Running head IDENTIFYING AND GATHERING RELEVANT DATA1IDENTIFYI.docx
- 1. Running head: IDENTIFYING AND GATHERING RELEVANT DATA 1 IDENTIFYING AND GATHERING RELEVANT DATA 5 Identifying and Gathering Relevant Data Sherry L. Crowe Dr. Robert Meyer Psychology of Criminal Behavior FP6015 May 24, 2017 Homicide is the killing of human beings by another person. Murder and manslaughter are both forms of execution. The death inflicted by a person taking another person’s life regardless of the intention of the action is a criminal offence. Homicide is a crime according to United States Laws, as is many other states globally. Justified self-defense is not categorized as a crime. Similarly, there are other forms of murder including euthanasia, killing during war, and capital
- 2. punishment of a person (Smith, 2013). Homicide can be categorized into criminal and non-criminal. Criminal homicide is like murder or manslaughter; this is when there is killing by intention and without any danger being imposed on the murderer (Reid, 2016). Non-criminal includes capital punishment of a convicted person and euthanasia in respective jurisdictions. This involves the arms of government who are mandated to protect the nation, and in that event, they can kill to eliminate the public threat. Actions like terrorism and international security threat can fall under excused homicide in the aim of protecting the people and reducing the risk. Insanity poses another accepted justification of killing, and induced killing in aid of self-defense and the others security is among the noncriminal homicide (Eriksson, 2013). Many aspects contribute and accelerate the rate of homicide, the poverty of people and poor social status can lead to people into stress and committing crimes that are either criminal or non-criminal (Riedel, 2015). The socio-economic situation of people influences the rate of homicide in the society. The less privileged individuals in the community are the most affected in the sense that they undergo a lot of mental and physical stress in satisfying their needs and livelihood. The most affected group in the society is the youth; youth more often are perpetrators of the crime. Extreme lifestyle cases and peer pressure has played a key role in the determination of the criminal activities that are experienced in the society today. Societal achievement and different opportunities available in the lifestyle arena engages the young people’s minds in a negative way to an extent they make the un-informed decision due to rushing to find solutions. According to the FBI, the rate of crime in the US increased by 3.9 percent in 2015 an increase from the previous year. The criminal cases have escalated because of the rate at which societal influence has impacted on the people with the rise of technology and lifestyle change (Cramer, 2016).
- 3. Social and human rights education must be addressed to the public, and thus the relevant government must ensure that they engage the appropriate authorities in the exercising of the human rights and thereby reduction of crime in the society (Matejkowski, 2014). Consequently, the criminal gangs must be eliminated from the society to reduce the criminality in the community. There should be a well-defined curriculum in schools on behavior change to mentor good citizens in the society who respect law and order. Community policing and real collaboration with the law enforcers is also another aspect that must be enhanced to eliminate vice in the society. Transparency and fairness must be employed when solving the criminal cases. This will ensure that only the legal liable persons are convicted of the crimes that they committed and not innocent people. The courts must be fair and transparent to the extent of the truth and impose the penalty to be taken by the convicts. In San Diego County, there was a “total of 5,409 Part 1 violent crimes which include homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Between January and June of 2016 there was an average of 30 per day and about one more per day than the first half of 2015 (Burke, 2015).” In the state of California, the homicide reported in 2015 was 1,861 which was an increase of 164 from 2014. That is a twenty-five point one decrease from the 2,483 reports in 2006 (Harris, 2015).
