The Holistic Concept of Crime, Essay Example

This paper provides an understanding of the major topics of crime with particular focus upon (i) The study of crime (ii) Measuring Crime and (iii) Crime and its costs. The paper is divided into four distinct parts (i) Introduction (ii) Study of Crime (iii) Measuring Crime (iii) Crime and its costs and (iv) Conclusions.  The paper reflects on the holistic concept of Crime addressing new learning experiences in this area and providing personal insight to the subject matter in question.

Introduction

Criminal law may be considered as the foundation of the criminal justice legal system in the USA.  It is important because it defines the legal steps that the police must follow, leading to an arrest.  Further, it defines the trial procedures in court and the subsequent penalties that may follow.  Although most people associate criminal law with violent crime like murder, robbery, rape, assault etc. nevertheless, each state has a different interpretation of this.  For example in Florida.  It is illegal to light or ignite a tobacco product in an elevator.  Alabama makes  wrestling unlawful.  In Louisiana, you risk 10 years in prison for stealing an alligator.  Despite the humorous overtones, this is a serious business in the criminal justice system as it is essential for the well-being of all US citizens.  The nature of “criminal law is such that a crime is whatever the law  declares to be a criminal offense and punishes  with a penalty.” (Lippman, 2006).

HG World-wide legal directory defines Criminal law as being “Criminal Law or penal law, involves prosecution by the Government of a person for an act that has been classified as a crime. It is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. There are four theories of criminal justice: punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. It is believed that by imposing sanctions for the crime, society can achieve justice and a peaceable social order.”  (HG.org, 2010).

The study of crime

The purpose of criminal law: The main purposes of criminal laws are to protect and serve its citizens.  Essentially there are two main functions: [1] to provide a means that expresses human or society morality and [2] to teach social boundaries that we all must live within and to punish those offenders who resort to criminal behaviour and reject these rules.  These procedures both safeguard and protect the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution.

Four theories of Criminal Justice Punishment: There are essentially four theories of Criminal Justice punishment:

1. Punishment:  Punishment is essentially placed into two different classifications. The first of these being utilitarian or the means to deter or dissuade those from future wrong doings and the second retributive where it seeks to exact a suitable punishment for the crime committed.
2. Deterrence:  May be considered a utilitarian punishment. “Specific deterrence means that the punishment should prevent the same person from committing crimes. Specific deterrence works in two ways. First, an offender may be put in jail or prison to physically prevent her from committing another crime for a specified period. Second, this incapacitation is designed to be so unpleasant that it will discourage the offender from repeating her criminal behaviour” (Legal Dictionary, 2010).
3. Incapacitation: Relates to the concept of imprisonment of the offender and removing them from society where they cannot repeat the offense to society. It is a means of protecting society from the Criminal
4. Rehabilitation: Relates to changing the behavioural pattern of the detainee whilst in prison.  The aim being to change the behaviour of the prisoner such that the offender may be released back into Society and continue to make a useful and meaningful contribution without reverting to criminal behaviour.

Criminal law in the USA has been defined as “Body of law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging, and trial of suspected offenders, and fixes punishment for convicted persons. Substantive criminal law defines particular crimes, and procedural law establishes rules for the prosecution of crime. In the U.S., substantive criminal law originated for the most part in common law, which was later codified in federal and state statutes. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially in the areas of sentencing, legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation” (Encyclopedia Brittanica).  It is basically decomposed into two elements 1) Criminal procedure and 2) Theory.  Criminal procedure relates to… “Criminal procedure deals with the set of rules governing the series of proceedings through which the government enforces substantive criminal law. Municipalities, states, and the federal government each have their own criminal codes, defining types of conduct that constitutes crimes. Title 18 of the U.S. Code outlines all federal crimes. Typically, Federal crimes deal with activities that either extend beyond state boundaries or directly impact federal interests.”  (Cornell University Law School). In February 2010 these rules are being substantially updated in the UK “The Criminal Procedure Rules 2010 will come into force on 5 April 2010. The Statutory Instrument number is 60 of 2010 (L.2). These rules replace The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005 and subsequent amendments.”  (Ministry of Justice).

