Crime has happened ever since law and society has been a thing. No matter if it is murder theft, torture, or fraud, it has slowly become more prevalent. Crime has evolved throughout time as well. Having access to guns and other weapons and high explosives have made crime easier to commit. These crimes have also become more brutal throughout time as well. A good example of this is the murder of Shanda Sharer. She was tied up, choked, cut, sodomized, and burned alive (Grossman 1992). Shanda was 12 years old, and 4 teenage girls did this to her.
On January 10, 1992, 16-year-old Melinda Loveless, 17-year-old Mary Tackett, 15-year-old Hope Rippey, and 15-year-old Toni Lawrence took Tackett’s car to a punk rock concert in Louisville. The night was
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supposed to be a fun time for the girls, going to the concert but Loveless had other plans.
She started talking about how she was mad because Shanda Sharer, a 12-year-old that lives near them, was trying to take her girlfriend. Lawrence said at one point Loveless said “I would like to kill Shanda”. After hearing about Shanda, the girls decided to go pick her up and do something about how she’s been supposedly talking to Loveless’s girlfriend. Loveless hid under a blanket in the backseat of the car while Tackett went to the door to invite Shanda to join them. They started driving and the girls started to ask about Shanda and her interactions with Loveless’s girlfriends. After hearing them talk, Loveless threw herself out from under the blanket grabbed Shanda by her hair and held a knife to her throat. The girls tied Shanda up and put her in the trunk of the car. On the drive, all the girls, except Lawrence, threated and taunted Shanda scaring her. Loveless and Tackett punched and kneed Shanda repeatably and then stabbed her multiple times in the chest. Loveless tried to slit her throat but the knife was too dull. They thought the girl was dead, so they dumped her body in the trunk and when inside to clean up. But she wasn’t, they were brought back outside by her screams. Tackett stabbed her more and …show more content…
then went back inside. After, Lawrence and Rippey wanted to go home so Loveless and Tackett left them at Tackett’s house (Welton 2016). Later that night Tackett and Loveless came back and told the girls that they were going to burn Shanda’s body (Grossman 1992). Tackett told Lawrence and Rippey they would take them home but instead drove to Jefferson Proving Ground to burn Shanda’s body. But, she still wasn’t dead. On the way the girls heard her desperately trying to breath, so they pulled over and Loveless and Tackett beat her with a tire iron. They arrived at Jefferson Proving Ground and poured gas all over the blanket she was in and forced Rippey to set fire to her still alive body (Welton, 2016). The body was found by Donn Foley and a friend while they were out hunting game birds.
They called the police and they came to investigate. A teenage boy came forward and told police that he had overheard a conversation between some girls about how they knew about another girl getting killed. As investigators were discussing the case they got a call about how Toni Lawrence was at the Madison police station hysterical saying she wanted to talk about the case. This is when Lawrence told the above account of the murder to police and what eventually led to the arrest of all 4 girls. But she did leave out some details. The autopsy showed that Shanda was tied at her arms and legs, her legs were cut repeatedly, she had been beaten and stabbed multiple times, sodomized and then burned (Grossman 1992, Lewis 1993). They also found out she was alive when she was dropped off. Her death was caused smoke inhalation and server burns. Warrants were sent out for the arrest of Tackett and Loveless for murder. The other two were not immediately arrested because Lawrence came forward and Rippers attorney old them he’d bring his client to the station. After hearing about the murder, the town was shocked. Madison was voted the safest place to live yet there was just a horrific murder. The judge, defendant, and prosecutors have never dealt with a murder case before since the town was known to be so safe. The town was not comfortable with words like “lesbian” yet and didn’t know what to think about
it. They thought girls 12 to 16 were too young to be sexually active and to even be able to make up their minds about what their sexual preference is. The whole town slowly started to hear details as the murder trial went on (Grossman 1992). During the trail it came out that Loveless’s sisters told the court, hoping it would help their sister, that their father Larry Loveless had forced them as young children to have sex with him. This ultimately led to his arrest for 11 counts of child abuse (Lewis 1993). Lawrence entered a plea bargain saying she would testify for the state and would only be charged with criminal confinement (Grossman 1992). Lawrence ended up with a 20-year sentence. Loveless and Tackett pleaded guilty of murder, arson, and criminal confinement. They were both sentenced to 60 years in prison (Lewis 1993). Rippey was charged with 40 years for felony murder and 20 years for criminal confinement (Gazette 2006). Lawrence was released December 14th, 2000 (Gazette 2006). This murder showed that no matter how safe a place seems something can always happen. While looking at this murder you can also see what young teenage girls can do when they’ve had a bad upbringing or if they just want to fit in. All the girls involved in this murder had some kind of childhood trauma or mental health issues that might have led them to commit this murder. Mental illness is a serious issue and can lead people to do some very bad things. If people like this had help available, situations like this could be avoided all together. Since this murder happened there has been more help available to people with mental illnesses or bad trauma but it still isn’t always available. We still see crimes happening that have been the cause of sever mental illness brought on my childhood trauma. These girls were also very confused about their own sexual identity, which wasn’t widely accepted in the town the lived in. This could have been a factor that played into their mental illnesses and the murder. Since this murder though, help available for people with mental illness has increased and so has the acceptability of people with different sexual orientations.
Leanne Sarah Holland born 1st October 1978 was a 12year old girl from Goodna Queensland found murdered. Her body was discovered 8.9 kilometers from her home in nearby Redbank Plains down a dirt track on 26th September 1991. Holland lived with her dad Terry, older sister Melissa and sister’s de-facto partner Graham. Graham Stuart Stafford was a 28year old sheet metal worker from Goodna Queensland. On 25th March 1992, he was sentenced to 15years to life in prison for the murder of Holland.