- 4. References Burke, C., Ph.D. (2016). Crime in the San Diego Region Mid- Year 2016 Statistics. Criminal Justice Research Division, SANDAG, 3-18. Retrieved May 31, 2017, from http://www.delmar.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/2490 Cramer, C. E. (2016). Why the FBI's Justifiable Homicide Statistics Are a Misleading Measure of Defensive Gun Use. U. Fla. JL & Pub. Pol'y, 27, 505. Eriksson, L., & Mazerolle, P. (2013). A general strain theory of intimate partner homicide. Aggression and violent behavior, 18(5), 462-470. Harris, K. D. (2015). California Homicide Statistics for 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2017, from https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/cjsc/publications/ho micide/hm15/hm15.pdf? Matejkowski, J., Fairfax-Columbo, J., Cullen, S. W., Marcus, S. C., & Solomon, P. L. (2014). Exploring the potential of stricter gun restrictions for people with serious mental illness to reduce homicide in the United States. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 25(3), 362-369. Reid, S. (2016). Compulsive criminal homicide: A new nosology for serial murder. Aggression and Violent Behavior. Riedel, M., & Welsh, W. N. (2015). Criminal violence: Patterns, causes, and prevention. OUP Us. Smith, E. L., & Cooper, A. (2013). Homicide in the US known to law enforcement, 2011. Washington, DC: US Department of
- 5. Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics. Running head: CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR 1 CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR 2 Criminal Behavior Sherry L. Crowe Dr. Robert Meyer Psychology of Criminal Behavior FP6015 May 24, 2017 The criminal behavior that I have chosen for this is homicide. Homicide is death caused by one person taking the life of another person notwithstanding the intention of their action. Homicide is a broad term used to describe various categories of killings with murder and manslaughter being the most prevalent. Others include; euthanasia, war killings, and capital punishment. Homicide is further subdivided into criminal and non-criminal types depending on the context and
- 6. laws of a particular jurisdiction (Geberth, 2013). Thereby causing some homicide behaviors to be accepted in society even by the legal system, while others will be shunned and attract huge ethical and legal sanctioning. The legally accepted homicide includes; euthanasia in jurisdictions that accept it and capital punishment. On the other hand, one may be convicted of manslaughter homicide with or without the intent of killing as long as their action harms another person to an extent of causing death. Manslaughter may also be a result of voluntary action based on passion from emotions that blur an individual’s judgment abilities leading them to kill. In accidents, the death must occur within the first year of neglect behavior. There are situations that call for excusable homicide. This may include killing of others by authorized persons such as law enforcement agencies in the aim of protecting a nation from its enemies. Thus, the law enforcement agencies in the country may be ordered to kill. Other situations that may call for actions involving killing may be during the prevention of crime where police officers may be forced to use deadly force to be able to protect the lives and liberties of other citizens from the harm and potential harm. Another legally accepted justification is insanity, intoxication or necessity including self-defense and that of others. Whereas homicide is a crime committed across all social; classes, it has been found to be prevalent with poverty and other social factors such as stress. Thus, the area of focus here is the low socio-economic class that has to be underprivileged with the means to take care of their needs. Homicide affects all people in society. However, the group of focus is the youth in society who may be pushed into committing homicide in the quest to provide for their needs (Singh, et.al, 2013). In a society that fosters unequal competition and contentions towards success in wealth and power, some youth who find role models in celebrities may be compelled into finding a means to reach their target.
- 7. Homicide and especially criminal homicide occurs in society and needs to be addressed by the society in general. This calls for awareness creation campaigns among communities and groups on homicide. Similarly, civilians need to collaborate with law enforcement agencies by reporting early signs of homicide within the community and evidence when called upon to give their testimonies. When called upon to act on a case, the police should be ready to handle the situation promptly. Having identified the major casualty as being poverty, it is necessary to initiate programs that empower youths with job skills and enhance their talents (Stansfield, Williams & Parker, 2017). Thus, it becomes a way of helping them achieve their goals in the right way. Besides, it is necessary to empower the group with life skills that will; enable them to be confident while handling crisis situations and these that provoke emotions. It may also involve learning relation techniques to help them in making rational decisions. With the elimination of poverty and awareness creation in society, there is a high likelihood of the reduction of homicides. Further, a collaboration between the police and civilians as a means of helping to reduce homicide that has proven to work. References Geberth, V. J. (2013). Practical homicide investigation checklist and field Guide. cRc Press. Singh, G. K., Azuine, R. E., Siahpush, M., & Kogan, M. D. (2013). All-cause and cause-specific mortality among US youth: socioeconomic and rural–urban disparities and international patterns. Journal of Urban Health, 90(3), 388-405. Stansfield, R., Williams, K. R., & Parker, K. F. (2017). Economic Disadvantage and Homicide: Estimating Temporal Trends in Adolescence and Adulthood. Homicide Studies, 21(1), 59-81.