“Theories of criminal law’ could just be general theories of law applied to the particular case of criminal law: proponents of legal positivism, of natural law, of economic analysis of law, of Critical Legal Studies and other schools of legal theory will expect to be able to say about the criminal law what they say about law in general” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Criminology and Penology: Important new research has taken place in the area of Criminology and Penology. This has been carried out by Malcolm Feeley and Jonathan Simon of the University of California and University of Michigan “Thenew penology argues that an important new language of penology is emerging. This new language, which has its counterparts in other areas of the law as well, shifts focus away from the traditional concerns of the criminal law and criminology, which have focused on the individual, and redirects it to actuarial consideration of aggregates. This shift has a number of important implications: It facilitates development of a vision or model of a new type of criminal process that embraces increased reliance on imprisonment and that merges concerns for surveillance and custody, that shifts away from a concern with punishing individuals to managing aggregates of dangerous groups, and that affects the training and practice of criminologists.”  (SIMON).  The correctional system of criminology is the actual administration arm of the prison system ” Correctional officers in local jails admit and process about 13 million people a year, with nearly 800,000 offenders in jail at any given time. Correctional officers in State and Federal prisons watch over the approximately 1.6 million offenders who are incarcerated there at any given time. Typically, offenders serving time at county jails are sentenced to a year or less. Those serving a year or more are usually housed in state or federal prisons.”  (Bureau of Labour Statistics).

One of the most significant trends in recent years is the swelling in the number of people incarcerated.  This has led to the need for more prisons and the building of more facilities in the private sector.  This containment strategy has proved to be extremely expensive “Explosive growth in the number of people on probation or parole has propelled the population of the American corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, according to a report released today by the Pew Center on the States.  The vast majority of these offenders live in the community, yet new data in the report finds that nearly 90 percent of state corrections dollars are spent on prisons. ” (Riordan)

Measuring crime

In order to measure crime you need to be clear on what is precisely being measured.  The concept of crime is a violation of law that is prohibited and therefore merits punishment under that law. Crime as such can be broken down into four distinct units of measurement:-

1. The Offender : Person committing the crime
2. The Victim : Person suffering injury from the crime
3. The Offense: The law that has been broken
4. The Incident : The act carried out in defiance of the law

Most of the known measures of crime are based upon police records. The measures being: (i) Police observation reports (ii) Reports of Victims and Witnesses (iii) Police compiled statistics. Unfortunately these records cannot be fully relied upon for the following reasons: (a) they are not exhaustive (b) Police do not always complete crime reports (c) crime definitions are not exclusive and (d) the measures are not always reliable.  The one exception to this being that of homicide reports, as required by the US Department of Justice. These are incident based reports.  In 1972 the US Census Board has attempted to measure crime through surveys, with particular success in compiling reports and statistics on Drug and substance abuse. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) produces a wide range of statistics and reports on crime carried out in the USA.

Crime and its costs

The National Institute of Justice (NLJ) in 1996 predicted that the total cost of crime in the USA was estimated at around $447 billion. In 2010 it has been reported that the figure is now closer to $675 billion per annum. “In America, the crime clock continues to click: one murder every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds, and one burglary every 10 seconds.” (Andersen).  Current trends show that violent crime is on the increase in America particularly in the area of personal robberies and drive by shootings.  In particular teenage crime has significantly increased  and there has been a 92% increase in teenage homicide cases since 1985.  The latest study of $675 billion shows the following breakdown:

Conclusion

The criminal justice system in the USA is an essential part of the legal apparatus for maintaining law and order in society.  It is necessary to have a set of legal standards and regulations to protect the majority of citizens from the minority that seek to disrupt and displaying violent and criminal behaviour to other members of society.  In addition, it also provides a means of transforming such criminal elements into law-abiding citizens and prevents the moral decline of society into a state of anarchy, where only the strong survive.

