Essay On Critical Criminology

As a society, we seem to be getting less outraged about each incident that happens, and start finding humor in serious events. Media has provided a medium for people to separate themselves from crimes because we are always seeing the latest shooting, or kidnapping, and therefore desensitizes us to violence. We also glorify violent acts by using loose words to explain what they had done, or by making excuses, such as calling the perpetrator a gunmen, somebody who has been through many hard times, or by blaming it on a

Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison was about how the way society sees crime can be distorted by the media, the justice system, and the information we are presented with about what crime really is. It points out that medical neglect, known environmental hazards, dangerous workplace conditions, and poverty cause more injuries yearly than murders, assaults, and robberies. Most people see the latter as “crime,” but not the former.

Through reading “Columbine: Whose Fault is It?” by Marilyn Manson we can identify that the media had a great influence in the aftermath of the shooting, and who was the scapegoat for it, in other words who is to blame for what happened to those poor 13 innocent teenage kids. The Columbine High School massacre was an infamous event that went down as one of the worst shootings to happen to a high school in America. In 1999, a pair of two students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold decided to assault a school in Colorado named Columbine High School. Their intent was unknown, and because of that, many people started speculating as to why the duo decided to shoot up the school. Possible causes people came up with included them being bullied,

Cultural criminology’s “framework is concerned with meaning, power and existential accounts of crime and punishment and control” (Hayward, 2016:300). Which allows cultural criminologist to study crime in the relation to culture and its impact on criminality. Cultural criminology believes it is always “necessary to state and restate what crime is, if nothing else a human activity” (Presdee, 2004:276). The commodification of culture relates to Cultural Criminology in the sense of the many faucets of crime and deviance and what is getting exploited through the media to the public. Commodification of crime is becoming more prevalent as time goes on as the media has such a large influence on society. However not all of it is true or being presented in the intended way. This essay

The impact the news has on people’s emotions is very strong and can cause a lot of problems. “He asked the clerk to call a local television station. He wanted cameras there to film his rampage” (Whisenhunt). Michael Brandon Hill wanted people there that can get the information out faster because he knew the effect it would have on the people hearing about it. People commit these acts because it is “a desperate act committed by a deeply troubled individual who wants to die and feel validated in the process” (Whisenhunt). Whether it’s just trying to get the information out there or trying to prevent these situations, news reporters make society uneasy because of the information they are putting out into the world

For those who haven’t experienced racial profiling, or know someone that has been a victim of it, the issue may seem nothing more than annoying noise in their ears. However, the reality is that racial profiling has consequences, which results in emotional, physiological, and physical damage. The ones that are the most at risk are the youth of color. Racial profiling is harmful because it creates mistrust in law enforcement, hostile environment in the educational system, and social tension in communities.

Not only is this stereotype and exclusion prevalent in primetime television, but, much more seriously, in our newspapers and television newscasts as well. Authors Steinhorn and Diggs – Brown state that “Even though most violent crimes are committed by people the same race as their victims, one 1994 study of local TV newscasts in Chicago found that the majority of perpetrators portrayed in the news were black or persons of color, while the majority of victims shown were white.” (154). This leads one to maybe see a causal effect of the wide-spread panic about black males being criminals that need to be feared and bewared whenever they are come into contact with. They also sited a different study that “found that the percentage of blacks

America is a nation blossomed with prosperity, yet it is notorious for the proliferation of appalling violence and homicides. By focusing on the Columbine High School massacre, Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine explores the environment/causes that lead to shooting tragedies and exposes the culture of fear that governs the unstable American society. On April 20, 1999, two senior students, Erik Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and severely wounded 21 others with a 9mm carbine and a 12-gauge shotgun at Columbine High School. The bloodbath is directly related to the extensive accessibility of ammunitions. Through an investigation, Moore shockingly discovers that a Michigan local bank rewards free guns to customers who open new

A theory is a set of statements or principles developed to explain a group of facts or phenomena. It has been repeatedly tested and used to make predictions. Theories in this category attempt to explain why an individual commits a crime or delinquent behaviors. The primary goal of criminological theory is to help one gain an understating of why and how certain things are related to criminal behavior (Bohm and Vogel, 2011). Theories dissect the making and the breaking of the law, criminal different behavior, as well as patterns of criminal activity. Theories can be used to guide policy making and can be weighed on a number of criteria including biological things, psychological things, sociological things, economic things or a combination of

On April 22, 2016 eight family members were found dead in their house in rural southern Ohio. All eight family members were shot in the head “execution style” while they were sleeping, including a mother who was sleeping next to her 4 days old infant. The newborn along with a 3 year old and a 6 month survived according to authorities. Victims were shot in their sleep at four residences. Seven of the eight victims lived walking distance to each other and the eighth victim lived about eight miles away. The eighth victim was the last to be found dead on Friday afternoon the very same day this mass shooting took place. The suspect and motive is still unknown but all victims are members of Rhoden family. They are identified today as: Kenneth Rhoden, 44; Christopher Rhoden Sr, 40; Dana Rhoden,

After reading Picking Cotton by Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino in Professor Morton’s class last semester, I became interested in the concept of eyewitness misidentification and bad forensic science leading to wrongful convictions. After further research I chose to take up an internship with the New England Innocence Project for this Spring semester. Since the inception of the first Innocence Project in 1992, 337 people across the United States have been exonerated on the basis of new strides made in forensic science capabilities, this is only a fraction where there have been 1,744 total exonerations between the Innocence Project combined with other groups (University of Michigan). The statistics of why this happens are overwhelming:

According to Andrews and Bonta (2010) the psychology of criminal conduct ( PCC) can be defined as an approach to scientifically understand the criminal behavior of individuals through a systematic approach. Additionally, the psychology of criminal conduct is considered to be interdisciplinary, and considers all aspects of science that will assist in the further comprehension of an individuals criminal behavior, and the causes of criminal behavior (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Andrews and Bonta ( 2010) stated that the psychology of criminal conduct can be considered a subfield of criminology and psychology due to common beliefs and common interests with both disciplines. Furthermore, the psychology of criminal conduct can be described as using

In America, media overwhelmingly gives the perception that many immigrants are criminals, and focuses on immigration in a negative manner. This portrayal by the media shapes the American public’s perception of immigrants and crime. This media uses the idea of “if it bleeds, it leads,” which makes it mainly focus on negative stories in order to capture and keep an audience. This tends to portray immigrants and immigration in a negative light, even though Criminologists know from research that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than American born citizens. The media’s portrayal of immigration shapes the perception of American citizens, which, in turn, shapes immigration policy as the citizens place immigration issues at

I will be explaining through the seven elements of crime whether illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling fit the elements (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The seven elements of the crime are harm, legality, actus reus, mens rea, causation, concurrence, and punishment.

This essay will discuss crime as both a social problem and a sociological problem. Crime is seen as a typical function of society. Crime doesn’t happen without society. It is created and determined by the surrounding society. According to the CSO, the number of dangerous and negligent acts committed between the years of 2008 and 2012 rose from 238’000 in 2008 to 257’000 in 2012. This is an increase of nearly 20’000 recorded crimes in just 3 years. Note that these are only the recorded figures. Many more crimes go unreported. This may be because of intimidation, blackmail or embarrassment among many reasons.