Three Strike Law Essays (Examples)

Three Strike Law the Past

Stratified sampling will allow the research team to take these prejudices into account when examining the data so as to avoid any skewing resulting from prejudices.

The potential population in this study is clearly defined. Although the effect of the three strike rule on the general public cannot be completely disregarded, it is more likely that the general public is more greatly affected by generalized criminal statutes to govern their behavior than the possibility that they may be subject to eventual three strike rule enforcement. As already pointed out, random interviews will be conducted with prosecutors, defense counsel, judges, probation officials, jail and prison personnel, and incarcerated and previously incarcerated criminals.

The location of all interviews will be in sites as neutral as possible. This is particularly important in the interviews of the convicted criminals. Said interviews must be afforded every opportunity to feel comfortable and free of any potential…… [Read More]

Three Strike Law The Three Strikes Laws

Three Strike Law:

The Three Strikes Laws are policies in the criminal justice system that target repeat criminals and are enacted by many states. Following three distinct offense convictions or strikes, offenders are locked out of society by being sentenced to life imprisonment. The reason behind the Three Strike Law is that offenders who commit crimes repeatedly are likely to pose a serious threat to the society and should be jailed in order to protect the society ("Understanding Three Strikes," n.d.). In many states, Three Strike laws only consider serious or violent crimes as the first two strikes with a considerably lower threshold for the third strike. This lower threshold for the third strike includes crimes like forgery and shoplifting, which may result in a sentence of between 25 years to life imprisonment.

The Three Strike Law was first incorporated in the criminal justice system in early 1990s when California…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Law and Crime Sentencing Regulation

Introduction
Californian lawmakers and citizens, in the year 1994, ratified a key amendment in the crime sentencing regulation of the nation (touted as ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ or the ‘Three Strikes Law’). Implemented by the state legislature under Chapter 12 of the 1994 Statutes (AB 971, Jones) and by California’s electorate under Proposition 184, one of the main elements of this regulation is that it mandates at least twenty-five years of life imprisonment in case of individuals convicted thrice for several past aggressive or major felonies (Brown and Jolivette; Diamond). This rule was enacted following concerns raised after the perpetration of a number of high profile homicides by ex-convicts. Society began to widely believe that violent criminals who acquired release from jail went on to perpetrate novel, and usually more brutal and major, offences. In this paper, the regulation’s effect will be explored and how far it has successfully accomplished its…… [Read More]

California Three Strike Law

California Three-Strike Law

In California, there is a serious attempt of controlling crime. Various laws have been enacted to control the criminals who are repeatedly being caught for serious crimes. Penal Code 1170.12 (Proposition 184) was one such law passed by the citizens in March 1994 to deal with the criminals. The Penal Code is popularly known as "Three Strikes and you are out." It all started when Mike Reynolds drafted legislation in response to his daughter Kimber Reynolds being murdered by a career criminal. The bill was killed in the committee itself. (Vitiello, 1997) Then Reynolds started collecting signatures to get the bill through. In the meantime, another innocent 12-year-old girl Polly Klaas was kidnapped during a slumber party, and subsequently murdered. Here also the criminal was a prior criminal with conviction for kidnapping and burglary. This became an emotional issue and the law came into effect in 1994…… [Read More]

California Three Strike Law

legislation, lawmakers need to focus on the public good, the possible repercussions of their actions, and most importantly, the "fairness" of their legislation. These three tenets seem to have been disregarded when California passed its 3-strikes law in 1994. The law has not only failed to serve the public good (both financially and in terms of crime), but it has created a dynamic within the criminal justice system that seeks to punish minor offenses, while shifting focus away from violent offenders. orst of all, the 3-strikes rule has proven to be blatantly unfair. Not only is it exceedingly harsh in its penalization of convicts (particularly those accused of nonviolent crimes), but it is also applied disproportionately to minorities and the poor.

In order to understand the 3-strikes law, it is important to explore its origins and original intents. New approaches to solving crime reached a breaking point in the early…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Law There Are Numerous Problems

Three Strikes Law

There are numerous problems associated with the prison system in the state of California. More than a few of these problems are directly caused by the state's infamous Three Strikes legislation -- in which individuals who receive three felonies are sentenced to 25 years to a life term in prison. In codifying the problems related to the state's prison system as identified by the essay written by the politician who was eligible for reelection, it becomes apparent that the most salient of these are the huge expense associated with quartering so many prisoners, overcrowding, and a lack of rehabilitation.

In 2010, the state spent a total of nearly 8 billion dollars to quarter, feed, and provide healthcare for prisoners, which represents a 12.2 percentage of costs outside of the state budget (Vera, 2012). These budgetary constraints are due in large part to the fact that the prisons…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Laws From the

herefore, by increasing the costs of imprisonment by the three strikes law, it is intended that there will be less crime. Marwell and Moody express several difficulties with the laws in the 24 states: Criminals are not always aware of the laws, at least not initially; repeat criminals can be expected to serve substantial prison terms even in the absence of the laws; almost all of the states already had habitual criminal statutes where criminals with prior convictions could be given lengthy sentences under the judge's discretion; the deterrent effect on homicides is limited in any case because the law most likely does not increase sanctions for homicides. However, the law may reduce homicides by deterring robberies and other felonies where homicides may take place; some criminals may limit their expected costs by taking evasive action, such as moving to another jurisdiction or to other areas of crime where the…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Law and Its Impact on the African-American Community

