Criminology

Why Due Process Matters in the US Constitution
The Importance of the 6th Amendment and the Right to Effective Counsel
Unit 1-5 Journals Criminology: The Core
Unit 1
This unit looks at biological and psychological trait theories, social structures and how standards influence criminal outcomes. Conflict theory was the most interesting theory for crime because it looked at the persona conflict issue and that people are inherently in conflict with one another at some point, and that crime occurs because of that conflict. It is interesting that it grew out of Marx’s approach to capitalism, but what I find most compelling about it is that it explains crime basically perfectly: crime is committed because one person wants what someone else has. There is a conflict because person B is not willing to do what person A wants. This is especially relevant because of the role confusion that resulted after the division of labor became a norm, as Durkheim pointed out.
The Chicago School’s approach was that the basic family structures were under attack in the US, as poverty, education and the ability to have stable communities were all feeling the strain. This led to higher crime rates in their opinion. I find the social structure theory to be more convincing than trait theory. I think there are internal forces that can impact a person’s decision making process, but that socialization forces and economic and political forces are just as pertinent if not more so. The complete view is likely that there are multiple forces at work in any approach to criminology. However, the idea of becoming deviant is one that needs to be explored more as labeling theory posits that deviance is a label that gets applied to prevent some groups from having power over others. That idea is explored more in Unit 2 where social process theories are discussed.
Unit 2
This Unit looks at social process theories, including social learning theory, social control theory, and labeling theory. For me this is one of the most interesting subjects because it is very telling how people look at reality, and whether they focus on universal principles or subjective experiences and how this frames their interaction with facts. Peers are obviously going to be a big influence on how people act and think. Peers, groups and media all play a part in informing people, especially ones who are growing up.
Hirschi’s social bond or social control theory helps to explain what goes wrong. When the bonds that people need to develop are not developed, it makes them more susceptible to a life of crime. There is nothing in the way of social controls to prevent them from committing crime, from robbing one’s neighbor, from starting a fire, from rioting, or from killing. While I believe that this theory brings a lot of insight into the issue, I do not believe it is the end-all-be-all explanation. Even people who do not have a lot of social bonds can know right from wrong and can still set about trying to respect the law. So I think there is more going on in a lot of cases that just the fact that there are no social controls in place.
The labeling theory, however, is something I find fascinating, primarily because it does seem that people who want to marginalize and oppress others will often paint them in negative terms and make it seem like they are deviant. In today’s cancel culture it definitely feels that certain groups are always being denounced in the media for being extreme or radical while others are painted in acceptable terms. I think that is a clear example of how labeling is used to promote a concept of deviance.
Unit 3
This Unit raises the issue of justice system inequality, and that is something I have come across before in the writings of Angela Davis and others. The prison industrial complex appears to be a major problem in the US, not least because the US has the highest prison population in the world. How does that work out for a free society? It appears that minorities are disproportionately imprisoned, and what’s worse is that it has become a new kind of slavery with inmates working for pennies on the day for US corporations. This is exploitation, plain and simple, and I feel that there is a major conflict of interest.
However, the idea that economic factors and the exploitation of minimum wage workers is to blame is a bit of a stretch for me. I think it is offloading some of the blame that the person should shoulder. If you do not want to work at McDonald’s then get an education and get a better paying job, or learn a trade and work for yourself. The idea that people are going to blame corporations for paying low wages as an excuse for crime is scapegoating in my eyes.
Yes, the state is certainly exploiting people and oppressing them in different ways, as the chapter shows, but people need to realize that they are never going to be able to rise above the pressures that the state puts on them if they do not step up and take ownership of their lives for themselves. And that does not mean protesting for a higher minimum wage. That means developing skills that are above the level of the unskilled worker’s pay grade. Hustling in the streets has been glamorized by media and families need to teach better values to their kids. That is how to prevent crime.
Unit 4
This Unit touches on life course theory and explains how people can fall into a life of crime because the life of adhering to social norms and standards is derailed for them through various experiences and traumas. The main idea here is that people change over the course of their lives, due to family, friends, groups, and other influences. Past experiences weigh on them and all of that makes a difference in terms of how they see each other.