On 1997 four men were convicted of the rape and murder of Michelle Basko. The four men were Joe Dick, Daniel Williams, Eric Wilson, and Derek Tice. Detective Robert Ford believed that the four U.S. navy men were all guilty of the crime. One of the victim’s friend claimed that Daniel Williams, was Michelle Basko’s murderer. Based on the information provided by Basko’s friend, Ford suspected that William was guilty. With that, the series of harsh interrogations led by detective Robert Ford began. Detective Ford began his interrogatories with a label that Williams is the suspect. The psychological abuse he used, led Williams to make a false confession. After closing the case, the DNA results did not match the one in the crime scene. Instead of releasing Williams, it was believed that Joe
A horrific murder happened in tiny Skidmore on December of 2004. Lisa Montgomery and Bobbi Jo Stinnett met and found out that they had much in common and became good friends (Nunes 85-86). Surprisingly, Bobbi and Lisa met in an internet chat room. Bobbi was into puppy breeding and she occasionally served as a judge. Lisa lived in Kansas where her close friends were shocked about what she was talking about. Of course, Lisa shrugged it off and she sent an email to Bobbi saying that she wanted to see the puppies (Nunes 85-86). When Lisa met Bobbi Jo she had a fake name which was Darlene Fisher because she didn’t want Bobbi to know her real identity. When Lisa sent Bobbi the email she had a criminal intent on her mind. She was planning to choke Bobbi into unconsciousness and then cut open her womb and steal Bobbi’s unborn baby. When Lisa arrived at the house she threw a rope around Bobbi’s neck and choked her until she was unconscious. That is when Lisa took a knife and started to cut open Bobbi’s stomach. Lisa had to cut through skin, fat, and muscle to get to Bobbi’s uterus. Bobbi’s baby was in eight-month gestation; Lisa cut and tied the baby’s cord. Lisa stole the baby and fled to her house in Kansas. Unfort...
In July of 1994, a little girl named, Megan Kanka, was raped and strangled. They found her body near her home in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The story of thing young girl has shocked the nation. The man responsible for this brutal act is named, Jesse Timmendequas. He had been convicted twice prior to this attack.
Crime was considered a bad path to go on due to the reason that it was easy to commit crime again once that path was taken. Crime was mostly committed due to bad circumstances like poverty and committing sin by giving into the temptation of the
When Tyler 17 and TJ were running in the woods, they were trying not to hit anything weird like 18 snakes in the trees. When Tyler and TJ got to Lauren, there was someone chasing 19 her in the distance. So the three decided to go towards it. When the three got closer 20 they could make out what it was and it was a human figure. The figure got right up 21 to them and then they knew they were in trouble. It was Jason from Friday The 13th. 22 Tyler and TJ were smart they ran when they recognized him. Lauren stood there in 23 complete shock and shaking, but she wasn’t shaking much longer that’s because 24 Jason rose his chainsaw and cut her head right off. Now, he was off to find Tyler and 25 TJ, but little did he know Tyler and TJ saw the whole murder. They stood behind him 26 as he rose his headless body to look in the distance to find the two. Tyler and TJ 27 tackled Jason down to the ground punching and kicking Jason until he was knocked 28 out. The two boys tried to find help and were able to locate two chinese police 29 officer. When they got back to where they knocked out Jason, he was not there. The 30 four were looking around and all of sudden they heard a branch break. They got 31 scared and were freaking out. Then they heard a chainsaw start up. They knew 32 they were going to die now because no one could see where he was at and they 33 heard more branches
July 15, 1999, was an ordinary night for Kristopher Lohrmeyer as he left work at the Colorado City Creamer, a popular ice cream parlor. Kristopher had no idea that his life was about to end. When Michael Brown, 17, Derrick Miller and Andrew (Andy) Medina, 15, approached Kristopher and demanded his money and his car keys. Before the boys knew it shots had been fired and Kristopher was dead. About an hour after the fatal shooting of Kristopher Lohrmeyer, all three men were in custody and telling their version of the night’s events. Michael and Derrick who had run away after the shooting confessed to police and named Andy as the shooter. According to the three boy’s testimony, they had only recently met and needed away to get some quick cash, so they developed a carjacking scheme and headed to Andy’s house to pick up 2 stolen handguns. The three boys were uneducated and had spent most of their time on the streets in search of drugs. The judge ruled that they would be held without bail and there was probable cause to charge them all with first-degree murder (Thrown Away, 2005).
In the 21st century, crimes have been and remains as one of the post-major threats towards
Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor.
There are many studies that point out some risk factors that could be responsible for criminality, but it would not be appropriate to say that is specifically poverty or the current economy. This field of study is uncertain about affirming this kind of assumption. But all this discussion about Broken Windows Theory leads us to reflect why not try to prevent crime instead of act after the crime has been committed?
Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.
serial killers and abusers became popular during this time period and continue to be an issue in
In modern socio-anthropology and social anthropology the world view is continuously changing. Everything is being seen from the scientific point of view. So concept of ‘crime’ is also changing. Crime is now seen not only as a normal feature and integral part of society but it can be seen as reflection of state of societal health. Social scientists are, therefore, concerned about the interrelationship between
Along with society’s natural progressive focus on humane, useful and educated responses to criminal behavior, there was a fear of crime that has been developing and also helps to explain the changes in punishment throughout history.
Nowadays, crime is a part of life in individual and society in Malaysia. It lingers around us from the start and it getting worst day after days. What crime could do to us? Let me explain. When crime has taken over a place, it would create chaos situation. This chaos make people feels afraid and become panic with this chaotic situation. Situation such as gun shooting and robbery somehow are getting viral and has become a popular event amongst Malaysian. Based on (“JPJ runner shot dead in his car”, 2013), there was a series of shooting events that had caused death of 4 people by assassins in separate places.