Three Strikes Law on the African-American Community

Three Strikes legislation, which imposes sentencing enhancement on repeat offenders, often culminating with mandatory life sentences for third-time offenders, has gained popularity throughout the United States. The legislation began in California, where two highly publicized murders committed by convicted felons prompted an outcry against allowing recidivists to return to the community. California did see a decrease in crime rates following its institution of the Three Strikes policy, though there is considerable debate about whether the Three Strikes laws were responsible for that decline. Many other states adopted the legislation, so that about half of all states now have three strikes legislation. While these laws may not necessarily have the desired deterrence effect on crime, the general consensus appears to be that they are not harmful to society; therefore, even if they cannot be proven to be helpful, they should remain in place. However,…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Law Criminal Justice

Locking up petty thieves and drug users (the overwhelming majority of them black and Latino males) for 25 years to life without the possibility of parole is a blatant violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

Summary and Conclusion

Changes are needed in order to address the critical problem of overcrowding in U.S. Prisons and as well the fact that there are so many non-violent offenders housed with hardened and violent criminal individuals is as well a problem in the present structure of the prison system. Only legislation of this law into a modified workable solution will address all the relevant issues brought on by the "Three Strikes" law.

Annotated Bibliography

Ehlers, Scott, et al. (2004) Still Striking Out Ten Years of California's Three Strikes Law 2004 September:

According to this work written and published in 2004: " the ten-year anniversary of the signing of the…… [Read More]

Three Strikes Laws Rationale and Amendments

Criminal Justice -- hree Strikes Law

Decades ago, America got tough on crime, especially when it involved habitual offenders. In order to reduce crime, at least 26 states passed hree Strikes Law giving especially long sentences to those offenders. he original hree Strikes Law had consequences that outweighed the benefits, so many states have amended or otherwise revised hree Strikes, usually reducing or eliminating mandatory maximum sentences and giving judges more discretion. Perhaps the most striking example is California, which enacted a very tough hree Strikes Law in 1994, suffered serious consequences, and then "reformed" the law. While states still wish to be tough on crime, they want to ensure that the benefits of hree Strikes Law outweigh its consequences.

Body

Overall Rationale of hree Strikes Law

he overall rationale of the "hree Strikes Law" is the significant reduction of crime. It supposedly reduces crime in two ways: by making…… [Read More]

Three Strikes You're Out Law

From 1990-1993, prior to three-strikes, the CCI dropped a total of 2.4%. From 1994-1997, post three-strikes, the CCI dropped 30.8%. For violent offenses the decrease was 27% post three-strikes vs. An increase of 7% from 1990-1993 (eres and Griffith 106).

However, some argue that the drop in the crime rate actually began in 1993 with a significant drop before any impact from three-strikes. This does not imply that the huge drop in the crime rate post three-strikes was not due to that legislation. And it cannot be doubted that three-strikes definitely had a significant impact on the crime rate drop. However, other factors may have initiated the drop in crime in 1993, which also impacted the bigger drops after three-strikes. A booming California economy during that same time period is one explanation offered.

Similar Laws in other States?

Twenty-eight states have three-strike laws. Most are "similar" to California's. However there…… [Read More]

Quantitative Proposal on Three Strike California Law

Three Strikes

High crime rates are a societal problem that has changed the manner in which society functions. ecognizing the adverse effects that crime has on communities the state of California has implemented a three strikes law designed to deter crime particularly as it pertains to repeat offenders. The propose research will examine the effectiveness of California's three strike law as it pertains to deterring recidivism. Statistical data concerning crime rates and rates of recidivism following the enactment of the law will be analyzed and compared to the same statistic prior to the passage of the law. The results will examine the extent to which the deterrence effect has been effective as it pertains to the three strikes law.

Background

Crime is a major social problem throughout the country. More specifically criminals who are repeat offenders make up a substantial number of the individuals that commit crime. With this understood…… [Read More]

Correctional Development 3 Strikes as California Goes

Correctional Development 3 Strikes

As California goes, some say, so goes the nation. here is little doubt but that the single most important event in recent correctional history in the nation's progressive state was the development of the hree Strikes laws. Having accepted this idea, the state is now faced with massive budget shortfalls and is confronting federal court orders to immediately and dramatically reduce its prison populations simply because it is too full to treat appropriately all of those put into prison under this get-tough idea.

he hree Strikes law came about following a number of specific crime incidents and legislative actions. A timeline of the evolution of these events has been developed by National Public Radio. he key elements of the effort began formally with Republican Governor Pete Wilson signing the originating legislation into law in March 1994. he law was recognized as being more severe than the…… [Read More]

Laws That Have Been Changed

Written into the legal changes would be protocols for review of cases to re-determine parole eligibility in certain cases but especially those where the latter crimes were non-violent and relatively minor offences. Because of this review aspect the legal and physical changes of this alternative is the most effective in both the short-term and long-term, of dealing with prison overcrowding. This alternative was chosen, not because it is the least costly, as it will likely be one of the most costly solutions, but because it has the greatest possibility for making real change in the overcrowding problem and rebalancing the system to create sustainability in the future. The implementation of this change will begin with resources as reviewing many cases, will require thousands of man hours in and out of courtrooms and likely develop into a monumental task for already overburdened public prosecutors, defenders and judges. Changing the legal precedence…… [Read More]

Domestic Violence Laws for Restraining Orders and Habitual Offenders

Combating Domestic Abuse in the United States

Domestic Abuse

In the United States, intimate partner violence afflicted nearly 4 out of 1,000 persons aged 12 or older in 2010, down from 1 in 100 in 1994 (Catalano, 2012). This translates into 0.9 million victimizations for the most recent year in which data were available. Females are victimized more often than males, however, with one male victimized for every six females. The crimes include rape, robbery, and assault against spouses and girlfriends/boyfriends, current or former. Family violence victimization rates were similar, with about 2.1 victimizations per 1,000 citizens aged 12 years or over in 2002, the most recent year with for which data is available (Durose et al., 2005). To put this statistic in perspective, approximately one in ten violent victimizations within the U.S. is the result of family violence. The gradual decline in domestic violence rates could be due to…… [Read More]

