Conceptualisations of crime often differ from legal definitions to that of a sociological perspective, whilst the public’s perceptions of crime are largely influenced by various sources within the media. Legal definitions of crime are imperative to not only the criminal justice system but, in addition, to scholars for conducting research and testing hypotheses. Sutherland and Cressy assert that legal definitions of crime are marked by four ideals: politically, specificity, uniformity, and penal sanction (1978:19). Furthermore, the modern legal definition of crime refers to behaviour in violation of criminal law and liable for sanctioning by the criminal justice system (Henry & Lanier 2001:6). Evidently, crime is a complex concept, in which people’s perceptions of criminality are often influenced or shaped by a broader context. This research paper will look closely into the criminal case of Brian Wells, the “Collar Bomber” who robbed a bank in the state of Pennsylvania in August 2003.
Robbery, like crime, has several definitions including both legal and sociological. According to the American Criminal Codes, robbery is defined as, ‘Whoever, by force and violence, or by intimidation, takes, or attempts to take, from the person or presence of another…(US code…) The American criminal law operates through state legislation and consequently varies across the state boundaries (Desroches, 1995:8). However, this case study focuses on bank robbery, which operates through a split jurisdiction as it is defined at both the federal and state level (Desroches, 1995:8). On August 8, 2003, several men accosted Wells and locked a time bomb around his neck. This criminal case is known as one of the most ingenious bank robbery schemes in history an...
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...blished book. Despite the major impact this case had on all Americans, there were no legal or socio-political ramifications.
The collar bomb case spiked the attention of the mass media for quite some years, drawing major headlines from the town of Erie to the Herald Sun in Australia. Through a complex and long enduring investigation, the FBI were able to solve one of the most intriguing criminal cases in American history. The public or Erie, however, are still uncertain of the role Wells played in the case; was he an innocent victim or a willing participant. Unfortunately, there is no way to resolve this mystery. Although there were not any broader socio-political or legislative ramifications, this case shocked the town of Erie for quite sometime, with many people living in fear that they might be the next victims to an ever so complex crime.
People may say that they have broken the law, thus they have committed a crime. Yet, Clarence’s definition of crime differs from the general assumption of society. Our population views crime as something a criminal would commit, whether it be theft, murder, or what have you. It can be demonstrated that circumstance has shaped what we call law and what is viewed as crime. If a person breaks into your house and robs you of something they do not have themselves, it is considered breaking and entering, and can be punishable by jail. However, if Mr. Rockefeller raises oil prices in the winter because he knows people will have to pay it or freeze, it is considered smart business; even though it is clearly theft. Both parties are committing ‘crime’, but society has deemed Mr. Rockefeller, the person who is a thief, respectable; while the person who is breaking and entering, a criminal, solely because it is all they know to do to
“I understand what they felt in Oklahoma City. I have no sympathy for them,” a remorseless Timothy McVeigh told a Dan Herbeck, author of American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Timothy McVeigh was a sort of social outcast who found comfort with the idea of many white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and members of the Aryan Nations. He grew up living in the fantasy of comics and fictional literary works. He was enthralled with guns from a very young age, that carried over into adulthood. He flew through the ranks in the army but was rejected by the rangers. After he was rejected he came back and did not fit into society. McVeigh began going to gun shows; at these events he began to talk to these radicals of all kinds, he
How to appropriately and fairly carry out criminal justice matters is something that every country struggles with. A major reason for this struggle is the fallibility of the justice system. It is acceptable to concede that the possibility of human error in every case and investigation may lead to a wrongful conviction. In the case of David Milgaard, however, Canada's Criminal Justice System not only erred, but failed grievously, resulting in millions of dollars wasted, in a loss of public confidence in the system, and most tragically, in the robbery of two decades of one man's life. Factors including, but not limited to, the social context at the time of the crime, the social perception of deviance, the influence of the media, and the misconduct of investigating police and prosecution played a substantial role in the subsequent miscarriage of justice.