It then goes on to explain propensity theory (people veer into crime because of latent traits) and trajectory theory, which combines life course and propensity theories. The age at which one commits his first crime may play a part in determining the trajectory of one’s life. Essentially, it shows that people who get started in crime or delinquency at a younger age are at a higher risk for becoming lifelong criminals or spending their lives in jail as unproductive members of society.
All of these theories serve as the main aspects of developmental theory and the policy implications of these theories are that to prevent crime, more focus has to be on preventing at-risk youths and delinquency at an early age. But what is a satisfactory policy? What is needed is culture—not just more policing. The culture of communities has been eviscerated and that needs to be restored. People need stability, commitment, families that are whole rather than broken up. They need two parents, they need churches, they need schools, and they need jobs. They cannot thrive if these variables and needs are not met. One is playing a losing game by attempting to address this issue of development theory without addressing the issue of culture. The promotion of thug culture in the media needs to come to an end first and foremost.
Unit 5
This chapter talks about the sociology of law and developing theories of crime causation. Coming back to this chapter after looking at the other chapters gives one a better sense of what is being talked about here. I could really begin to see the value that sociology brings to the issues of crime and how to understand it. One of the important ideas in this chapter that I wanted to focus on was the issue of punishment, sanctions and corrections. Should the criminal justice system be interested in punishing offenders, rehabilitating them, or preventing recidivism? How should it go about handling offenses. I would have liked to see more background on where the current system came from and why there are so many Americans currently in jail.
The relationship between criminology and criminal justice is likely a complex one and the chapter does not go into a great deal of detail in fleshing that relationship out. I am inclined to think that there are many variables impacting that relationship, not the least being the impact of for-profit prisons on the criminal justice system and the lobbying of the prison industrial complex to prevent research into this relationship by criminologists. Criminologists may like to look into how culture is instrumental in this relationship as well. The idea that deviance and crime are linked is also worth investigating, but in a totalitarian state where thought-crimes are outlawed because they go against the officially sanctioned and approved thoughts of the politically correct, it seems that there may be more and more conflict in society between what is deviant and what is a crime. Does deviating from the norm make one a criminal? How is one supposed to think about the reality of a world that is supposed to believe in free speech yet stifles it when it comes across as contradictory to what the establishment wants people to say?
Unit 1-5 Journals Criminal Procedure
Unit 1
These two chapters—Introduction and Search and Seizure—show that there are many rights that we take for granted, such as due process and the rule of law. But the reality is that these rights need protecting and the point of the Constitution is that it was meant to guarantee these rights. Procedures in the justice system have made it, however, to where the Constitution can be interpreted one way by liberal judges and another way by conservative judges. So there is some conflict in terms of how the rule of law and the rights of the people are interpreted and pursued. This issue is not really explored in the chapter.
In the second chapter on Search and Seizure the focus is a bit more on what the law is and what the exceptions are. For example, the Terry Stop may seem like it violates one’s 4th amendment rights but the Court has found that it does not because the person is not actually being detained. Again, however, it is all a matter of interpretation and there is a great deal of legalism that goes into how the actions of the police are interpreted. Another example is a situation in which it is an emergency because the officer fears the individual may destroy evidence if he does not search immediately and without a warrant. That kind of search is warranted. How then is there really any protection for a person when there are so many exceptions of this nature? The fact is that the state has created for itself a rather large number of loopholes to get around the cumbersome Constitution when it feels it is in its best interests to do so. The Constitution seems to be more of a hindrance to the state in many cases than a help, and so it is no surprise how many ways this issue is interpreted.
Unit 2
This unit looks at Arrest and Custody and Law Enforcement and the Citizen on the Street. Its focus is on what grounds law enforcement officers have to make an arrest and what the relationship is between police and people in the community. The first chapter examines the difference between consent, detaining and arresting, and the second chapter looks at the difference between a detention and an investigative stop. Here is where Terry v. Ohio comes into play and the idea of the Terry Stop. The Terry Stop is what permits officers to detain a person for a search, but if the search reveals nothing then the officer is not permitted to detain the person beyond that amount of time.
The Miranda warning has to be given any time an officer makes an arrest, but there has been a clear eroding of the Miranda warning in recent years, and that is consistent with the overall erosion of the Constitutional rights that people seem to have given up over the years, as legalistic loopholes are created to allow the state to work around 4th amendment rights, as well as other rights—like free speech, bearing arms, due process, and so on.