People react differently to crime incidents. This is an important part of behavioural research and an important source of data for developing public policy in response to criminal behaviour.  Many states have not been able to provide adequate security for its citizens and this has created different reactions to crimes including the formation of vigilante groups and vendettas for homicide cases.

The research helps Governments to understand where policies are not working and the trends / correlations between different areas. This can lead to new policies, amendments to existing policies or formation of new laws. The Police are using Incidence Forms as an important means of gathering data on crime. The police use research into predicting hotspots in prisons.  Research into historical incidents can be examined across the prisons systems for causation and impact. Trends and correlations can be drawn and this provides information where future incident spots occur.  Universities complete incident forms for the police in certain legal mandated areas.  Primarily, sexual assault, racial abuse, theft and weapons.  Incident forms are normally the first part of a criminal investigation.  The forms are an important means of collecting base information but are not exhaustive in terms of completing the investigation.

Social and Government bodies are taking a more proactive stance with regard to criminal behaviour.  This particularly in the area of juvenile crime.  These bodies collect various forms of research data based upon empirical research and quantitative statistics.  There are common often overlapping areas of interest i.e. Juvenile delinquency and crime.  Juvenile crime in Los Angeles CA is often a result of ethnic, poverty and drugs that start at an early age and cause repeat offender’s that escalate in terms of criminal activity.  This is believed to be more of a social issue than that of a criminal justice issue.  Both regulatory bodies need to work together in order to find joint solutions to the problems.

Increasing attention is being made towards juvenile crime statistics. Juveniles mixing in gangs may result to victimization as more criminal related activities like, mugging, theft, robbery, intimidation etc.  This is often teenagers coming from backgrounds of poverty and becoming resentful of others that have money and a lifestyle that they can never attain. This equally covers vandalism and damage of property as a result of rage and jealousy. There are a number of behavioural conditions associated with juvenile delinquency i.e. anger, rage, hatred, jealousy and ignorance ( lack of education). This often leads to repeat offences and eventually more serious crimes including homicide.  Certain states like Texas treat juvenile crime in the same context in adults and the death penalty still exists for juvenile homicide cases.  (Snyder and Sickmund)

The recent spate of shootings in US Schools (Columbine Example) was the result of two boys who were relatively isolated, talked of carrying out a massacre, talked of a suicide pact and ultimately carried out their fantasy.

Works Cited

Andersen, Kerby. Crime in America . 14 7 2002. 8 9 2010 <http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/crime.html>.

Bureau of Labour Statistics. Bureau of Labour Statistics. 7 12 2009. 8 3 2010 <http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos156.htm>.

Cornell University Law School. Cornell University Law School. 2010. 8 3 2010 <http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Criminal_procedure>.

Encyclopedia Brittanica. Answers.com. 2010. 8 3 2010 <http://www.answers.com/topic/criminal-law>.

HG.org. Criminal Law – Guide to Criminal and Penal Law. 2010. 8 7 2010 <http://www.hg.org/crime.html>.

Legal Dictionary. punishment . 2010. 8 7 2010 <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Punishment,+Criminal>.

Lippman. “The nature purpose and constitutional context pf criminal law.” Lippman. The nature purpose and constitutional context pf criminal law. New York: Sage Publications, 2006. 1-23.

Ministry of Justice. The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005. 22 2 2010. 8 3 2010 <http://www.justice.gov.uk/criminal/procrules_fin/>.

Rights, The International Council on Human. The International Council on Human Rights: Crime and Public Order. Geneva Switzerland: Atar Roto Press, 2003.

Riordan, Jessica. 1 in 31 U.S. Adults are Behind Bars, on Parole or Probation. 2010. 8 12 2008 <http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=49398>.

Simon, malcolm m. Feeley jonathan. “the new penology: notes on the emerging strategy of corrections and its implications.” Criminology (2006): 449-474.

Snyder, Howard N. and Melissa Sickmund. “Juvenile Offenders and Victims.” Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report (2006): 253.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Theories of Criminal Law. 14 4 2008. 8 3 2010 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/criminal-law/>.