(no subject)
My Criminal Justice paper. 1 month of searching for serious crimes. 6 hours composing it and writing it following the specific guide lines. Final copy 5 1/4 pages. I needed 5 pages. I'm an over-achiever. ; ) It's probably a little boring since it's mostly statics but it's informative. I guess I'm just interested in this stuff especially my last 2 paragraphs of the essay.
Starting from September 28th through October 22nd I read The Flint Journal newspaper on a daily basis. On certain days there would be several serious crimes listed while on other days there weren’t any mentioned. I must admit that the crime rate was a lot higher than I had anticipated. Not only were there several drug related incidents but there were quite a few gruesome murders as well. I think the worst was reading about infants that were killed. There is just no logical reason why anyone should be a victim of murder let alone a child.
Through out my readings I found that 75% of the crimes were due to a murder of some sorts. Three of those articles involved juvenile victims and one of them even involved a juvenile suspect. An offender was unknown in three out of the fifteen murder cases. There was one negligent homicide case involving an intoxicated driver whom hit a motorcyclist. Two attempted murders and also two drug cases; one of which involved 32 suspects charged with possession of cocaine and illegal fire arms. There were 33 felony and 66 misdemeanor charges filed against those offenders. Their age, gender, and race were not given.
Over all there were twenty-nine accounted male victims and suspects in the articles. Of those twenty-nine males, seventeen were suspects. Fifteen of the seventeen offenders were either involved in murder, attempted murder, or negligent homicide. The other two suspects were police officers facing a drug possession charge. Three of the offenders were young white males while only one was a white adult male. One suspect was a juvenile black male; one was a young black male and there was also one black adult male. The race of ten of the male suspects was not given in the articles. There were twelve male victims, 82% of them did not state which race they were. One black juvenile and two young black males were murdered. One white adult male was also killed. Three unspecified young men and four unspecified adult men were also killed.
Four female adult suspects were charged with murder or attempted murder. Two were Caucasian while the other two were unspecified. Two young adult and two adult women were among this. Two juvenile white females and one white young woman were also victims. One juvenile black female and one adult black woman were also murdered.
Only 37% of the murder cases involved a female, the other 63% of the cases involved a male victim. 84% of the suspects were male compared to the 16% female ratio. The drug case involving the thirty-two suspects did not account for age, race, or sex among the offenders. I’m going to say hypothetically, based on my current evaluations, that the majority were male ranging from young adult to adult. From my known results the most frequent suspect is a young male. The most frequent victim is a male ranging from young adult to adulthood. This is not an accurate analysis since 62% of the cases were lacking either race or age for the suspect and/or the victim.
The crimes I read about in the paper weren’t all that shocking. Based on our view of crime and society it’s very common seeing young adults lashing out. There have also been many cases involving women attempting to cut open pregnant women; which happened to be one of the articles. I read two articles which involved young children being killed and their parents were suspects; also siblings and neighbors killing each other over minor disputes. Two Flint police officers were also charged with possession of illicit drugs. They were terminated from their position and could face several charges. Some cases involved multiple murder suspects or even a duo murder; while others lacked the proper clues and evidence in finding the offender.
In my “Media and Crime” notes they state that there is a great emphasis on violent and unusual crimes. Homicide increased during 1990-1998 and I believe it is steadily climbing as we head towards 2006. Blacks are stereotypically the suspect in most cases. Which my findings would uncover is untrue. Young white males were the primary offender and also the likely victim in the cases that did state age, gender and race. This proves that most people have a set mental ideal of who would be a likely offender. That explains why blacks and also Hispanics are usually targeted for victimization. There is also a higher violent crime arrest rate among 18-24 year old males.
Many wonder “Why do people commit crimes?” As we discussed in class, there is a criminological theory as to why such crimes occur. Many people weigh the costs of the crime to the benefits. If they know that they could get off with only probation they may be more likely to commit that offense. There is also the theory that society plays a huge role in criminal behavior. Someone from a poor income neighborhood who may have an unstable home life is more likely to be involved in serious crimes than someone who comes from a high income neighborhood with a loving, supporting family. That statement is not always true but for the majority of cases it is. Then there is the developmental effect, where your life-course steps were disrupted by possible abuse or neglect. A child who was abused or neglected is more likely to act out that behavior as an adult. This is commonly where we find rapes, spousal abuse, and serial murders.
In order for us to prevent crime we need to use the proactive policing method as stated in Chapter 5; the emphasis of stopping crimes before they occur rather than reacting to crimes that have already occurred. We could achieve this by convincing would- be criminals that they stand a great risk of being punished for their crimes. It’s sort of a scare tactic but it could have significant results. Let’s pretend you were planning a robbery at a local gas station. You’re carrying a knife and a small hand gun which you only use to frighten the attendant. You walk inside begin to “hold-up” the store and someone moves. You freak out because you’re already high on cocaine and you need the money for another fix. The gun fires missing everyone and you take off running. The cops apprehend you and you’re faced with attempted homicide, robbery, possession of illicit drugs, and the unlawful use of a firearm instead of just a robbery charge. Would you still consider robbing the store or would you be more hesitant to committing the crime? If criminals faced more serious charges there may be a significant decrease in crime.
The stories I read in the Flint Journal were, for the most part, descriptive and to the point. I do appreciate that many of the victims were not pictured; I believe that shows respect to the families that have already endured so much. It would have been more accommodating if they had at least listed the victim and suspect’s age and gender. That would have insured my calculations were accurate when identifying offenders and victims. It would have been a better idea to watch a news station. They probably would have covered more on the cases then what was written in the newspapers.
I did, however, discover that women are becoming more prominent as murder suspects and also there are many heinous acts against juveniles. It’s a very unsettling change in society. But lets face it crime has existed for hundreds of years dating back to the Colonial Era. Back then, drugs were not even an issue. You could get them absolutely every where. During the wars, soldiers were given morphine to aid with the pain. Even once they recovered they were able to get morphine and other pain relievers just as easily. As the decades progressed on, laws and regulations began to tighten up on the use of drugs. The only problem was police were going after the supplier instead of the receiver. You must dissolve the demand for the drug otherwise drug use will never decrease. The supply of drugs will never diminish; you need to stop the demand for them.
The same goes for serious crimes such as murder, rape, and robberies. Crime will never just fade away. We need to make punishments more severe to deter people from committing a crime. If there is more of a risk of being apprehended and sentenced there may be fewer cases involving these serious offenses. Perpetrators would start weighing their options, “Do I want to go to jail for 20 years for robbing this gas station?”
Many civilians have negative views towards police officers which creates an even greater problem. If civilians do not trust police then they are not going to help police in finding suspects, uncovering illegal activity, and many other situations; which won’t help in reducing crime. There is a wall between the police and residents. Mostly because Police get so many cases everyday and there are only so many police officers available to handle each case. They have to choose which is more serious and take care of that first. Most people don’t understand the pressure police face. Police officers observe dreadful murder scenes, they handle situations that no one would want to be involved in and they take those images with them. They don’t have someone comforting them after the incident. They don’t have the time. They are moving on to the next case that comes in. There is a higher rate of suicides among police officers than anyone else. They face troubles with civilian threats, martial issues, and the emotional and physical stress of their unappreciated job. Police are here to protect us but how can we expect them to, if we don’t work with them in solving crimes?