- 8. Running head: FINAL DRAFT 1 FINAL DRAFT 8 Final Draft Sherry L. Crowe Dr. Robert Meyer Psychology of Criminal Behavior FP6015 June 14, 2017 Criminal behavior Homicide Homicides are crimes that comprise of murder and manslaughter, and they violate the criminal laws (Hodell, 2014). In other cases, there can be crimes involving self-defense and are categorized as not criminal. Legal killings include manslaughter and murder in multiple degrees depending on the gravity of the offence. Homicide is the act of killing of human beings by another person depending on different intentions. According to FBI, homicide falls under a broad category of the
- 9. violent crimes. Research shows that in the US the crime rose by 5.3 % in 2016. The data provided detailed information as to the cause of the offence and the degree of the criminality of the cases. It also indicated the type of crimes done and the people involved. In the year 2015, the crime rate perpetrated by the male was 89% and the female 11%. This enabled the authorities to come up with various ways and means of mitigating crime committed by the male people in the society. Murder In homicide, the first-degree murder is the most serious crime. Murder can be both intentional and premeditated. Intentional murder or deliberate involves short or long-term plan to kill a victim. In case someone intends to kill a certain individual and in the long run by mistake kills another person (Chakravorty, 2015). The crime is still categorized under the first-degree murder because of the intention of the accused. In cases where there is the lack of premeditated murder, but the victim killed a person it is described as “in the heat of passion”, it can be categorized and second-degree murder. The categorization depends on the intensity of the crime and at some point, can fall under manslaughter charges as cited by the state and its rules and regulation as enshrined in the constitution. Manslaughter Manslaughter is the widespread killing of a fellow human being. The lowest category of crime is involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter occurs when the perpetrator had no intention of killing but killed the victim through the criminal behavior of negligence or recklessness. A good example is a drunk driver driving recklessly and accidentally knocks and kills someone on the road. The driver did not intend intent o kill, but in the long run, someone has died. Voluntary manslaughter entails the offender did not have prior intent to kill in the case the homicide it can occur “in the heat of passion” and with no forethought. The state criminalizes and categorizes under a variant of murder charges, instead of manslaughter (Stubbs, 2016).
- 10. There are similarities in the civil and criminal legal systems regarding the burden of persuasion, and penalties imposed on the key players or perpetrators. Criminal justice imposes penalties the minute a suspect is found and pronounced guilty (Stephen, 2014). The categories involved in a crime is probation, imprisonment and restitution and other punishments involved as deemed fit by the different constitutions of different states. In civil cases, the system is entitled to pay monetary damages in case of being accused guilty. Proving beyond a reasonable doubt is a standard that is applied during the prosecution of a criminal and determination of the offence; it is a necessity and a critical one in order not to convict the wrong persons. Civil cases mostly rely on the preponderance of evidence which is a standard application in civil matters where the ruling is on the weight of the evidence provided (Cicchin, 2016). Etiology theories There are different theories involved in trying to explain the factors that influence criminal behaviors that make offenders to commit the homicide. There are environmental ideas involved with physical methods of killing (Akers, 2013). These theories include socialization, social and control structural theories. Socialization According to socialization theory, the men’s aggression and go- getter tendencies make them achieve their objectives (Taylor, 2013). The male seems more aggressive than the female counterparts. The gender difference is a variation factor to differentiate between male and female is used to justify the reason why the homicide offender is increasing in women than men. Socialization is widely embraced in academic and professional circles relying on the concept of defending homicide patterns that could lead to erratic conclusions. Drug abuse is the most influential factor in the causes of murder. Extreme socialization leads to lack of physiologic tolerance to drug and substance abuse. According to the journal by Oxford University, the data collected on the homicide cases suggest
