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Monthly Archives: July 2011
Protected: Environmental Aversion- Stretched to the Maximum!
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged Deliquent, Environmental Aversion, Strain
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Life or Death?
According to this article, it is clearly a disease in society with sexual predators and serial killers. Although, this country has been compelled with LUST for the past decades, it still tends to leave its criminal justice slip between the cracks. Now, when the system tends to fail and is noticed, it comes to the issue of judging a person’s life with a death sentence or perhaps a new beginning in the prison system. Although Sowell has taken away 11 sous within a two year period, he’s life is hanging in the hands of a jury to decide his faith, despite all the horrible pain he has brought for 11 families. Yet the question that bothers me is, should a person be given the authority to pay for 11 lives with the price of 1? Think about it…
Educating Prisoners: How to bring “outsiders” in
In the following TedTalk, Nalini Nadkarni discusses how we have to stop viewing prisoners as inherently defunct, naturally born deviants and assailants and instead view them as individual biological entities that are constantly in flux. (Lombroso’s work still seems to have heavy influences on our criminal correctional approach today!)
http://www.ted.com/talks/nalini_nadkarni_life_science_in_prison.html
At the beginning of this short lecture, Nalini explains a metaphor that she uses as the fundamental basis for her argument. She explains that when most people look at a tree, they see a solid, stagnant object with a massive wooden trunk and some peripheral branches, etc. But the common assumption is that a tree once rooted is stationary, motionless and essentially unchanging. However, she shows how when we instead look at the twigs and branches of the tree instead of the main trunk, we can actually find a lot of flux, motion, change and essential adaptibility.
Nalini uses this metaphor to argue that our approach to treating prison inmates has been the same. Instead of assuming (like most of us do with the idea of a tree) that criminals are inherently deficient, we should instead understand that they can be changed, influenced and educated to live more productive and less detrimental lives. She brings up an important statistic: 60% of released in mates return to prison on criminal charges at some point in their life time. Thus, clearly the current “correctional” system is not working, and needs change.
With her emphasis on educating the prisoners on life sciences, raising their awareness on more academic and socially productive issues, Nalini argues that this is the way forward for the correctional system in America. Instead of just treating criminals like bestial animals and locking them up in bland, boring and frustrating holding cells, they should instead be placed in stimulating enviornments, where they can change their personalities, enhance their understand of social responsibility and eventually go on to lead more productive, and socially beneficial lives.
I found this lecture particularly interesting after reading the short Becker piece on Outsiders. Becker argues that this idea of treating people as “Outsiders” is a two way street. The rules of a group are broken by an individual and he/she is thus labeled an “outsider” but at the same time, the rule makers and enforcers at time can be considered outsiders themselves. Becker therefore argues that deviance is “not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application of the rules and sanctions to an ‘offender'”.
Thus, both Becker and Nalini in a sense are arguing something similar. Both analysts are implying that the deviant is not solely to blame for their behavior. Rather, their behavior was in the past molded by an exogenous group attempting to deal with society, and their treatment was similar in its detached approach as well. Becker & Nalini are suggesting that we need more of an interventionist approach to dealing with criminal and deviants, with a better understanding of 1) What caused them to act in this way and 2) How we as policy makers can change our approach to help each one over come their criminal habits to form better and more socially responsible ones.
-Nikhil Wagh.
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged Becker, crime, Deviants, Environment, Intervention, Lombroso, Outsiders, prison, Prisoners, Stigma, TedTalk
12 Comments
Avoiding Delinquency ! (Zhanna Onishchuk)
Robert Agnew’s strain theory of delinquency places most of the blame on whatever aversive environment children are born into. They can not avoid the pain of the dangerous dating relationships, the abusive homes, and the uncaring teachers, so delinquency results while they are in such custody. It seems as if the only true solution to the problem is to truly escape. If children somehow attain a better financial situation, they can escape whatever aversive environment that encourages their delinquency. But what exactly happens to runaway children ? Does the fantasized, new, and supposedly non-aversive environment discourage delinquency ?
Paul Aaron Jr. was arrested for forcing runaway girls to be a part of his prostitution ring. Click on the image to watch the news report !
In Polk County, Florida, two young runaway girls were discovered to have been victims of forced prostitution. The girls, 14 and 15 years old, were forced to turn tricks and were repeatedly raped by an older male. Shockingly, one of the men who engaged in sexual intercourse with these girls was a police officer. These girls were classified as “habitual runaways” and “troubled teens,” therefore their home environment is very questionable. I don’t think that the pain-avoidance theory is credible. While it seems as if DYFS (The Division of Youth and Family Services) is taking children out of bad homes and helping them, what happens to these children when they are placed in other environments is usually not better. Children, whether we accept it or not, are always at the mercy of adults around them. Rates of youth delinquency, therefore, are based on the actions of the adults who are supervising the children. Chances are that if their parents don’t support them, no one else will. There is truly no fix for bad parenting, and unfortunately, delinquency is a direct result of it.
