Deviance In The Criminal Justice System

For their whole lives, people of a higher level of influence have told them what to do and when. But with BlueServo and websites like it, now it was their turn to influence other people’s lives. As with any bad habit, it soon becomes not enough, people felt the need to not only capture the criminals but administer their own idea of justice. A member of the Minuteman, an organized union of these surveillance addicted individuals, believed it was his turn to enact his version of justice. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of viewership is a complete misunderstanding of reality and this lead to the murder of two innocent Hispanic people.

Supposedly capital punishment was created to deter criminals from committing horrible acts of rape and murder, however, today judges and the jury are eager to make anyone the scapegoat for the crimes committed; even the innocent. Nowadays, the judicial system becomes more discriminatory, toward gender, income, and race, in capital crime cases because of the desire to find, what is hoped to be, justice. When someone is convicted of any crime and is in the process of being arrested it is a law that his or her Miranda Rights must be stated before the arrest takes place. One of the major rights stated is “ If you cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to you.” Now, if the person being arrested has a higher income normally the attorney hired is very experienced and can make the most guilty person sound innocent. On the other hand, if the person being convicted has a lower income and has to receive their attorney from the court there is a high chance of losing the case.

Conflict theory argues that individuals and social classes within society have differing amounts of material resources. However, the more powerful groups use their power to exploit groups with less power or pay off people who were in power like the officers. Those who belonged to the upper class, highly educated or held some sort of position in the mechanical solidarity community, as a doctor or governor back in the days, were shown a lot of respect. Those people that held so much weight in society could have easily committed white collar, or elite crimes just like Holmes, and not be looked at for interrogation by the police department. Even in today’s society, people who are committing vicious crimes, killing their family members, friends, or strangers that belonged to a certain class are now being caught.

Wal-Mart has made their fortune by good business strategies but workers would complain that they don’t get enough money and they don’t care about their workers since they don’t get benefits. Karl Marx believed that the bourgeoisie gained all their wealth by exploiting the proletariat. It’s hypocrisy that CEOs or people in the government get a bunch of money by the working class why they live in poverty. This leads poor people stealing because it’s a way for them to survive. All in all, there are different theories as to why crime exists.

Not only are people stealing from their own family members in order to feed their addiction, but they are also wasting tax payer’s money by constantly sitting in prison for committing said crimes. This is a serious epidemic that we need to control, although it may be hard, we can start by increasing

Others are in for revenge and keep that on their mind to kill people and sell drugs. Everyone knows what they are doing, they are aware they are ending a life, and living a life of violence, but something brought them into the gang and they focus their attention on that one thing to execute the tasks given to them. Towards the end of the video, the girl’s killer says this about the gang he wasted his life defending, “We fight to protect territory that isn’t ours to begin with. We cover ourselves with guns to show we are tough, but inside we are weak.” Like all of those guys in jail, like the girl who became a rat, and Chester who agreed to be a part of the video, they get to a point where all the killing, violence and drugs take a toll on them and they want out. To most of them there is no “out,” because they know the task of getting out is extremely dangerous and there is a slim to none chance of completing it alive.

However, there is only so much the government can provide because of this some people resort to robbery and selling drugs to get by. In Bell Hooks’ article, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” describes why poor people resort to crime when she states, “Willing to commit all manner of dehumanizing and brutal acts in the name of material gain, the poor are portrayed as seeing themselves as always and only worthless. Worth is gained only by means of material success” (Hooks 485). Resorting to these types of crime can be very dangerous because they could accidentally step into their rival gang territory and potentially be killed, which will lead to more cycles of revenge and hatred. This was also simply said by Andre in Freedom Writers, “My brother taught me what the life is for a young black man.

In today society media has to stop covering these mass shooting also using these stereotypical names to describe these shooter. Media has been influencing more shooters across America to do these violent acts. While others might say that the media has to cover these mass shootings. Over the years it has been proved that the media glamorizes these shooters which motivates others to do the same. America need to figure out a way how stop or decrease these shooting and possibly help these “Troublesome” shooters Media has been racially profiling shooters of color thugs or gang member also terrorist, but then portrays shooters of the white race as troubled or mentally ill, which doesn’t really make sense because why isn’t the shooter of color also troubled or mentally ill. Anthea Butler a professor of religious studies and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania believes that “By labeling white male shooters mentally ill, while shooters of color are thugs and terrorist, the new media reinforces the narrative that the lone wolf is an aberration (Butler).” Media has been using racially biased stereotypical names to describe these shooters which isn’t fair.

What is Abolition?”) Essentially, the prison industrial complex benefits corporations with prison-related investments, like third party prison companies, by creating propaganda to convince the public of the need for prisons (CARA) and to criminalize and perpetuate stereotypes of marginalized groups such as people of color, immigrants, youth, and queer people. (Herzing) The prison industrial complex (PIC) also enforces structural power by skewing playing fields like courts and the media in favor of privileged individuals, most often white and rich.

A source said, “Researchers consistently find that people of color are more likely to be stopped and frisked; that white Americans are more likely to use illegal drugs, but black Americans are more likely to be jailed for drug use; that black men are sentenced to longer prison terms than their white peers for the same crimes and, even more incredibly, that the more stereotypically “black looking” a defendant is, the more likely he is to be sentenced to death. White Americans support harsh criminal penalties not despite but because they believe black offenders will be disproportionately affected.” (“Racism Is So Insidious, Even Black People Underestimate

Police were seen in many cities as corrupt, receiving bribes in order to ignore real crimes. Police were thought of as brutal, using excessive force against citizens, often in conjunction with fake charges and unlawful arrests. To the working class, they appeared as a tool of economic leaders to battle against laborers and the relatively new unions. A movement grew, advocating the professionalization of the police forces. Escobar (2003) mentions how professionalization meant enforcing, “high standards for entrance into the force, a rigorous training program, better pay for officers, and more modern equipment and administrative procedures.”(p.175) Reformists argued the position that law enforcement should be carried out impartially, removed from the influence of politicians that had been using police as a force to protect their own interests and attack anything that threatened those interests.

Most importantly, the increase of white-collar crimes by gangs has become a major focus the police whose goal is to prevent gangs from continuing to defraud banks and people nationwide (Hung). Although gangs have restored to committing white-collar crimes, they still continue to commit violent crimes. In my opinion, both types of crimes have serious consequences. For example, with regards to white-collar crimes, people are being hurt financially, which can have a devastating impact on them as a result of losing their money and even their identity. I think the article does an excellent job at illustrating the spectrum of white-collar crimes by gangs and its effect on people all over the nation.

Radical and Marxist criminology established itself as an influential criticism since it emerged in the 1970s. Unlike orthodox criminology which emphasizes individual level explanations of criminal behavior, radical and Marxist criminology emphasizes power inequality and structures, especially those related to class, as key factors in crime, law and justice. Radical criminology argues that control is exercised by those in positions of authority. They are able to manufacture the belief that the powerless pose the greatest threat of lawlessness. Radical criminology therefore seeks to expose the manner in which capitalist values become widely accepted and consequently those who might rebel against it are depicted as agitators to be ignored rather

I would love to study Criminology potentially with Psychology at University as the human mind intrigues me and my passion for learning about it far exceeds college qualifications. I want to further my studies and learn about how a criminal thinks in depth and what 'criminal behaviour ' is. From my own research, I have found that the basic definition is 'an act that violates public law '. An area of Criminology and/or Psychology that really sparks my interest is the excuses and defences people make to get their convictions reduced or dropped. For example, the case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in 1981, where he murdered his landlord in a gruesome fashion in the US.