- 11. that the ex-convicts are eight times probably to commit a crime in 2 weeks after their release. Similarly, the extreme cases were noted to occur with the ex-convicts who were under drug abuse. Drugs used by the convicts are just a way of survival tactics and mitigating boredom cases, these adaptation leads to drug addiction and thus influences their reasoning capability in a negative manner. Prisoners are highly capable of committing homicide because of the adverse environment that they are exposed to during their serving of the sentence (Wortley, 2016). The conditions they live in affects them psychologically and thus shape their character and can influence their actions even when out of prison. Many ex-convicts suffer from long-life trauma and thus are taken into a rehabilitation center, and most of them never recover completely. Social structure The social structure theory tries to explain the reasons as to why a person would want to murder another person. There are perspectives like the social problems including education and poverty which are the root causes of the homicide in the society. (Eck, 2015) Denoted that there is uncertainty whether social structures influence a person to commit suicide and they get involved in criminal activities and more so murder. Lack of education can be contributing factor which lures teenagers into committing illegal activities. School dropouts are the most affected victims by the fact that they are lured into joining criminal gangs who engage themselves in the criminal activities in the society. The lifestyle also influences the social and the criminality. Most teenagers like the classy and expensive lifestyle and thus as they want to achieve their self- actualization. They get involved with expensive lifestyle and thus in the spirit of satisfying their needs they should get involved with gangs for the benefit of gaining income to sustain their lifestyle (Donovan, 2016). Search for livelihood and money has led to involvement in criminal activities that are experienced in the society today. In an example of San Diego County, a “total of 5,409 Part 1 violent crimes were recorded
- 12. including homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Relevant prevention, intervention, and treatment to homicide Many stages can achieve prevention and Solve of criminal cases. Criminals may be people who are ex-convicts or new criminals. Transparency and fairness in closing the cases must be engaged in the process of determining the criminals. The courts must be fair and transparent regarding truth and imposition of the penalty to the convicts and should entail “prove beyond reasonable doubt” and should be enhanced in order not to convict the innocent people in any criminal case (Robinson, 2013). Any party is found guilty of any wrongdoing to another individual is entitled to pay monetary damages in the case found guilty. The criminal system rectifies the offender while the civil system seeks to compensate the aggrieved party. Both scenarios deliberate their judgment through the evidence provided in the courts of law in every state. In also elaborates the provision of professional practitioners like the judges who must be involved in the determination of the cases. Since Homicide occurs in our societies, it needs to be addressed by the general public. Awareness regarding campaigns by communities and different groups must be enhanced. The security arms of the government must collaborate with the public in determining cases involving homicide. The public must be ready and swift to report such incidents to the police and the police in their turn must be quick to act and prevent the crime taking place, and in this case, the crime rate will be reduced. The introduction of rehabilitation centers for the ex- convicts who are involved in the homicide is an important feature that must be considered by the governing state. Rehabilitation centers will make the convicts be incorporated back into the society while making them productive and in that way, they gain confidence and work productively with the community they come from (Magrude, 2016). Programs that create jobs for the unemployed youths must be designed to enhance employment for the energetic young people in building the nation and raising their life standards and thus help them to
- 13. avoid crime. Reference Hodell, E. C., Wasarhaley, N. E., Lynch, K. R., & Golding, J. M. (2014). Mock juror gender biases and perceptions of self- defense claims in intimate partner homicide. Journal of Family Violence, 29(5), 495-506. Chakravorty, S., Daripa, S., Saha, U., Bose, S., Goswami, S., & Mitra, S. (2015). Data mining techniques for analyzing murder related structured and unstructured data. American Journal of Advanced Computing, 2(2). Stubbs, J. (2016). Murder, manslaughter and domestic violence. Stephen, J. F. (2014). Selected Writings of James Fitzjames Stephen: A General View of the Criminal Law. Oxford University Press, USA. Cicchini, M. D., & White, L. T. (2016). Testing the Impact of Criminal Jury Instructions on Verdicts: A Conceptual Replication. Akers, R. L. (2013). Criminological theories: Introduction and evaluation. Routledge. Wortley, R. K., & Townsley, M. (Eds.). (2016). Environmental criminology and crime analysis (Vol. 18). Taylor & Francis. Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (2013). The new
- 14. criminology: For a social theory of deviance. Routledge. Donovan, J. E. (2016). Child and adolescent socialization into substance use. In the Oxford Handbook of Adolescent Substance Abuse. Robinson, J., Cox, G., Malone, A., Williamson, M., Baldwin, G., Fletcher, K., & O’Brien, M. (2013). A systematic review of school-based interventions aimed at preventing, treating, and responding to suicide-related behavior in young people. Crisis. Magruder, K. M., Kassam-Adams, N., Thoresen, S., & Olff, M. (2016). Prevention and public health approaches to trauma and traumatic stress: a rationale and a call to action. European journal of psychotraumatology, 7.