Author Archives: aw081362

This past week in class we were assigned to read an article titled “The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy’s 81st Precinct,” in this article it is revealed that the eighty-first precinct bosses threatened street officers if they failed to make their quotas of arrests and stop- and- frisks. I recently came across the Center for Constitutional Rights website in which they had an article titled “NYPD Stop and Frisk Practice: Unfair and Unjust.” Within this article stop-and- frisk is defined as being the practice by which police officers initiates the stop of a particular individual on the street whom they believe is suspicious of conducting any form of criminal activities. According to the center of constitutional rights stop and frisk procedures do not guarantee the possibility of reducing crime rates. It is also fact that the majority of stop and frisk incidents occur in communities of color, leaving the people  who live in the communities to feel under siege and attacked and harassed by the police. Approximately 576, 392 stop and frisks occur in New York City each year and about ninety percent of those 576,392 individuals are people of color.  Rather than reducing crime the acts of stop and frisks are actually contributing to the fear and mistrust people of color feel towards authority figures (the police) within their communities. The reason for such fear, doubt and mistrust towards the authoritative figures stems from the fact that  there has been a large abundance of racial profiling and major incidents of police brutality occurring everyday in communities of color.

Website Link Below:

http://www.ccrjustice.org/stopandfrisk

  In the article “Suffering Souls” written by John Seabrook, Seabrook defines psychopathy  as the condition of moral emptiness that seems to affect on average between fifteen to twenty-five percent of the North American prison population. Psychopathy is also believed to exist in one percent of the overall male population, leaving the idea of being a female  psychopath a rare occurrence. Psychopaths are characterized as having ‘serve emotional detachment’ this means that they lack any feelings that are associated with empathy  and remorse. PsycPsychopathy is the condition of moral emptiness that seems to affect on average between fifteen to twenty-five percent of the North American prison population. It has been suggested that psychopathy could actually be a genetic component. It is lilely the case that a psychpath would come from a dsyfunctional family rather than a nuturing one.Psychopathy is also most often referred to as an ” antisocial personality disorder.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4epc4A7kS2Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

In one of the readings assigned in class this week the “Outsiders” written by Howard S. Becker, Becker defines an outsider as people who break rules agreed upon by the majority of the group. Becker also states that rule breakers often perceive a person who enforces a rule as an outsider. I recently came across an article titled “Social Reaction (Labeling) Theory: Pros, Cons and Effects on Society” written by Shawn Cunningham.  Within the article Cunningham states that when a person is labeled as being a criminal by society; they are likely to accept this label as part of themselves. When a person views themselves as being a criminal they are more likely to continue to exhibit criminal behavior. Cunningham goes on to say that primary deviance begins with an initial criminal act, after which an individual might be labeled as a criminal or deviant person but does not accept this label. A criminal label is placed on an individual during the “degradation ceremony” in which the accused is labeled as a criminal.  Cunningham also states that Becker’s work focuses primarily on the way society reacts to people with “criminal” labels. Cunningham believes that Becker proposes that this label becomes a person’s “master status,” which means that this is a constant label, affecting and over-riding how other individuals view them. The status people use to identify and classify a person will always be that of a criminal. A person could have the label of a parent, employee or spouse but the primary and major status that will come to mind to other people and themselves is that of a criminal.  In the article Cunningham also inserts a YouTube video of a social psychology experiment by Sarah Lisenbe from Mississippi State University indicating social reactions labeling theory and the effects on society by demonstrating how individuals are less likely to break the rules of society with a look at conformity to gender roles. Within the experiment there are two glass doors that lead to the same area; one door is labeled “men only” and the other door is labeled “women only,” not wanting to break the rules of society both men and women make sure to go through the appropriate door, regardless of the fact that the door of the opposite sex is actually the closest to them. With this experiment Lisenbe illustrates how individuals are most likely to follow the rules of society, so that they do not risk the chance of being labeled deviant.

Article with video below:

http://andyouwannabeawriter.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/social-reaction-labeling-theory-pros-cons-and-effects-on-society/

Within the article “Deviance Gendered, Criminology Exposed” written by Dawn Rae the relationship between crime and gender is presented. Based on information  in the article Cesare Lombroso perceived women as being the “kinder, gentler sex,” because of this he was very intrigued that such a sex would be able to commit various crimes; crimes that are very much similar to that of males. Lombroso believed that both men and women had the potential to be born criminals. This was led  to be an explanation as to why the passive female could engage in violent behaviors. Lombroso also went on to say that “women’s very inferiority made them less criminally prone than men” and later contradicted his hypothesis by stating that women were less atavistic than men.  After reading  the article the one question that I had  was, what could possibly make a woman go against everything that she is (kind and gentle) and commit murder? In an episode of “Women Behind Bars” the story of how Lori Mcluckie ended up having to spend time behind bars is told. Mcluckie had just broken up with her boyfriend and attempted to commit suicide before graduating college. Mcluckie hoped to start anew life where no one knew her and made the decision to relocate to Denver, Colorado. Unable to adjust to life in Denver and make friends Mcluckie turned her attention to dating men, men in which she referred to as “losers,” men who were either alcoholics or jobless. By dating men who were inferior to her Mcluckie was able to boost her self-esteem. One man in particular that Mcluckie dated was a twenty-two year old by the name of Andrew who according to Mcluckie drank alcohol excessively and would come home and repeatedly slap her causing Mcluckie to develop hatred towards Andrew and lash out to him verbally. One night Andrew arrived home drunk and passed out and Mcluckie tied him to the radiator, restrained him, beat him and killed him. Mcluckie  says that she was afraid and had no way out. According to district attorney Nathan Chambers people commit murder for a number of different reasons such as, greed, jealousy and anger. It appears to be the case that Lori Mcluckie committed murder out of extreme anger.

Episode Below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxsEQ5ovUUc

According to the article “Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification,” fingerprint records determine who gets what kind of punishment. Fingerprints are used to resolve cases of mistaken identity and to give names to those individuals who have passed away unidentified. Our fingerprints serve as a unique identifier. Fingerprints have proven to be a significant tool due to their persistence and uniqueness. That is to say, fingerprints are considered to be persistent because they do not change over time and unique because no two individuals have the same fingerprints.  Even identical twins have been proven to have distinctive fingerprints. Latent, patent and plastic are the three types of fingerprints that can be found. Latent fingerprints are made up of sweat and oil on the skin’s surface and are invisible to the naked eye therefore, requiring additional processes to be seen. Patent fingerprints are visible to the naked eye and are made up of blood, grease, ink or dirt. After the fingerprint is collected then the analysis process begins. During this process examiners determine whether or not the print provides enough information to be used for identification.  Class characteristics such as arches, loops and whorls are used to narrow down the print to a particular group. After completing the analysis examiners compare the unknown print to that of a known print. If there tends to be any unexplainable differences between the known and unknown fingerprints the examiner can then make the decision to exclude the known fingerprint as the source. After such evaluation the entire process is repeated independently by a second examiner. In order for the fingerprint to be aptly identified both examiners conclusions must match.

Article below:

http://www.crimemuseum.org/library/forensics/fingerprints.html