Business Law Justice at Bat the Story

Business Law

Justice at Bat

The Story of Three Strikes Legislation

It has been said that only two things are certain - death and taxes. Yet to these two inevitabilities, many Americans would add a third -- crime. The fear of becoming the victim of a crime - especially of a violent crime - haunts many otherwise rational individuals. Violence, it seems, is everywhere. One need only turn on the television to be assailed by images of murder, rape, and physical assault. And, it is not only Hollywood that is the villain. Both local and national newscasts revel in the depiction and discussion of violent acts: a child is kidnapped; a pregnant housewife disappears and is later found murdered; a ruthless killer stalks the streets of a large city. The media like to quote facts. Just yesterday, on April 27th, it was reported that the murder rate in California's most…… [Read More]

Megan's Law 1996

Megan's Law

On July 29, 1994, paroled sex offender Jesse K. Timmendequas lured his seven-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka, into his house with the promise of showing her a puppy; one inside, Timmendequas raped and murdered the little girl. One month after the murder, the New Jersey State Assembly passed a law requiring sex offenders to register with a new, statewide database and to inform their neighbors when moving into a neighborhood. This became the basis of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (the Wetterling Act) that was passed as part of the omnibus Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Despite some problems implementing this law, it is a sensible piece of legislation that would undoubtedly be passed today.

The bill that came to be known as Megan's Law was officially titled House Resolution 2137 and was sponsored by Republican representative…… [Read More]

Employment Laws in the UK Are They Effective or Not

Employment Laws in the UK: Are they Effective?

esearch shows that the last three Parliaments had a trend towards more employment protection events. However, there are some that argue that the protection events are not enough but also the employment issues need to be reduced. Nevertheless, UK employment law still has lesser levels of work protection and more labor marketplace suppleness relative to other EU Member States. For example, in France the industrial relation law has conserved the simple limitations on industrial action presented by earlier Conservative governments. There has been a range of measures which have been able to raise rights and protections for those that are working parents and their careers. More than a few major issues of employment law continued to be unsettled. With that said, this essay will discuss the huge amount of debate around the amount of employment legislation that currently governs employment within the…… [Read More]

Three Ethical Frameworks for Punishment

humans have been concerned with the most expedient and effective means of punishment for a crime committed. ecently, the United States has turned more to a correctional than a rehabilitative approach to punishing offenders. Studies conflict as to the success of this approach, although numbers of crimes have declined moderately. In addition, such incarceration leads to other problems such as considerably higher costs and increasing numbers of offenders having chronic diseases such as AIDS.

According to Gould and Sitren in "Crime and Punishment: Punishment Philosophies and Ethical Dilemmas," there are three major frameworks that address the purpose of punishment -- utilitarianism, deontology and peacemaking.

Utilitarianism recognizes the purpose of punishment in terms of the end result. For utilitarians, punishment is justifiable because it creates a greater balance of happiness vs. unhappiness. For Bentham, punishment should be utilized to maximize the total pleasure or minimize the total pain of all parties…… [Read More]

Law of Demand Changes in Supply and

Law of Demand

Changes in supply and demand of goods and services lead to a shift in equilibrium. Business managers have to be seized of how market equilibrium is sought in order to make robust business decisions that can pay-off. Market equilibrium is attained when the quantity demanded by the consumers corresponds to the quantity that the firms are willing to supply bearing in mind that equilibrium is basically the price quantity pair where the quantity demanded corresponds to the quantity supplied (Vienneau, 2005). Business enterprises have to be aware of the nuances of the market equilibrium.

Economists postulate that other things held constant, an increase in price of a commodity will make the quantity of that commodity demanded to decline and vice-versa. The demand of a commodity is the amount of that commodity that is bought per unit time at a particular price. An individual will demand a specific…… [Read More]

Law and the Legal Systems

11. The issued rose in this case is unauthorized use of a company vehicle, which resulted in an accident. Prater was told to bring the truck home over the weekend to work on the body only. His boss never gave him permission to use the truck for any other purpose. Besides, the insurance on the truck would probably only pay for the accident if it occurred on company time. Prater could be charged for stealing the truck and unauthorized use. The ruling in this case should be for the plaintiff. Prater should have to pay for the accident and repairs to the truck.

Week 8

5. In this case, the city is still the rightful owner of the piece of restored artwork. It does not matter how long Hoeltzer had the artwork, it is still the property of the city. Therefore, the city has legal title to the artwork unless…… [Read More]

Society Bring Law Alteration There Is a

Society Bring Law

Law Alteration

There is a fair amount of veracity in the assumption that major changes in society frequently account for changes in laws. The relationship between these two occurrences appears fairly direct and even logical. Major changes in society ultimately result in different types of behavior in people. When people begin acting differently, their actions tend to produce different consequences than before whatever change was made in society. Not all of these consequences are favorable. Some are dangerous, and many times, they are unforeseen and can have a significant impact on society in a way that was not intended due to whatever sort of change was initiated. Therefore, there are frequent occurrences of alterations in the law to accommodate for these unforeseen occurrences, and to attempt to preserve the original spirit and safety of the law.