This unit shows that there has been a trend in policing to empower law enforcement over the citizen so that the citizen seems to sense an imbalance between his power and that of officers. Is it any wonder why there are riots now across America? I know it is for BLM but the overall outrage stems from the fact that people feel disenfranchised and the big reason for that is most likely because they have been disenfranchised by the courts. How can people get their rights back in a system like this when the courts seem to side with giving more authority to law enforcement?
Unit 3
This unit deals with Privilege Against Compulsory Self-Incrimination (the 5th Amendment) and Charging and Initial Appearance. These are important concepts in the criminal justice process. First of all, the suspect has a right to remain silent and to not testify or self-incriminate. This means that if the justice department wants to prosecute, it needs to obtain evidence. Evidence can be obtained but if the evidence is testimonial and comes from the accused, it cannot be obtained against the wishes of the accused. This should protect against torture, which can be used to gain information that the person does not want to give up voluntarily. That is why torture is frowned upon or should be frowned upon in the US. However, this like many other rights has been watered down in recent years and torture has been promoted as a favorable method for obtaining information from terror suspects. The hunt for Bin Laden was supposedly aided by the use of information obtained through “enhanced interrogation” techniques, i.e., torture. But the Constitution should protect against such methods being implemented.
The initial appearance is done so that the arrested person can be made clear about what his rights are now that he has been arrested. He has the right to counsel, to due process, and so on. At the initial appearance, the person is informed of the charge. From the time of the arrest to the initial appearance, the charge a person faces can change. The initial appearance should occur in a timely manner after the arrest, usually with 2 days, but the actual trial can be a process that goes on for months or more. Justice is thus not as fast as some should think it to be. This is one reason so many prosecutors push for plea deals—it frees up the courts and keeps cases from going to trial.
Unit 4
This section of the chapter looks specifically at the purpose of the initial appearance and why it is important that this process be included. The purpose is so that the individual is made aware of his rights and so that he knows what he is being charged with. It is a formal process. It is not when the defendant will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, however. That does not come until arraignment. At the initial appearance stage, charges are read, rights are disclosed, and bail is set. This is basically just the beginning of the process. The individual has time to consult with counsel once charges have been made, and counsel can give advice to the defendant. Evidence will be brought forward in the following stages of the process and the defense will have the opportunity to review it and engage in disclosure.
This is an important part of the process as it brings order to what might seem a chaotic enterprise. The fact is that being arrested can be a traumatic experience, but in short order the charges will be read and bail set, and in most cases the person charged will be permitted to leave once bail is posted. There are many ways to obtain bail postage and one need not always have the money. Loans can be made through bail agencies and so on. Thus, the ordeal should not be as frightening to people as it may seem. It is all a matter of having patience and being able to withstand the pressures that come from being arrested and detained while on faces charges. When one is in the spotlight, like the way Lori Loughlin and her husband were, it is likely much more difficult for this sort of thing to go on, as one faces a horde of cameras everywhere one goes.
Unit 5
This chapter looks at the 6th amendment, which ensures that one has the right to counsel. This is an important right and if a defendant can later show that he was not defended appropriately or fairly by counsel he can appeal the outcome. With the high-profile case of Gen. Flynn, this is essentially what happened: he dismissed his original counsel, which convinced him to plead guilty to charges—and then he hired more effective counsel, which showed that the charges were trumped up and that there was exculpatory evidence showing that Flynn was not guilty. Charges were dismissed and the case dropped. It just goes to show why this right under the 6th amendment is so important for a fair trial.
An accused person can choose to represent himself at trial, though this is not recommended unless one is well-versed in the law. The fact is that one can waive his right to counsel and represent himself. Nonetheles, the right to counsel begins well before the trial and starts as soon as the accused is arrested and asks for a lawyer. If the request for counsel is denied at that point it can lead to charges being dropped because due process was not followed.
More importantly, one has a right to effective counsel and this is the most important point. If one’s counsel is not operating fairly or in the defendant’s best interests, then that is not viewed as effective counsel. It can result in an overturning of verdict or mistrial. The reality is that the Constitution protects the rights of the accused very well—so long as it is interpreted fairly. Recent years have seen looser interpretations come along that seem to water down the rights of the accused and this is unfortunate because what makes America great is its protection of rights for every man, woman and child.