony case, jurors were conflicted throughout the trial.
The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.
When viewed from a strictly medical, psychological aspect, Andrea Yates medical history indicates that after the birth of her first child, she began to suffer from various forms of depression and suicide attempts. If one only examines the paper trail and doesn’t think beyond what the medical history does or does not indicate, then perhaps, Andrea would be innocent by reason of mental insanity as the 2006 acquittal suggest. However, when viewed form a legal aspect there are several inconstancies that challenge if this former nurse was insane or if she in fact premeditated the murder of her children as well as her acquittal.
...county has presented was the odor of the car smelling like decomposing human body. The media to me made the case seem more one sided that she was guilty right off the bat the prosecutors must of have the same feeling that will lead up to little evidence they will provide in the court room. In my opinion I do think Casey Anthony is guilty on count of murder she was lien to everyone about everything, steal money from friends and family, and still trying to go out partying when she should have been caring for her daughter. There is not one parent that will go thirty plus days without knowing where their only child is. Even though she lied to law enforcement about her daughter where beings have been for the pass month, it was not enough evidence to convict her of murder in the first degree the charges that the county was actually trying to charge against Casey Anthony.
Another criminology theory that may apply to help explain the criminal behavior of Ted Bundy is the Psychodynamic theory. This theory is largely based on the findings of Sigmund Freud. The underpinnings of this of the approach are that the unconscious mind affects behavior and emotion. The theory advances the argument that no behavior is without cause and that childhood experiences affect emotions and behavior as adults. Serial killers like Ted Bundy therefore are particularly affected by their unconscious mind. Bundy did not receive proper care as a young boy and the negative impact of his sense of rejection and isolation negatively impacted his adulthood with aggressive tendencies. In short, Bundy’s adult actions under this theory can be viewed as manifesting his anger over his childhood oppression in the form of brutal rapes and
Following the arrest on January 8th of 1992 the trial began August 18, 1992. The state had two factors that played a part in trial. One being Johnny Everett Webb a fellow inmate, with Cameron Willingham in Navarro County Jail. The second major factor being testimonies from investigators Vasquez and Frogg on what they believed happened that night. The prosecutors believed that Cameron willingly tried to murder his children by setting his home on fire. Cameron Willingham never changed his story and always seemed to be innocent. Willingham was found guilty on the grounds of the testimony that the forensic experts gave at court because a former inm...
This paper explores three criminological theories as to why Jeffrey Dahmer committed his crimes. Although these approaches vary in terms of defining the cause of crime, one thing is certain, there is no single cause of crime; the crime is rooted in a diversity of causes and takes a variety of forms depending on the situation in which the crimes occur. However, the published articles vary in their definitions and uses of Criminological Theory. Rawlins (2005) suggest that the criminal phenomenon is too complex to be explained by a single theory. Other theories suggest differently and; therefore, have varying explanations. This paper examines the Psychological, Biochemical, and Social Process theories to slightly explain Jeffrey Dahmer’s actions.
Wilson, James and Herrnstein, Richard. "Crime & Human Nature: The Definitive Study of the Causes of Crime" New York: Free Press, 1998.
MacDonald, H. (2010, January 4). A crime theory demolished. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870359090504574638024055735590.ht
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.