Numerous examples can substantiate this thesis. Virtually any aspect of technology…… [Read More]

Business Ethics Law

Business Ethics and Law

Over the last several years, the issue of ethics and legal challenges has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is because globalization has created a change in the way firms are interacting with employees. Over the course of time, this has resulted in firms outsourcing jobs to key locations (which have lower labor costs). This has given executives greater amounts of flexibility in determining: what is asked of employees, the kind of benefits that are received and the impact on labor relations. (Franklin, 2001, pp. 7 -- 16)

In the case of Caterpillar, they have been using this kind of strategy to reduce their costs and to begin selling their products in developing markets. This has resulted in the company realizing increasing profit margins and it has helped the firm to aggressively market to consumers in these areas. However, a problem has emerged inside many…… [Read More]

Environmental Law Swancc vs US Army Corps of Engineers

Environmental Case Study

Case Title:

SWANCC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Parties:

The Petitioner is the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) and the respondent is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Facts:

The petitioner, SWANCC, is a consortium of 23 suburban Chicago cities and villages that united in an effort to locate and develop a disposal site for baled nonhazardous solid waste. SWANCC had purchased a 533-acre parcel, located in Northern Illinois that straddled the Cook County and Kane County line. The site had been abandoned by a sand and gravel mining operation in about 1960 and had given away to a successional stage forest with its remnant excavation trenches evolving into a scattering of permanent and seasonal ponds of various sizes and depths.

SWANCC was required by law to file for various permits from Cook County…… [Read More]

Laws Affecting the Human Resources

Add to this confusion the growing prevalence of telecommuters and the issues of the FLSA become even more complicated. Of course some telecommuting positions fall into the exempt category, and therefore are not subject to overtime pay, however some do. Due to the freedom to engage in 'private pursuits', employers may monitor when a virtual employee logs onto his or her computer and may require that he or she get permission before working overtime (Gabel & Mansfield 2003, 316). Only by fully understanding the FLSA and the legislation that has evolved from its implementation, can Human Resource professionals be certain to obey the regulations and not compromise their organization.

Discrimination:

In addition to the monitoring of ever-changing compensation laws, Human Resource professionals must also be well versed in discrimination legislation as well. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of them of the most important pieces of discrimination legislation created,…… [Read More]

Law of Christ

ender to Ceasar the Things That Are Ceasars

ender unto the Caesar the Things that are Caesar's

"ender unto Caesar what belong to the Caesars" is the beginning a phrase ascribed to Jesus in the synoptic gospel, which fully reads, "ender unto the Caesar what are Caesar's, and unto God what belong to God." This phrase has been a widely quoted and controversial summary on the relationship between the contemporary secular authorities and Christianity. The origin of this message was from the response posted to a question on how lawful it was for the Jews to pay taxes to the Caesar. This phrase gave rise to all possible and multifaceted interpretations (obert & Miller 1995, 421) concerning the conditions under which it could appear desirable for Christians to earthily commit themselves to earthly authorities. All the three synoptic gospels elicit a group of hostile questioners who tried to trick Jesus…… [Read More]

Workplace Harassment Policy Introduction the Way That

Workplace Harassment

Policy Introduction

The way that a society treats its criminals is indicative of the moral character and worthiness of that society. While it is easy for us to ignore and disregard the criminals amongst us by leading them to prison and throwing away the key, an important lesson is lost in this disregard for the human experience. In California the intolerance of violent crime and action has led to the development of the Three Strikes Law, which was implemented in 1994. As a policy maker I am firmly opposed to this law as I find it to be inhumane, impractical, excessively expensive and carried out in poor taste with a snobbish attitude towards those of us who have temporarily lost our way. A new policy is needed that can help address the important facts and details particular to the State of California and its unique needs.

Prisoners are…… [Read More]

Letter to Judge Dear Judge

The costs of incarceration may extend far beyond prisoner and prison facility maintenance. When we begin to reap the seeds we sow now by placing more persons in prison, we may discover other unforeseen costs including increases in social service expenditures by families and communities and potential increases in crime rates down the road (rutchfield 2004).

Lynch & Sabol (2004) note that the future effects of the "three strikes" laws are unknown, given the lack of longitudinal studies available. However, as more scholastic evidence is compiled we may begin to realize that getting tough on crime is backfiring. Meares (2004) states, "the tentative results that Lynch & Sabol collect...are...enough for policy-minded researchers to advocate for different solutions to address criminal offenders," (p. 300).

When you consider your sentencing decision in State v. Jones, consider that the current trend in heavy sentencing may not yield the intended results. Reducing crime rates…… [Read More]

Legal Definitions Miranda Rule -- Prohibits the

Legal Definitions

Miranda Rule -- Prohibits the introduction of any testimonial evidence elicited from criminal suspects while under arrest or in police custody unless police first advise them of their constitutional rights to remain silent, refuse to answer questions, and to be represented by an attorney before beginning any custodial interrogation. I have heard this term used frequently in television crime programs.

Prosecutor -- Is an attorney employed by the state whose responsibility it is to file criminal charges against individuals arrested by police and charge with crimes; typically, prosecutors represent the state at the criminal trial. The context in which I am most familiar with prosecutors is in their portrayal in television programs about criminal justice and news reports about criminal trials.

Pretrial Release Program -- Is a system of releasing criminal defendants from custody until their trials to reduce jail overcrowding; in principle, bond is one form of…… [Read More]

Mandatory Minimums a Drop Crime Additional Problems

mandatory minimums a drop crime additional problems; based information readings personal research, attributed reduction crime? Do agree findings mandatory minimums ineffectual? How -strike laws? Page 2 Research locate a news article op-ed addresses issue relevant unit.

Society has seen an increasing number of states implementing mandatory minimums as a means to deter criminals. Mandatory minimums involve judges having to impose sentences that are in accordance with a particular law and thus provide criminals with no less than a specific amount of time behind bars as long as the criminal meets certain criteria. Mandatory minimums have been designed to guarantee that the country achieves a series of goals with regard to common crimes such as drug trafficking. Even with the fact that they appear to be effective in theory, information shows that mandatory minimums are not actually playing a positive role in assisting the community.

