Реферат на тему Crime In Our Culture Essay Research Paper
Работа добавлена на сайт bukvasha.net: 2015-06-01Поможем написать учебную работу
Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Crime In Our Culture Essay, Research Paper
Crime
Date Submitted: 2000-01-24Crime refers to many types of misconduct forbidden by law. Crimes include such things
as murder, stealing a car, resisting arrest, possessing or selling illegal drugs, appearing
nude on a public street, drunken driving, and bank robbery. The list of acts considered
crimes is constantly changing. For example, at one time, people were charged with
witchcraft, but this is no longer illegal. Today, it is becoming a serious crime to pollute
the air and water. In colonial days, pollution received little attention because it caused
few problems. During the 1700’s in England it was not a crime for people to steal money
entrusted to their care by an employer. Today, this type of theft, embezzlement, is a
crime. Crimes may be classified in various ways. For example, they sometimes are
grouped according to the seriousness of the offense, according to the motives of the
offenders. Such crimes may include economic crimes, political crimes, crimes of passion,
organized crime, and white collar crime. Crimes are often divided between acts that most
people would consider evil and acts that lawmakers decide should be regulated in the
interest of the community. The first group includes such major crimes as arson, assault,
breach of the peace, burglary, kidnapping, larceny, murder, rape, and robbery. The
second group includes crimes of a “rapidly growing urban society.” These crimes include
violations of income tax laws, liquor control regulations, pure food and drug laws, and
traffic laws. Crimes in the first group usually involve severe punishments while crimes in
the second group are generally punished by fines, notices to follow the court’s orders, or
other relatively light penalties. Crimes are frequently classified according to their
seriousness as felonies or misdemeanors. Generally, felonies are more serious than
misdemeanors. Under the federal criminal law system, felonies are crimes for which the
punishment is death or imprisonment for more than a year. A misdemeanor is punishable
by a fine or by imprisonment for less than a year. In most states persons convicted of
felonies are sent to state prisons, while those quilty of misdemeanors serve their
sentence in city or county jails or houses of correction. Crimes against people include
assault, kidnapping, murder, and sexual attacks. Such crimes usually bring severe
punishments. Crimes against property include arson, automobile theft, burglary,
embezzlement, forgery, fraud, larceny, and vandalism. In most cases, these crimes carry
lighter penalties than do crimes against persons. Robbery is the crime most difficult to
classify. The law considers robbery a crime against the person or against the property,
according to the case. Robbery may involve simply taking property from another person.
But a personal encounter occurs between the robber and his victim, and it may include
violence and bodily harm, especially in muggings or other strong-arm robberies. Robbery
is probably the crime most people have in mind when they speak of “crime in the streets
.” Crimes against public order or morality include disorderly conduct, gambling,
prostitution, public drunkenness, and vagrancy. These offenses generally involve lighter
penalties than do crimes against people or property. Criminologists question whether
some offenses against public order or morality should be considered crimes. For
example, many experts believe that habitual drunkenness is a medical problem and that
the offender should be given medical help instead of being put in jail. There is also
widespread disagreement about whether certain practices hurt society and should be
considered crimes. Such acts include gambling, use of marijuana, and homosexuality
between consenting adults. Organized crime consists of large-scale activities by groups
of gangsters or racketeers. Such groups are often called the “crime syndicate or the
underworld.” Organized crime specializes in providing illegal goods and services. Its
activities include gambling, prostitution, the illegal sale of drugs, and loaning money at
extremely high rates of interest. Many of these activities are often called “victimless
crimes” because both the buyer and the seller take part in them willingly. Most activities
of the crime syndicate are not reported to the police. People who use the illegal services
try to avoid the police because they do not want to be associated with that kind of
people. When the crime syndicate invades a legitimate business or labor union, it uses
terror, blackmail, and other methods to keep people from going to the police. Even when
the illegal activities are discovered, prosecutors have difficulty convicting the gangsters
because of the lack of reliable witnesses. In addition, the syndicate frequently tries to
bribe witnesses or law officers and sometimes succeeds in doing so. The syndicate also
furnishes bail money and lawyers for members who are arrested. Gangsters have two
main goals and they are money and power. No one knows how much of each that they
truly have, but investigations have shown that organized crime is a multimillion-dollar
business and that gangsters have considerable political control. White collar crime
originally included only criminal acts committed by businessmen and professional
people while earning their living. The term referred to such crimes as stock market
swindles and other kinds of fraud. Today, the term covers such acts as cheating in the
payment taxes, which can be done in connection to your business. It may apply to petty
thefts by employees, as well as to million dollar stock market swindles. It could also
include a service stations owner’s charging for an automobile repair that was not made,
or a physician’s billing a patient for services that were not performed. Many consumer
protection laws are aimed at whitecollar crime. these laws regulate business and
professional activities to protect consumers. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s,
consumer protection became one of the fastest growing fields of criminal law. In the
United States, for example, the federal government developed new rules and penalties.