Zhanna Onishchuk
Bad Girls
According to this article the number of female offenders seems to be on the rise. What’s interesting about this growing trend is that crimes committed by women tend to be more noticed than those committed by men independently from any other categories such as race, age, crime type, motive, etc.
One of the books mentioned in the article is Good Girls Gone Bad , by Susan Nadler in which the author interviews a few women prisoners and finds out that for the most part the interviewees seem to “fit into one of several categories.” These categories range anywhere from; acting out, snapping, addiction to obsession. But aren’t these the same categories for men? I would think so, however it’s been recorded that female offenders are harshly punished. In some cases even for crimes a lot less violent than those committed by males. Please note that I’m not trying to say they shouldn’t be punished, my opinion is simply that if someone breaks the law the punishment should be THE SAME regardless of the offender’s gender.
Another thing that’s important to understand and which the author of the book doesn’t touch on is, as Katherine Ramsland mentions, some women; in fact many women end up behind bars because they just simply couldn’t take it anymore. Abused wives, moms, girlfriends reach the same breaking point anybody else does after the abuse has gone a little too far. Whether the abuse is physical or not it NEEDS to stop at some point and when nothing else works violence seems to cut it.
Personally it is very bothersome how societies view women criminals. Instead of acting as if the world is ending because a woman is the victimizer, we must learn that purposely hurting another human being, regardless of who did it, it’s still an act of violence that should under no circumstances be tolerated.
Criminal or Victim?
http://www.dvmen.org/dv-136.htm
This article by Glenn Sacks points out how common infanticide is and that it is usually the mother who murders the infant. It also says that about two-thirds of the women who have been convicted for the murder of their newborn don’t do any jail time at all. Sacks also gives an interesting statistic which is that “A man convicted of murder is 20 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a woman.” Sacks poses the question “why do women get away with murder?”
Well according to crime journalist Patricia Pearson, society tends to view and treat violent women as a child, insane or victim who is worthy of sympathy. This comment reminded me of Lombroso who says that women are a lot like children. He said that women are jealous, have low moral sense and feel they must take revenge. Pearson believes the leniency towards women in the court system is due to “male judges and law enforcement personnel and men in the media who don’t take women’s capacity for violence seriously and tend to make excuses for, and cover up for, violent women.” I believe men in general are more lenient and sympathetic to women because they do not understand them so they tend to sympathize with women. Just like a father is more sympathetic to his daughter and harder on his son.
Pearson also says something very interesting which is that women are clever and successful at flipping the script, turning themselves from a criminal into a victim. They blame things like PMS, postpartum depression and battered wife syndrome. This also reminded me of Lombroso who said that women denied committing crimes because that would mean the female recognizes herself and identifies herself as a monster. Lombroso says it is ontologically impossible for a woman to assume this type of identity. Maybe Lombroso was right here.
The recent Casey Anthony case is a good example of this victimizing of the female criminal. Whether true of not, Casey Anthony and her defense team claimed that both her father and brother sexually abused her. This played with people’s minds, the jurors in particular and it turned from Casey being the murderer of her daughter to the poor victim who has been sexually abused and needs some sympathy. People couldn’t understand her narcissistic and odd behavior so it was very convincing to many that she was an abused victim. Its clear by the not guilty verdict that the trick of turning the tables and making oneself the victim worked for Casey Anthony.
The Casey Anthony case drew a lot of attention from around the world. The media was all over the case 24/7. I mean people were truly obsessed with this case. People just cannot wrap their minds around the idea that a young beautiful “normal” girl like Casey Anthony could have murdered her 3 year old daughter.
Female murderers always draw a lot of of attention to the media. I think its easiest for society to believe that the female murderer is a victim and suffers from some type of hysteria because it is otherwise intrinsically unnatural and frightening. It is just inconceivable to the human mind that the most loving and nurturing, the woman, the mother who bears life can also take it away.
Proven Racial Differences?
This piece is rather blunt and controversial but nonetheless interesting. The topic might be touchy for some so just please hang in there.
The book’s written by J. Phillipe Rushton who’s a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario and who argues that racial differences are indeed valid since they do exist and can be genetically proven.
The piece is based on comparisons made between the three major racial groups; Asians, Blacks and Whites, which are apparently supported by numerous amounts of studies performed. While Prof. Rushton touches on various differences among the groups the one that caught my attention the most was brain size (pgs 22-27).
The idea behind brain size is that as races evolved in separate parts of the world each one adopted a different strategy to survive and reproduce. As each method of survival and reproduction focused on different aspects, the brains developed differently; some bigger some smaller.
