Monthly Archives: July 2011

Earlier this month, I heard the following story on NPR regarding the famous “perp walk.” The now former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn had recently been arrested for allegedly raping a hotel worker. He, like many others involved in notorious/ high-profile was practically paraded down the street in handcuffs for all (via the media) to see. When subsequently, the case against him pretty much collapsed, people began questioning the use of the perp walk and whether or not it does more harm than good. According to Mr. David Krajicek, who has studied the use of perp walks in law enforcement, this form of public humiliation is used to both shame the accused as well as make the law enforcement agencies appear victorious, as if they are doing their job.

The use and prominence of perp walks (especially in New York City) reminded me very much of the rogue galleries we read about and discussed in class. The biggest problem that I see with them is that, much like in Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s case, the accused is publicly humiliated before he is found guilty. The image of someone in chains and handcuffs can tarnish their reputation indefinitely. Perp walks and rogue galleries are ways of permanently marking someone as a criminal, which can make their transition back to civil society very difficult. Even if they are innocent, a perp walk can make them look guilty. This can influence the outcome of the person’s trial. While Mr. Krajicek stated that perp walks seem to be fading in use, he also said that this was mostly because police departments are getting much better at collecting digitized mug shots and getting them out through the media. It seems that despite the passing of much time since Lombroso, we are still typecasting people we deem as criminals.

While in class we talked extensively about how Lombroso tried to catalog similar physical features in order to find out which features would make one more apt to be a criminal. He believed that features that were more reminiscent of apes or uncivilized cultures such as facial asymmetry were hints that someone could be distinguished from a non-criminal. While this theory is generally discredited today, new research seen here has given rise to find out the facial features that makes a black man more apt to be a CEO. A stunning 95% of CEO’s in America are white males. Researchers tried to figure out what physical characteristics alone (leaving out obvious other necessary traits such as dedication, hard work and education) black males usually attain in order to become CEO’s. In a sense this research is the exact opposite of Lombroso, instead of looking for physical characteristics that make one more apt to be a criminal, they are looking for characteristics that make one apt to be a successful business man. The study found that many of the black CEO’s possessed what they call “babyfaceness” or having attributes such as “a round face with a larger forehead, a small chin, full cheeks and other characteristics that are exaggerated in infants”. These traits made the black men appear less threatening to white people by bringing out emotions like warmth and tolerance. This finding is interesting in comparison to white CEO’s with similar babyfaceness who are perceived as being weak and incompetent. This study is relevant because it shows that tactics used by Lombroso are still being used and applied, but for different reasons. People indeed still make assumptions based on looks alone.

Unfortunately, this weekend we have experienced a branch in crime, which we have been coping with for the past decade in U.S. and around the world. This crime is know as terrorism. Sadly, terrorism has no mercy on innocent lives. Either you’re a child, black or white, blue or white collar, rich or poor, it digs deeply in the souls of humanity. The article related to this discussion, involves reasons to why the global society has to pay the ultimate price for governmental actions. Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect in the Norwegian terrorist attacks in Oslo on Friday, had criticized the so called “cultural Marxists” , in order to spark a war against growing Muslims across Europe. 93 lives have been lost due to one belief, opening new theories of understanding why the human mind is acting is such way. The criminal mind is not born with the human body, but it is a belief taught by other individuals in society which disagree with governmental philosophies. Terrorism has several meanings and definitions, but the universal meaning of it it simply to induce fear within a society, just like injecting a virus in a healthy body. It degrades the stability of the societal structure, dissatisfaction of political & social policy, tension creation, confusion among its members and concluding with conflicts. The solution to such a problem like terrorism does exist, and it has been proven successful with  society through a “network” of eyes. Fear is a human instinct and can be overcome through the right steps of avoiding a disaster. Know the risks involved with a catastrophe, the risks can’t be always be eliminated completely, and know that not always there will be a happy ending. In the end everyone fights for liberty and a safer world, trying to survive as long as possible with little incursions through the path of life.