One of the reasons why crime…… [Read More]

Moral Dimensions of Punishment Is

Capital punishment, however, does reflect the retributive perspective and is the most obvious modern manifestation of Hammurabi's code. Even so, the moral righteousness of capital punishment is questionable for several reasons. First, capital punishment is illogical and hypocritical. If killing another human being is wrong, and if the state kills human beings, then the state is committing a wrongful act. Second, capital punishment can be considered cruel and unusual. Third, capital punishment precludes the state from promoting positive moral values in favor of a perceived increase in public safety. Whether public safety is increased by the use of capital punishment is also questionable. For the most part, capital punishment is used "solely for symbolic purposes," (Turow, cited by Stern, 2003). Capital punishment is the epitome of revenge-based, retributive justice. It would seem that even if revenge were morally just, that the state would have no justifiable role in exacting revenge.…… [Read More]

Santos Reyes Is Sentenced to

The significant increase in prison terms has created unsafe, unhealthy, and potentially dangerous conditions for violent and non-violent criminals alike, frequently affecting the potential to rehabilitate felons. The Law has led to various unusual circumstances that have attracted national attention, especially those cases that send third-time offenders to prison for 25 years or more for simple, non-violent, victimless crimes, such as in the case of Santos Reyes in 1998. Despite the controversy and negative consequences, the Supreme Court upheld the Three Strikes Law, saying that it stopped short of constituting "cruel and unusual punishment."

The Three Strikes Law had the intention of limiting recidivism. However, numerous studies suggest that declines in recidivism have been negligible. This is another unintended consequence of the Three Strikes Law; the general failure to curb third offenses. Violent crimes have dropped in urban areas in California, but those declines are in line with declines in…… [Read More]

Prison Crowding

prison overcrowding and its effect on the criminal justice system. Prison overcrowding has skyrocketed in the United States in the last three decades, leading to a multitude of problems in the criminal justice system. Overcrowding costs taxpayers money, it leads to dysfunction within the penal population, and it creates dangers for prison staff. It is a result of many items in society and the criminal justice system, and it must change if America's prisons are to remain effective and viable.

Many people may not be aware just how much the prison population has grown in the last thirty years. One researcher notes, "From 300,000 prisoners in 1977, the prison population has risen steadily to over 1.5 million as of June 30, 2005, a 400% increase" (Pfaff, 2008). The two largest states housing prisoners, California and Texas, have seen stupendous growth in their prison populations, but not in their funding. Another…… [Read More]

Traditional and Digital Copyright Evolution

Inability of Analogous Copyright Laws to Work Well in the Classroom and Society of the Digital Age

Traditional copyright protection laws have for sometime now been unable to give complete protection to the rights of those who 'own' various types of media, ranging from books and articles to photographs and music. In the opinion of some, this change has mostly been as a result of the absence of strict laws needed to improve such rights. As a consequence, a key matter of interest emerges from "Overwrought copyright: The inability of Analogous copyright laws to work well in the classroom and society of the Digital Age" One hugely unexamined area that is a central and important question, is the role the doctrine of 'first sale law' will play in the future of digital copyright laws. The requirement that those who hold copyright transfer the control power of many applications of a…… [Read More]

Medico-Legal Investigations How Adequate Medical Death Investigative

Medico-Legal Investigations

HOW ADEQUATE?

Medical Death Investigative Systems

Past and Present Systems

Death investigation of some sort has existed in all countries for centuries, but not always performed by medical professionals (Committee, 2003 as qtd in Moldovan, 2008). The link between law and medicine traces back to the ancient Egyptian culture in 3000 .C. This was followed by the English coroner system in around the 12th century. The 194 Articles of Eyre first used the term "coroner" by the English until brought by the first colonists to the New World, America as basis for a legal investigative function. A medical examiner replaced the coroner system in 1890 then functioning in altimore. A medical examiner is a trained medical specialist in pathology. The field of death investigation became more and more sophisticated in cities and States, like New York. The Office of the Medical Examiner was established in 1918. Its main…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice African-Americans and American

The stigmatization of African-Americans has caused terrible harm in many areas, and only exacerbates the perceived "problem."

T]hirty years of forced removal to prison of 150,000 young males from particular communities of New York represents collective losses similar in scale to the losses due to epidemics, wars, and terrorist attacks -- with the potential for comparable effects on the survivors and the social structure of their families and communities. (oberts, 2004)

By destroying African-American communities and social networks on a massive scale, law enforcement officials are contributing to the very problems they purport to be fighting.

The mass imprisonment of African-Americans further spreads and entrenches the notion that African-Americans are somehow incapable of conforming to the larger society's rules and regulations. The more common the prison experience becomes in African-American life, the more normative it becomes in both African-American and majority White culture. oberts underlines the terrible effects of this…… [Read More]

Truth in Sentencing Efficacy Truth in Sentencing

Truth in Sentencing Efficacy

Truth in Sentencing esearch Proposal

esearchers who study the economics of crime are interested in whether specific anti-crime legislation or initiatives can increase the 'cost' of committing criminal acts, thereby reducing crime rates (reviewed by oss, 2012). The basic premise is that most criminals will use a rational process when deciding when and where to offend and that effective anti-crime efforts will displace criminal activity. For example, implementing Lo-Jack tracking in some states in Mexico caused a shift in car theft to neighboring states lacking Lo-Jack tracking services. In the U.S., the implementation of a 'three-strikes' law in California shifted the criminal activity of offenders with one or two offenses already on record to neighboring states. By comparison, increasing the number of police officers patrolling the streets had little impact on the geographic distribution of criminal activity.

