The Dishonourable Killings of the Shafia Family
Commonly referred to as the ‘honour killings’ of the Shafia family is a murder plot that resulted in the death of three young female teenagers and their aunt (Maclean’s 2017). The murder was perpetrated by Mohammad Shafia, his wife and their oldest son. The three teenage sisters were killed due to their rebellion against their family’s traditions. The fourth victim was Rona Mohammad, who was referred to a collateral damage by the offenders (Maclean’s 2017). The police investigation lead to the three offenders all being found guilty on four counts of murder in the first degree (Chung and Dimanno 2012). The two theories this essay will discuss to explain why these murders occurred are one of Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization, the denial of the victim, and the theory of Psychopathy (Broll 2017). The theories illustrate how Mohammad’s mentality, beliefs, and behaviour became factors that resulted in the crime. This essay will demonstrate how Mohammad Shafia’s corrupt notions of honour lead to one of Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization and how his psychopathic personality indicative of his lack of guilt, aggressive behaviour and failure to conform to societal norms resulted in the heinous Shafia family murders.
On June 30th of 2009, officers from the Kingston police force
…show more content…
Sykes and Matza’s neutralization theory is a type of control theory that explains how one’s inner containments diminish and results in them committing a crime (Broll 2017). The two men developed five techniques of neutralization, but this case exhibits the characteristics of a technique called the denial of the victim. The denial of the victim occurs when offenders argue that the victims are deserving of what happened to them (Broll
Sarah Koenig’s riveting 2014 podcast series Serial investigates the muddled case of Adnan Syed, a teenager who was accused and convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Han Min Lee, fifteen years ago. In order to do so she must speak to those whom were close to Adnan and involved in his day to day life. However, this yields a problem because whoever was close to him wanted to believe he was innocent but their intimacy may have tainted their statements about his character. When Koenig interviews Saad and Rabia, Adnan’s best friend and his older sister, they obviously take the viewpoint that he is innocent; however, through their curious phrasings and tendency to oversell his eminence, their doubt
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...
Wilson, David. “What Makes A Born Killer?” The Mirror. 3 Star Edition. The Mirror (2011). Print.
Labelling theory: The theory that the terms crime, deviance, or punishment are labels, variously applied by act of power and not some natural reflection of events – American criminologist Howard Becker
A serial killer is traditional defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media.
Victimology is the scientific study of the physical, emotional, and financial harm people suffer from illegal activities. A common struggle Victimologists face is determining who the victim is. In general, crimes don 't have an “ideal victim”. The term ideal victims refer to someone who receives the most sympathy from society (Christie, 2016). An example of this would be a hardworking, honest man who on his way to work, had his wallet taken by force. Most people in society would have sympathy for him. He spent his life making an honest living to earn what he has and was a victim of a robbery. Victimologists study the interactions victims have with criminals, society, and the criminal justice system (Karmen, 2015). According to (Karmen, 2015)
When the victim does not fit the ideal victim attributes which society has familiarised themselves with, it can cause complications and confusion. Experts have noticed there is already a significant presence of victim blaming, especially for cases involving both genders. The fear of being blamed and rejected by the public is prominent in all victims. Victim blaming proclaims the victim also played a role in the crime by allowing the crime to occur through their actions (Kilmartin and Allison, 2017, p.21). Agarin (2014, p.173) underlines the problem of victim blaming is due to the mass of social problems and misconceptions within society. The offender can have “an edge in court of public opinion” if victim blaming exists, resulting in the prevention of the case accomplishing an effective deduction in court (Humphries, 2009, p.27). Thus, victims will become more reluctant to report offences because of their decrease in trust in the police and criminal justice system, leading to the dark figure of
Raymond T. Bye describes the basis for the theory of deterrence in the idea that the privilege to live and therefore an individual’s life is the most sacred and only thing any human really owns. Because of this, threatening an individual with the consequence of death will cause them to decide not to engage in the criminal activity. There is a spectrum of consequences that individuals mentally process for...
Eysenck, H.J., & Gudjonsson, G.H. (1989). The causes and cures of criminality. Contemporary Psychology, 36, 575-577.
Ricard, Suzanne, Thompson, Jennie. “Women’s Role in Serial Killing Teams: Reconstructing a Radical Feminist Perspective.” Critical Criminology 17(4): 261-275
Kerns, Jeanne Marie. "Women Serial Killers and Their Motives." Associated Content from Yahoo! 24 Apr. 2007. Web. 4 May 2011. .
To dive into the psyche of a killer is a daunting task, and to understand it is near impossible. A human desensitized to the point where the killing of another living being is easily justified; or worse, an act that brings them joy. In the novel They Would Never Hurt a fly, Slavenka Drakulić speculates how placing an ordinary person in the role of power and influence can create a recipe for moral disaster.
Within the Pakistani and Afghani cultures, when a crime is committed or suspected, the family of the perpetrators must suffer some dishonor in retaliation. Often this retaliation occurs in the form of abuse or the killing of someone within their family, usually a woman. This is referred to as an honour crime or an honour killing. In Western cultures this is deemed unacceptable and against the values of the human race. Although we, as individuals living in Western society find this practice morally abhorrent, we have no reasonable basis on which to condemn it. We can never really say whether or not a cultural practice is acceptable unless we are able to rid ourselves of our preconceptions and biases. Ridding ourselves of the preconceptions, however, is impossible. This is because; the values one has are dependent on the environment we are exposed to within our culture, the norms of behavior we accept come from the institutions also formed within a particular culture and the cultural bias that taints our opinions of other cultures and the practices.
A problem since time immemorial has worried men is determined to what extent and to what point is legitimate to punish who has committed an offence. The punishment is a form of physical, moral suffering arising as natural and spontaneous response to an offence who, in turn, of
Women involved and associated with terrorist groups particularly go against these gender stereotypes due to the shocking nature of their actions. As pointed out by Hoogensen (2005:122), the incidence of female terrorism does not only speak to the phenomenon of terrorism itself but equally challenges our culturally and socially constructed assumptions about gender roles. In fact, acts of terror perpetrated by women often create a sort of fascination and are often judged not only on the basis of terrorism but additionally on the basis of who committed the acts. This fascination is notably underlined in Bloom’s (2007:100) study of female terrorism where she estimates that the media reporting of acts committed by women is eight times more important than the coverage of similar acts orchestrated by men.