The regulations were intended to control air and water pollution, to prevent fraudulent
trade practices, and to alert people seeking loans about actual interest costs. Crime is
one of the world’s oldest social problems. Almost every generation has felt itself
threatened by increasing crime and violence. However, no country has yet developed
completely reliable methods for measuring the volume and trend of crime. The FBI serves
as the main source of information about crime and violence in the United States. The FBI
has maintained national crime statistics for nearly 70 years. the FBI receives monthly and
annual crime reports from the law enforcement agencies throughout the country which is
later summarized and published in semiannual and annual Uniform Crime Reports for the
United States. The seven most popular crimes reported to the police according to the FBI
are aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, nonegligent manslaughter, burglary,
larceny\theft, and motor vehicle theft. One fourth of the arrests each year are due to
serious crimes while one fifth of all the arrests are due to three relatively minor offenses;
drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and vagrancy. Here is a table that I found pretty
interesting. Most Frequent Arrests in the United States Statistics about crime are based
on complaints to the police, offenses observed by the police, and arrests of suspects.
The cost of crimes to its victims is impossible to determine accurately. For example, a
dishonest business scheme may cost consumers or investors millions of dollars, but no
records are kept of such losses. Just like there is no way to determine the profits of the
crime syndicate of gambling, loan-sharking, narcotics sales, and prostitution. The cost of
crime prevention and control measures is also difficult to determine. Expenditures for the
law enforcement and the criminal justice agencies in the United States total more than 4
billion dollars annually. However, these agencies also deal with many noncriminal
matters such as traffic control. Perhaps only 10 to 15 per cent of police costs can be
directly charged to crime control. Also, most courts handle both criminal and civil cases.
People commit crimes for various reasons. For example, many persons steal things they
could not obtain otherwise. Others, such as drug addicts, steal to get money to buy
narcotics or other things they need. Some shoplifters steal for excitement, but others do
so to stretch the family budget. Many automobile thieves take cars for the joy-riding, but
others strip down the stolen autos and sell them. Many embezzlers take money from their
employers to meet a personal emergency, intending to return the money. The motives
also vary in crimes of violence. A robber may kill his victim to avoid detection, some
gangsters torture people to obtain money, and a man may beat his wife in a fit of rage
during a quarrel. Many studies have sought to explain crime. Most of them compare to
habitiual criminals with persons who have not been convicted of crimes to try to find
important differences between the two groups. Yet, none of these studies have proved
that criminals have any physical traits that make them different from other people.
Research by psychiatrists and psychologists stresses personality differences resulting
from experiences in childhood or later. This research shows that many people who
became criminals were neglected by their parents or were given harsh or uncertain
discipline. Such treatment left them insecure and demanding in their relations with
others. Their own wants made them ignore the needs and rights of others. “But
researchers have had difficulty making a direct connection between emotional needs and
crime because many people with emotional problems find acceptable ways of solving
them.” Sociologists have conducted crime studies that focus on the neighborhood and
community rather than on the individual. These studies deal with how a person becomes
committed to a career of crime, and others try to explain differences in crime rate. The
highest crime rates rates occur in the most deprived sections of large cities. These are
the areas where it is most difficult to train children to become law-abiding citizens. “Such
areas have the highest rate of broken homes.” Even in many homes where both parents
are present, emotional conflicts and health and financial problems affect family life. Slum
areas usually have the poorest schools and the highest unemployment rates. these
neighborhoods have a lot of run down, over crowded housing and poor recreational
facilities. For many young people, the excitement of the streets provides the principal
escape from boredom and seemingly unsolvable problems. “These streets are also the
scene of much vice and crime–gambling, prostitution, narcotics use and sale, public
drunkenness, and acts of violence.” Law enforcement in the inner city is difficult, partly
because too few policemen patrol the neighborhoods. In addition, many of the people
fear the police and refuse to cooperate with them. All these factors increase the
possibility that a person who lives in a slum will commit criminal acts. Most residents of
the high-crime slum areas of many large cities are negroes or members of other minority
groups. As a result, the crime rate for such minority groups is higher than that for the
white majority group. Nonwhites are also more likely to become the victims of crimes.
Most crimes in the United States are committed by boys and young men. People under
the age of 21 account for about three fifths of the arrests for burglary, larceny-theft, and
motor vehicle theft. This same group makes up about 40 per cent of all persons arrested
for aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery. There are several reasons why
young people commit most crimes. As people become older and settled in their jobs and
the “rearing of children,” they acquire a place in society that they do not want to lose by
taking such a big risk. On the other hand, young people have fewer job opportunities.
The unskilled jobs available seem dull when compared to the quick and exciting returns
from theft. young people are also more willing to risk arrest and loss of reputation
because they have less of a risk. About 85 per cent of the persons arrested for crimes are
males, but the arrest rate for females is rapidly rising. I really enjoyed writing this paper, it
was supposed to be about violence but everywhere I looked, there was barely anything
on violence and there was almost always a reference to crime so this is more of a paper
on crime. To do this paper I did a lot of searching on the internet and it was just
unbelievable the things that I found. The stats are incredible and so is the wide diversity
of the types of crimes committed. While writing this paper it made me think of events that
I have seen or heard of that are crime related which really expanded my horizons.
32f