Amanda oss (2012) examined the impact of truth-in-sentencing (TIS)…… [Read More]

Habitual Sex Offender Has Become a Major

habitual sex offender has become a major issue in American society today. Media reports on the number of children killed in recent years fuel this concern, including reports where a sex offender who has been released from prison at the end of his sentence takes and kills another victim. Various states have passed new laws and added restrictions on sex offenders as a result, and one of the issues now concerns notification, meaning whether the neighbors of a released sex offender should be told that the offender is living among them. Traditionally, parole or release from prison has been a matter kept between the offender and the state, and the people in the community are not told where released sex offenders are living. Because of the notoriety accompanying some recent cases, the public now demands to be told when a sex offender is living in the community. hile these laws…… [Read More]

Urban Injustice How Ghettos Happen

Many of the busts in the ghetto are drug-related, and Hilfiker notes that our society punishes petty drug offences far more severely than crimes committed by people who are wealthy. Meantime, the mandatory minimum sentence takes away the possibility of any plea bargaining; it takes away the judge's previous alternative of giving probation for a petty crime and hands the power to the prosecutor, who runs for office on a "law and order" theme.

"Deserving" poor vs. "Undeserving" poor:

It has been customary in America for society to attempt to separate the "undeserving" poor from the "deserving" poor. The deserving poor are those who have supposedly found themselves down on their luck through no fault of their own; while the undeserving are reportedly "lazy" and likely on some government assistance program (Hilfiker, pp. 69-71). As a token offer of help to the very poor the government makes "TANF" benefits available…… [Read More]

Juvenile Court Philosophy the Office

They must also determine what types of delinquent behavior and youth violence are causing the greatest concern in the community. (Medaris, 1996, para.# 5)

As can be seen from the above statement of the first step in implementing the SHOCAP program in any community, first look at statistics on juvenile crime and second ask the community what it is most afraid of with regard to juvenile crime. This intention seriously contradicts the intention of the juvenile justice system to demonstrate focus on individual cases of each juvenile offender and give it adequate time for understanding of all mitigating circumstances, rather than seeking to understand outside fear of crime. Many factors contribute to public opinion of crime and not all of those factors are realistically and truly connected to real crime occurrences and/or statistics. The "mitigating" factors of public crime fear are in dire need of reevaluation, starting with unrealistic and…… [Read More]

Affiliated in Crime

Parenting plays a finite role in shaping the criminality of children, since parents are their first teachers and can help them distinguish between right and wrong. However, their influence is limited by the fact that people are individuals and do what they want.

There should be mandatory classes for parenting that provide simple overviews on the subject so that people have some sort of objective means upon which to base their parenting. Parenting is a difficult job; most people could use help with it.

The scholarly literature says that differences between these three classes of adolescents exist because money is a determining factor in society, and can provide the basis for a host of other social factors relevant to teenagers and delinquency.

These differences can be reduced by ensuring that representatives from these groups interact with one another regularly in neutral circumstances that do not favor or disfavor any of…… [Read More]

Fiscal Impact of the Maryland Budgetary Crisis

Maryland Prison System

Crime is expensive. But so too is punishment. The state of Maryland, like the majority of states across the nation at the moment, is facing a period of slow economic growth and shrinking economic resources even as it continues to have to meet the needs of its citizens. This paper examines the effect on the state's overall budget of the cost of incarcerating prisoners.

The treatment of prisoners causes few legal problems for the government of a dictatorship. A government that refuses to acknowledge the human rights of even its law-abiding citizens is not likely to show too many qualms about shoving its criminals into overcrowded and unsafe prisons - or even to worry about whether the niceties of due process were considered in getting the person to prison to begin with. But the rule of constitutional law changes all that. Because we live in a country…… [Read More]

Australian Criminal Justice System

Criminal Justice System

Australian Criminal Justice System

"When all is said and done, the current criminal justice system is about as fair and effective as we can reasonably expect"

Overview of the Criminal Justice System: Fair and Effective - Penal Populism

The Democracy at Work thesis proposes that politicians have been properly responsive to public concern about crime by putting into place the more robust responses to offending which people want. An alternative perspective is that politicians have been populist in advocating these tougher policies. "Penal populism"; a term equivalent to Bottoms's (1995) "populist punitiveness"; is defined here as a punishment policy developed primarily for its anticipated popularity. Penal policy is particularly susceptible to populism, because there is a great deal of public concern about crime, and low levels of public knowledge about sentencing practice, sentencing effectiveness, and sentencing equity. This combination of concern and lack of knowledge can present…… [Read More]

Overcrowded and Under-Funded Prisons According

In the American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control, David Musto notes that throughout the twentieth century, America's drug wars have regularly scape-goated minority groups, like the Chinese with opium, marijuana among the Mexicans, and cocaine among the African-Americans (McCormick 2000).

The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals reported in 1973 that "the prison, the reformatory and the jail have achieved only a shocking record a failure. There is overwhelming evidence that these institutions create crime rather than prevent it," yet during the next two decades both state and federal legislatures implemented increasingly stiffer penalties and mandatory minimums claiming that prisons were an effective tool for crime control, and longer prison terms would reduce crime by deterring or incapacitating criminals (McCormick 2000). However, at the end of this period, after the average prison sentence had tripled and the prison population at more than quadrupled, a National Academy of…… [Read More]

Race in the Criminal Justice

Gould, judicial systems have to address the concerns about disparate treatment and its affect on sentencing outcomes (pg.1 paragraph 1).

In 1989 the National Consortium of Task Forces and Commissions of Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts (the Consortium) was established. Its primary goal was to encourage judicial authorities to investigate the treatment of minorities in the court. The Consortium was challenged to understand if disparate treatment existed and affected sentence outcomes.

According to the author, The Consortium not only wants to know if racial disparities exist, but want to know the reasoning behind the existence. The author goes further to say that imperative data should be assessed in order to reach a fair conclusion. The Consortium should obtain information on the litigants' background, characteristics of the case, type of representation and demographics of tier of fact.