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
Crime is an extremely prominent part of American society. Recorded activity within the US saw 10,329,135 (1,246,248 violent crimes and 9,082,887 property crimes) crimes perpetrated with 62.5% of all violent crimes pertained to aggravated assault and 68.2% of all property crimes were considered larceny-theft in 2010. (FBI.2011) Despite the large number of crimes the United States also has the largest number of incarcerated citizens per capita in the world with nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners coming from the United States’ 5% of the world population. This is due to much harder punishments in the US than those that are given a shorter longer period of incarceration or merely fined in other countries.(Liptak 2008) Due to the prevalence of crime in the US, economists have used models to explain the behavior and ramifications of government actions and the motivations behind crime and its effect on society that psychologists and sociologists are usually unable to address.
Hodgson, Jacqueline. "Adding Injury to Injustice: The Suspect at the Police Station." Journal of Law and Society Mar. 1994: 85-101. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
“Crime myths are powerful constructions of reality because they speak to our personal values and beliefs and are steeped in rich symbolism, which reinforces those values and belief.” (Kappeler & Potter, 2004) Crime myths are created when a series of fictional events that are later altered so that they become social and political problems. The media plays a major role in the creation of crime myths they broadcast images and videos to go along with the crime myths, they also use social context that play on humans thought on the community seeing it as unsafe. Myths also contain some measure of economic conditions that then cause reactions by politicians to create new laws to prevent these myths from becoming major problems in the criminal justice system. (K&P, 2004) In order for a statement to be characterized as a crime myth, if the crimes instill fear and threaten the vast majority of society. (K&P,2004) Crime myths are made up of components that targets and identify of a distinct deviant population, they involve innocent and helpless victims, the emergence of brave and virtuous hearos ,comes as a threat to peoples established norms, values, or traditional lifestyles.
Conscious efforts to critique existing approaches to questions of crime and justice, demystify concepts and issues that are laden with political and ideological baggage, situate debates about crime control within a socio-historical context, and facilitate the imagination and exploration of alternative ways of thinking and acting in relation to crime and justice. (p. 3).
Criminal profiling, first undertaken within the nineteen-seventies, has been used throughout thousands of police investigations from bureaus all over the globe, currently some question their practicality in police investigations. This essay argues the utility of offender profiling in police investigations. Police Investigations utilize Offender and Criminal Profiling methods because it narrows the field of investigation, needs diminutive physical evidence to begin investigations and uses victimology to predict future actions of the offender.
The media is a dominating aspect of American culture. The way the media depicts crime and criminal behavior has an effect on the way society views crime and criminals. Television series such as CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds and countless others, have become very popular in our society today showing that our culture has an immense interest in crime. It is clear that there is a fascination with criminals and why they do the things they do. To analyze the way crime dramas represent crime and criminal behavior, I completed a content analysis of one episode of Criminal Minds. The episode I chose was season one; episode eight, which first aired in 2005, titled ‘Natural Born Killer’.
As a teenager walking the streets will I be a suspect like Trayvon martin, Mike Brown, Tony Robinson and Christian Taylor. Four black male that was shot and killed by police officers. Will there ever be a chance where teens can walk down the street without being stop by a police officers. There should be a limit on when they can use there gun and to what point they should use there gun. Now as we all know the story of Trayvon martin and what they said happen but as a teen I feel as though I can walk the street and become a suspect to a police officers I do not think its cause the color of my skin well sometimes, if I feel like my life is a risk and or somebody is following me, yes I am going to fight back but George Zimmerman didn’t have to
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
To conclude, the perception of crime is greatly impacted by how media portrays victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials are viewed. Often media organisations over-dramatize crime problems to gain consumer attention. The misperception of crime to society impacts how the community live, and how the media presents an inaccurate view of the real level of crime within society. It is believed that the nature of crime in our society is not accurately presented by the
The world will always be full of crime, thus it is necessary for scientist to grow along with the gruesome and increasing amount of violations. Due to this it sparked scientist to develop crime theories in which emerged to explain why crime is caused by individuals. Some of the few theories that have advanced over the past century and provided many answers to why crimes are committed are biological theories, psychological theories and learning theories. These theories provide an insight to its first use and change in order to provide answers.
Hickey, T. J. (2010). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 9th Edition. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.