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Crime and Punishment Law and Order

Crime and Punishment Law and Order. Crime and Punishment: The American Penal System Session 3 Deacon Edward P. Munz. What We Will Cover. Types of crime and types of criminal Who is in prison and why? Social Contract Theory California Crime Project (Assignment) The death penalty

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Crime and Punishment Law and Order

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  1. Crime and PunishmentLaw and Order Crime and Punishment: The American Penal System Session 3 Deacon Edward P. Munz

  2. What We Will Cover • Types of crime and types of criminal • Who is in prison and why? • Social Contract Theory • California Crime Project (Assignment) • The death penalty • “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

  3. Before We BeginWhat is your response to these questions? • People in prison deserve to be there • The threat of prison helps prevent crime • Generally speaking, the criminal justice system in the U.S. is fair and treats everyone equally • I would vote for a politician who promised to “get tough on crime” • My view on criminals is simple: Lock them up and throw away the key • Prisons or capital punishment are the only realistic ways to deal with wrongdoers • If I were an employer, I would not hire someone who had spent time in jail • I personally know someone who is, or has been in a prison • All accused people have the same access to a fair and impartial defense.

  4. Social Justice and Criminal JusticeTypes of Crime • Social Justice = Discrimination and unjust social structures • Criminal Justice = Treatment of people in the judicial system • White-collar Crime = Embezzlement, Fraud • Blue-collar Crime = Rape, Murder, Burglary • Crimes against People = Assault, Murder, D.U.I. • Crimes against Property = Crimes against Business.

  5. What are the most common crimes? • What is your stereotype of a criminal? (Be Specific) • The most common crimes may not be committed by those who fit your stereotype • One crime kills more than all other crimes combined • What is your stereotype of one convicted of D.U.I. • Most costly crime against property • Fraud and Embezzlement (treated less harshly) • Making bail, quality legal services, company attorneys • Enron/Tyco – AIG/Stanley-Morgan. What harm resulted?

  6. Who is in Prison and Why? • Vast majority of prisoners are those with “invisible disabilities” • Poor • Undereducated/Uneducated • Mentally ill • Member of a minority group • Under represented • Unstable family backgrounds • Repeated failures in school • Lack job skills or no record of long-term employment.

  7. National Statistics for Types of CrimeBreakdown of Violent Crime by Race Table 40. Personal crimes of violence, 2003: Percent distribution of single-offender victimizations, by type of crime and perceived race of offender Percent of single-offender victimizations Perceived race of offender Number of Not known single-offender and not Type of crime victimizations Total White Black Other available Crimes of violence 4,076,810 100 % 63.0 % 21.3 % 12.6 % 3.1 % Completed violence 1,156,330 100 59.0 24.8 14.2 2.1 * Attempted/threatened violence 2,920,470 100 64.5 19.9 12.0 3.5 Rape/Sexual assault (a) 169,340 100 47.9 24.4 22.4 5.3 * Robbery 288,770 100 40.8 39.5 15.2 4.5 * Completed/property taken 160,740 100 28.8 49.5 17.5 * 4.1 * With injury 68,220 100 28.8 * 55.0 16.3 * 0.0 * Without injury 92,520 100 28.9 * 45.5 18.5 * 7.1 * Attempted to take property 128,020 100 55.8 26.8 12.4 * 5.1 * With injury 26,790 * 100 * 59.1 * 40.9 * 0.0 * 0.0 * Without injury 101,220 100 54.9 23.1 * 15.6 * 6.4 * Assault 3,618,690 100 65.4 19.7 12.0 2.9 Aggravated 764,700 100 58.0 22.6 15.3 4.1 * Simple 2,853,980 100 67.4 18.9 11.1 2.6 Note: Detail may not add to total shown because of rounding. *Estimate is based on about 10 or fewer sample cases. (a) Includes verbal threats of rape and threats of sexual assault.

  8. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/corr2.htm

  9. Plea Bargaining: The Process Plea bargaining is a process whereby someone accused of a crime pleads guilty to the charge or to a lesser crime in exchange for a recommendation of a lighter sentence than the one usually given for the offense. In our overworked judicial system, this might be a reasonable choice.

  10. Consider the following … A person unable to raise bail is accused of a crime and incarcerated. He is later told that a court date will not be available for perhaps a year; but if he pleads guilty, he can get off with a sentence of 6 months with time served. The accused person, guilty or not, might reasonably choose plea bargaining for the shorter sentence than spend an additional 6 months or so just awaiting trial. Such a scenario may sound wrong, but in fact it represents the norm in many local prisons. Nationwide, over 50% of county jail inmates are simply awaiting trial, presumably “innocent” but unable to raise bail or hasten a court date.

  11. “The Farm: Life Inside Angola State Prison”

  12. Thomas Hobbes (17th Century) • Most people don’t act ethically • Egoism - I am Number 1 & you don’t count • Natural Law & Virtue Ethics too lofty • State of Nature = Selfishness/Greed • Too much wealth, power, security? Never • State of nature - how person’s behave without law • Wealth, power, security are limited commodities • State of nature is not peaceable and harmonious.

  13. The State of Nature … • People are naturally competitive • All pretty evenly matched, but live in fear • “I better kill you before you kill me” • Strongest in society also fearful of attack • So… attack the other or retreat into hiding • No commerce, no culture, no knowledge, no arts, only continual fear of violent death!

  14. The Prisoner’s Dilemma …(Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher – 1950)(Time for a Game – Groups of 3) HOLD! • Conflict between “A” and “B” • What is best interest for “A” is worst for “B” • 2nd best option for both is to cooperate • “A” and “B” cannot trust each other enough to cooperate - too risky.