What’s awfully interesting about the size difference is that according to “a number of methods, including MRI [and IQ tests]” Orientals on average have the largest brains AND higher IQ scores, Blacks the smallest brains AND IQ scores and Whites fall somewhere in the middle for both categories. What’s even more fascinating is that these results are independent of body size!
As you can imagine Prof. Rushton has been heavily criticized for his findings. On one extreme he’s been called a racist, some people argue his references are bogus and have no scientific grounds and some others label his work as political propaganda while on the other end some people revere his work.
Posted in Assignment 1
17 Comments
Iraqs Women Only Prison
I couldnt help but write about this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdEtYkUuzcY I came across while searching for female crime videos. This video is about Iraq women in prison and I found it very interesting that none of these women knew why they got arrested. Many of them want to plead their cases but they are not given the opportunity to do so. They also keep saying that their husbands were accused of terrorism but they were the ones who got arrested. Also, what shocked me was that their children were also in the jail cells with them. They are raising these children in a jail. I fear that once these children are released with the mothers, how will they act in society? It will be a very difficult transition for them to get accustomed to everyday life when all they ever knew was life behind bars.
In class we were talking about how females who commit crimes are viewed as monsters because in the U.S. we view women as nurturing and gentle human beings as opposed to men who are viewed as rough and daring and are capable of a killing; in Iraq its the very opposite. With terrorism currently taking place around the world, it shocks me that these terrorists are running freely and commiting mass murders, but their wives are the ones being captured and put to serve in jail without a reason. Even as the women were pleading to Iraqs Vice President, it seemed to me that he couldnt care less about what the women wanted or had to say. The women were crying and wanted help, but he wanted them to be quiet and didnt want to hear it. If the Vice President of Iraq doesnt care, why would the men in their society care? I think its very messed up for these women to live that kind of life. It seems to me that in Iraq, the innocent are in jail and the monsters are running around town free.
Football Behind Bars
This video is a trailer to the UK six part series that was aired on Sky1 channel in 2009. Ian Wright, soccer star, former Arsenal player and prominent TV host created a show. He himself, according to his interview for the show’s description on Sky 1 official website, spent 14 days in jail for driving without “tax or insurance”. During the show he was coaching young prisoners for the big final game. According to the same Sky 1 channel’s website, young prisoners had to go through a lot of training with strict discipline and those who didn’t work hard were excluded from the team. They were also participating in life coaching sessions, like anger management training, and were giving positive examples and encouragement to break out of criminal life cycle. As show’s page claims: “As well as nurturing football talents, the series will also show how organisation, communication, trust and team work play a vital part in the rehabilitation and social integration of young offenders on their release.”
In the end of the show prison got funding for it’s own Football Academy. As for Ian Wright, he was palnning to attract government’s atention to the problem of young criminal’s rehabilitation and hoped to encourage creation of Football Academies in Juvenal prisons across the UK. How succesfull he was in that I don’t know. I will try to find out and will post it in comments to this post.
In Ian Wright’s model of rehabilitation through football we can see reflection of Merton’s theory of goals and institutionalized means of achievement. Football Behind Bars prophecy popular concept that sport fosters discipline and improves one’s morals. It also works on giving young criminals new model for success- becoming successful athlete. Moreover, through Ian Wright’s personal example it shows institutionalized way for them to achieve goals of success and even wealth.
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged criminal youth, criminals, cultural goals, football, institutionalized means, prison, soccer, young criminals
12 Comments
Do Stereotypes affect Suspect Recognition?
It can be assumed that everyone, in one way or another, is exposed to certain stereotypes. Regardless of whether people agree with, dismiss, or simply overlook these beliefs, the act of observing a stereotype will have some affect on the individual. The question at hand is; Do people act on stereotypical beliefs without doing so on purpose? This study shows that, when asked to identify a person from a selection of news stories, the participants were likely to choose black males as the criminal wrong doers.
It is easy to see that certain stereotypes, like a black males predisposition for criminal behavior, could be problematic for criminal recognition. For instance, if a witness to a crime were thinking through a cloud of stereotyping, it is very possible that the witness’s imagination might become a factor.
The racial standpoint of the study’s participants were also taken into account. This reveals a possible problem with the study’s approach in general. The majority of people, whether prejudice or not, are unlikely to admit their prejudices. The fact that racism is heavily frowned upon creates a huge problem for this study. A study, could easily observe an overly racist group of people, which would most likely result in a heavily skewed outcome, due to hidden stereotypes. On the other hand, a person who is afraid of seeming racist, might choose answers which go against their stereotypical views.
Intuitively, the study seems to make sense. If people have underlying stereotypes that black men are inherently violent criminals, then they will assume that the probability of a black male committing a violent crime is higher. But problems with the actual process of studying facts can easily lead to problems with results.