The litigants' background should be assessed for things such as household income,…… [Read More]

State Prison Populations

Causes of Increases in Prison Populations

The United States has experienced an unprecedented increase in prison populations over the last decade, a trend that began in the 1980's. In just seven years during the last decade, prison populations rose by 58% -- from 1,726.000 to 1.1 million (S, 1998). 1997 alone showed an increase of over 5% (S, 1998).

Three factors play heavily into these facts: the war on drugs, longer sentences, and mandatory laws at the federal level and in many states requiring sterner sentences for repeat offenders. These changes in our approach to criminal prosecution have resulted in two significant changes in our prison system: a change in racial balance, and a prison population that now contains significantly more older prisoners than before these changes occurred.

Roach (2002) reported on years of research done by Angela Davis and others. He found persuasive evidence that Blacks receive harsher treatment…… [Read More]

Proactive Policing

Proactive Policing

There is generally a concept that police respond only after a crime is committed. However, now police do have opportunities to be proactive. Today proactive policing has emerged as the key to a booming future in crime prevention and control. Now police uncompromisingly carries out required investigation and works with citizens and social service groups in order to contain crime-breeding conditions and decrease the rate of street crime.

Proactive/community policing stresses on clarification, forecast and avoidance of crime occurrence. This is done through the investigation of fundamental issues of offenses and chaos and through proactive problem solving for problems that are anticipated to culminate into criminal / anti-social activism, if not controlled at the initial stage.

Outline of the Paper

The article discusses police practices towards controlling crime. Its main emphasis is on analyzing proactive practices adopted in the police systems over the years, translating from the early…… [Read More]

Since the Middle of the 20th Century Prisons and Other Corrections Issues

corrections models in the United States have changed significantly over the past several generations, from a rehabilitative toward a punitive paradigm. After World War Two, a strong sense of national security and prosperity prevailed in the United States, leading to a corrections system that was based more on rehabilitation than on punishment. During these idealistic times, criminals were believed to be "ill," and correctable via a treatment model ("History and Development of Corrections 1700-Present," n.d.). Trust in governmental institutions also helped politicians and the public alike agree that corrections should be built upon the theory that criminal behavior can be unlearned, or "corrected." The rehabilitation approach persisted well into the 1960s, as humanistic psychology informed corrections models. A humanistic worldview encouraged "deinstitutionalization" of corrections through the use of community-based services like halfway houses and probation ("History and Development of Corrections 1700-Present," n.d.). Sentencing policy during the middle of the 20th…… [Read More]

United States Has Waged a War on

United States has waged a "War on Drugs." Within this endeavor the nation has passed and implanted some extremely tough laws regarding drugs, on a local, state and national level. The laws are meant to act as a deterrent for those who abuse drugs by way of sales, manufacturing and use. The laws send people to prisons for a long time as well as create probation and parole status for many who violate the laws.

The belief is that stricter laws will reduce the number of drug offenses and drug use in the United States. Those who draft and pass the legislation for tougher drug laws believe that the fear of jail and other punishments will deter people from drug use, manufacturing and sales. While this has been going on for the last few decades the nation has continued to wrestle with drug issues. It is unclear whether the tough…… [Read More]

Short Answer Questions on Drugs

economic impact of drug use in the United States might initially seem easy to measure. A legal trial is an expensive proceeding: police officers, prosecutors or public defenders, judges, stenographers, and bailiffs are employees of the state, and even if jurors are barely remunerated, defense attorneys are lavishly remunerated. To prosecute someone for dealing marijuana is an expensive undertaking, and to do so under a "three strikes" law, where the crime is suddenly elevated to a horrific felony with extreme penalties, is even more expensive. The greater expense comes with convictions: America has the largest imprisoned population in the world, with more people behind bars in this country than comprise the entire populations of other sovereign nations. Imprisonment is not a cheap proposition. We can then consider the further economic impact, legally and morally speaking, of drug use in the current extensive misuse of civil forfeiture laws. Ostensibly designed to…… [Read More]

Ethics and Corrections Work the

149-150). When the inmate failed to deliver on the guards' demands, the guards then planted drugs in the inmate's bunk (p. 150). The inmate was subsequently prosecuted, and received an extended sentence (p. 150).

Often people will doubt these kinds of stories, because, after all, the inmates are already imprisoned for offenses like drugs, and often much worse kinds of crimes. This puts the inmates at risk of guards and other prison employees who might not embrace a high set of ethics or personal morals. Everyone wants to see crime punished, but when the crimes are being committed within the prison environment, people seem to be less concerned about them, even if they are crimes being committed by the guards or prison officials. People should, in fact, be very concerned about these kinds of crimes, because it is the prison officials and those employees, including guards, who are willing to…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice A the Criminal

This substantiates the concept that simply building more correctional facilities will only exacerbate the problem, as it will probably fill up even faster than it can be completed.

Moses Wright (2007) notes that there is light at the end of the tunnel. An increasing number of critics and professionals are recognizing the possibilities of rehabilitation as opposed to imprisonment. Rehabilitation has a number of advantages. Most notably, it will discourage repeat offending and thus reduce the number of prisoners who return to prison after only a short time. In addition, rehabilitation programs will both help those participating and other prisoners for whom an example is provided to become worthy contributors to society. Furthermore, rehabilitation will also relieve society of those repeat offenders who are never apprehended and thus continue to have the opportunity to commit their crimes. It therefore appears that rehabilitation programs could be much more effective in reducing…… [Read More]

Controlling the Prison Population According

S. pp). This is partly due to high recidivism because within three years of their release, two of every three prisoners are back behind bars (U.S. pp). Criminologists attribute the prison population growth to "get tough on crime" policies that have subjected hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug and property offenders to long mandatory sentences (U.S. pp). Malcolm Young of the Sentencing Project, says, "e have to be concerned about an overloaded system which sentences many offenders quickly and is not dong a good job of sorting out people who should be incarcerated from people for whom other responses would produce better, less expensive results" (U.S. pp).

