Author Archives: aherrera

Posts: 5 (archived below)
Comments: 4

Searching For Illness

Posted on August 17, 2011 by aherrera

It may not be brain scans, but it seems just as ridiculous. Jared Loughner, the man behind the January 8th shootings in Arizona that left 6 dead and 13 injured, is seeking the insanity plea in order to avoid trial. In May, he was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial and was placed in a psych ward, and now his lawyers are seeking a similar decision. In order to establish this, they have taken to digging deep into the lives of Mr. Loughner’s ancestors. They have subpoenaed the records of 22 of his relatives, dating back to 1893. Although two psychiatrists have diagnosed Mr. Loughner with schizophrenia, it would help the insanity plea if it could be established that mental illness runs in the Loughner family.

I have no issues with someone using the insanity plea. If someone is suffering from mental illness, a distinction should be made in their sentencing (ie. psych ward vs. prison). It seems to be a fact that Mr. Loughner has a troubled past, and from the media coverage it seems that he does in fact suffer from schizophrenia. However, I completely disagree with the use of deceased people’s medical records to prove mental illness in the family. It just seems too farfetched. I understand that mental illness is a viable defense in a criminal case but this just seems unnecessary and a violation of privacy. In the article, a law professor from Vanderbilt actually mentions that this is the most effective way of proving mental illness aside from having a “brain scan showing mental defect.” I think this is quite ironic being that both these options, in my opinion, are anything but effective.

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Real Life Superheroes

Posted on August 15, 2011 by aherrera

 

We often talk about deviance and deviants as people who do things outside of society in a negative way. This week I watched  “Superheroes” a documentary on HBO about people who consider themselves real-life superheroes and do what superheroes do: fight crime. Clearly these people are deviating from the societal norm by dressing up in costumes and fighting crime themselves rather than relying on law enforcement officers to do so. While at first they seem a bit foolish, their intentions are actually quite sweet. Most of the superheroes had bad childhoods and were teased and abused. Since they had been impacted personally by crime, they decided that they would dedicate their time to fighting crime.

One of the crime-fighting organizations even managed to get a non-profit status, although  most of them are considered a liability by police officers. I think this documentary was so interesting to me because it dealt with people who are considered “at risk” for becoming criminals, who in fact did the opposite. While it’s hard to know how legitimate the portrayal of the superheroes was, the presence of a camera may have influenced their actions one way or another, it seems that it was pretty accurate.

I really enjoyed watching this documentary and would highly recommend it. While it doesn’t seem like they are too efficient at combating actual crime, it does seem like they are making a difference in their daily encounters with people and through this documentary, by inspiring people to make a difference. Corny, but real.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged , , , | 123 Comments

Curfew City

Posted on August 15, 2011 by aherrera

Philadelphia  is one of the latest cities world-wide to experience Flash Robs. In recent weeks, the city has witnessed several robberies and assaults. Similarly to flash mobs, people learned of and then participated in the mobs through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and BBM.  In response to these attacks the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, has ordered a city-wide curfew for “youths” under 21 years of age at 12am and those under 18 at 10 pm. In areas deemed to be more violent, the curfew has been set as early as 9pm.

While these preemptive actions may very well be justified, there has been quite some controversy regarding the comment Mayor Nutter made last Sunday at his church regarding the attacks: “you’ve damaged yourself, you’ve damaged another person, you’ve damaged your peers and, quite honestly, you’ve damaged your own race.” In this class, we have seen time and time again how race has been linked to crime. While Mayor Nutter is attempting to solve a problem, he is also creating one. By being a public official and perpetuating this idea that a particular race is behind an act of violence he is, in my opinion, perpetuating more crimes. By saying that black people are disgracing their race, he is creating a population of “suspects” that can be viewed with suspicion and even hostility by others. This label, as the article points out, takes away from the good things that that same target population is accomplishing, such as the award-winning Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement.  This is just an example of how stereotypes can perpetuate attitudes that encourage crime.

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Deporting Crime?

Posted on August 1, 2011 by aherrera

This article dealt with many of the issues we have been discussing in class. The U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has developed new tools for identifying and  ultimately deporting illegal immigrants nation-wide. The main tool that they have created for doing so is the Secure Communities Finger-Print sharing program. This program helped to successfully convict and deport Francisco Gomez-Kiroga, a man who had been previously deported 4 times and voluntarily removed himself 19 times. He was pulled over for making an illegal left turn and this new technology helped discover his true identity (he presented himself to law enforcement officers as a different man) as well as his previous offenses. Using a program such as this one is a good way to discover someone’s true identity- perhaps it can be said that some illegal immigrants are the confidence men of today.

However, this system employed by the ICE has been subject to much criticism. Many of the people ultimately deported by this system have not committed any serious crime (most have been driving infractions). Critics claim that this is a waste of the ICE’s limited resources which should be spent targeting dangerous criminals. The thing that I think is the most alarming about this system is that it perpetuates racial profiling. Faced with much pressure to keep deporting illegals, law enforcement officers are using driving infractions as a way to pinpoint people who “look illegal.” As evidenced by the historical precedent we studied in class, this is a slippery slope. I think that in the future there will be litigation that deals with racial profiling in situations such as these.

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Perp Walks and Rogue Galleries

Posted on July 25, 2011 by aherrera

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.

Posted in Assignment 1 | Comments Off on Perp Walks and Rogue Galleries