  15. Characteristics of Law:5 Characteristics to Consider • Law provides basis for good order within society. • Good order is the aim of laws • Laws free AND restrict us • Law tries to preserve “the common good” in 3 ways: • Respect for the person • Social wellbeing and development of group/society • Peace.

  16. Characteristics of Law • Laws protect welfare / rights of individual members of a community • Without laws powerless have no protection against powerful • Good laws balance concern for common good with concern for individual rights / welfare • Right to privacy vs. society’s right for info. to serve the common good • Right to firearms (individual freedom) vs. public concern for safety • Right to smoke in public places vs. public right to healthy air.

  17. Characteristics of Law • Laws usually minimum requirements of community’s members • Paying taxes is minimum of good citizenship • Attending class is minimum requirement of a student • Laws do not specify everything required.

  18. Characteristics of Law • Laws typically stated in negative terms • “Do not kill” • “Do not cheat on tests” • “Do not arrive late for class” • “Do not throw food in the cafeteria” • “Do not exceed the speed limit” Laws do not usually guide us in what we should do.

  19. Characteristics of Law • Laws reveal what society considers important • Laws against shoplifting = concern for private property • Recycling laws = concern for the environment • Traffic laws = how society protects its citizens from harm.

  20. The California Project Presentations Begin as Agreed!

  21. Death Penalty: Arbitrary & Fallible • ARBITRARY: 1 in 100 convicted murderers sentenced to death • Half overturned • FALLIBLE: Innocent people executed • Since 1973 = 139 sentenced to death – found innocent/released, 23 executed.

  22. Death Penalty: Racist, Sexist, Classist • RACIST: Black kills White? 11 times more likely to die than if a White kills Black • SEXIST: 1980-1999, 1% women on death row. 15% of homicides committed by women • CLASSIST: 90% of death row inmates cannot afford an attorney.

  23. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976#defendhttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976#defend National Statistics on Death Penalty and Race

  24. The Death Penalty … Not effective in crime prevention Must be consistent and prompt (appeals) States with death penalty do not have lower capital crime rate During the 1980’s Death Penalty States 7.5 homicides/100,000 Abolition States 7.4 homicides/100,000 2008 Homicides/100,000 D.P. States 5.2 2008 Homicides/100,000 N.D.P. States 3.3 2008 Homicides/100,000 Overall Rate 5.4 Currently there are 3,279 on death row.

  25. http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence/page.do?id=1101085http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence/page.do?id=1101085

  26. International Abolition: in 1977,16 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes. By 1988, 35 countries had done so and another 18 had abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes like treason. As of the end of 2009, 139 countries were abolitionist. http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-trends/page.do?id=1011572 Execution of Minors: Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and until recently, NH allowed execution of minors.

  27. Costs more than life without parole • Single death penalty case (from arrest to execution) ranges from $1.0 million to $3.0 million per case • Life imprisonment averages $500,000 including incarceration costs • CA: D.P = $137.0 million vs. $11.5 million N.D.P. (California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, July 2008) • Most Americans oppose the death penalty if convicted murderers were sentenced to life without parole and were required to make financial some kind of restitution to victims and/or society.

  28. TRIAL Capital Defense Attorney $385,998 Defense Invest. $ 48,523 Prosec. Attorney $771,996 Prosec. Invest. $ 48,523 Court $506,408 LA Jail Prison $136,875 + $189,603 TOTAL Cost LA $2,087,926 TRIAL Regular $160,058 $ 5,105 $320,116 $ 5,105 $ 82,188 $ 54,750 + $821,613 $1,448,935 Death Penalty Costs … http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/globalrights/dp/dp-cost.html

  29. Cost of the Death Penalty Current Studies: A study done by the Sacramento Bee argued that California would save $90 million per year if it were to abolish the death penalty. The average cost of a capital trial in Texas is $2.3 million--three times the cost to incarcerate an individual for 40 years. The average cost of a capital trial in Florida is $3.2 million.

  30. Capital Punishment:Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It? • 1972 U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. • 1976 U.S. Supreme Court did not disallow new state laws making it legal. • 39 states made capital punishment legal • 3,279 persons on death row, 1,193 executed since 1976 • Average stay on death row = 10 years, 6 months • Capital punishment does not make society safer • Capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime • Capital punishment is more expensive than life.

  31. Capital Punishment:Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It? • Church position - Death penalty OK when “NO OTHER MEANS OF DEFENDING SOCIETY IS POSSIBLE” • Deterrence means that punishment or fear of punishment can prevent crime • Particular Deterrence = An individual who committed a crime in the past is deterred from committing future crimes. Death penalty passes the test for Particular Deterrence • General Deterrence = Fear of punishment inhibits people in general from committing certain crimes … No conclusive evidence here!

  32. Capital Punishment:Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It? • Rehabilitation - One of the major goals of the prison system • Penitentiary - A place to do penance. To see and understand one’s errors and return to society as a reformed person. Prisons have a poor record here • More often prisons make criminals feel more victimized, angry, more anti-social • Retribution - Restoring order through punishment, eye-for-eye • Restorative Justice - Restore as close as possible to before crime • Revenge - Goal is to inflict equal or greater harm (hatred, revenge).

  33. Capital Punishment:Why it Should Be Abolished … • Sends a message that we can break cycle of violence • We need not take life for life, there is a higher means of punishment • Statement of our belief in unique worth and dignity of each person • God is the author of life • Example of Jesus - practiced forgiveness of injustice • Death penalty provides only an illusion of safety and resolution.

  34. Assignment: Position PaperPlease Follow“Guidelines For Success” What is the most compelling reason to abolish the death penalty? Include in your development the Catholic moral philosophy on the death penalty. Must include two outside, credible sources from my website

  35. Test Law and Order The American Criminal Justice System

  36. QuestionsCommentsConcernsProblems

  37. “Dead Man Walking”

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