The rise in the prison population varies by state, yet since 1998, twelve states experienced stable or declining incarceration rates but crime rates in those states declined at the same rates as in the other thirty-eight (U.S. pp).

Young says, "e're working under…… [Read More]

Substance Abuse Among High School Students

Substance Abuse

Introduction to the Characteristics and Extent of Alcohol, Tobacco or Other Drug Use.

Addiction means physical dependence on a drug, with withdrawal symptoms when its use ceases, and in this sense, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hashish, opiates and amphetamines are all addictive drugs. In addition, these drugs also cause psychological dependency since they enhance a person's sense of pleasure, sociability, sexuality and emotional satisfaction, and also mask pain, low self-esteem and anxiety (Wilson and Kolander, 2011, p. 6). Student surveys are "likely to underreport the overall level of substance use and abuse by young people," and since black and Hispanic students have higher dropout and absenteeism rates, this affects survey results as well (Mosher and Akins, 2007, p. 136). Hard drug users and addicts are also more likely to be homeless, which means that their true numbers are always unknown.

All studies and surveys confirm that marijuana…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice - Corrections the

The federal government along with several states introduced mandatory sentencing and life terms for habitual criminals often called three strikes laws, meaning that after three convictions you're out. They also restricted the use of probation, parole, and time off for good behavior (Prevention History of Corrections -- Punishment or ehabilitation - Justice Model, 2010).

The rapid increase in the 1990s in the number of people confined in prisons and jails was thought to correspond with falling crime rates. Experts though could not agree as to why this decrease in crime occurred. Some thought that imprisoning more criminals naturally led to less crime in society, while others believed that new policing strategies and tactics such as community policing and zero-tolerance reduced crime. The growing number of offenders on parole and in prisons and jails has put a real burden on the system. Facilities have become overcrowded and states have had problems…… [Read More]

Communications Media Coverage of Presidential

A candidate is "dumb" or, possibly, "dumber" than his opponent.

The assassination of a Basque politician by the Basque separatist group ETA on the very eve of the election, March 7th, threatened to again confound public opinion of the relative merits of the two major candidates. Ramon Cotarelo, a professor of political science at Madrid's Complutense University opined that public sympathy could swing to Zapatero because the assassinated man was a member of his party or, as the media also reported, "But it could go the other way.... People might say, 'iron fist. The Socialists are no good. Look, they negotiate and it does no good. You have to vote for the right.'"

The idea that public opinion is so easily swayed by last minute violence, or by emotional responses to such violence, is typical of much political thinking in the two countries. Time is not wasted on the real…… [Read More]

Autonomy of the Law the

The Appeal Court reversed the decision declaring that 922(q) is invalid as it interfered in state matters. The Federal government did not have the right to interfere in matters such as possession of firearms in or near a school. The significance of the case is that it once again highlighted the limits of the power of the federal government. Chief Justice ehnquist declared that the congress had the power to regulate the channels of commerce, the instrumentalities of commerce and actions that affected interstate commerce. The Lopez case was therefore considered outside the federal jurisdiction.

Heart of Atlanta (Motel) v. The United States'

This case related to the application of commerce powers and also involved racial discrimination. This case involved commerce clause and Civil ights Act. The Court ruled that Congress had the power to regulate a business that served interstate travelers. It also declared that racial discrimination disrupts commercial…… [Read More]

Tort Business Law Questions Chapter 24

Tort / Business Law Questions

Chapter 24 Product Liability: Warranties and Torts

The issue in this case is whether or not Maria Gonzalez and/on behalf of Angel would recover in a lawsuit against either Morflow or Robertshaw, alleging defects in the design of the water heater and failure to warn. The law of strict liability states that one who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer is subject to liability for physical harm caused to the user if the seller is engaged in the business of selling such a product and it is expected to or does reach the customer without substantial change in the condition in which it was sold. Failure to warn or give adequate directions involving an unreasonably dangerous product may provide grounds for strict liability, even where the product is not defective. In this case, both Morflow and Robertshaw…… [Read More]

Australian Law on Torts and

This provision is based on the rationale that general damages do not represent financial loss to the injured person. A number of changes have also been made to the law in respect to assessment of damages for past and future economic loss.

4. The maximum amount of damages for economic loss due to loss of earnings or the deprivation or impairment of earning capacity is fixed at a rate of three times the average weekly earnings in New South Wales for the most recent quarter occurring before the date of the award.

5. Future economic loss predictions, for the purpose of making an award, must be based on assumptions that accord with the claimant's most likely future circumstances but for the injury. If the court makes an award for future economic loss, it must adjust the amount determined by reference to the percentage possibility that, but for the injury, certain…… [Read More]

Creation of Concepts Through the Combination of Images in Strike

Images in "Strike"

A Marxist engineer and architect by formal training, Sergei Eisenstein used his training to create the "montage." Though Eisenstein's work suffers some criticism for its use of bludgeons to convey blunt propaganda, his seminal work is deemed the basis for montages in the work of such eminent directors as Hitchcock, De Palma and Coppola. Arousing strong emotional impact from the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images, multiple effective montages are evident in Eisenstein's first film, Strike.

Sergei Eisenstein (1898 -- 1948) was one of the most famous filmmakers of the early 20th Century (Archive Media Project, LP). His formal training as an engineer and architect in St. Petersburg greatly influenced his eventual career in filmmaking. In addition, his Marxist ideology and his Russian heritage highly influenced his work. Eisenstein experimented with several cinematic devices and due to his contributions, was embraced by the ritish Film Institute as one…… [Read More]