The Importance Of The Three Strikes Law Criminology Essay

The Importance Of The Three Strikes Law Criminology Essay The three strikes law is a strict mandatory life sentence without parole on offenders convicted of felony crimes. These crimes include murder, robbery in which a deadly weapon was used, rape, or burglary. Differing opinions suggest that three strikes law is unfair and unjust because the law excessively affects African American and Latino men who have a higher representation throughout the criminal justice system. Others suggest that the three strikes law violates the Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights; because the law is unjust when convicted of a minor offense still count as a strike. I believe the three strikes law deters crime and future criminal behavior because it assembles the thought of facing tough consequences. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The three strikes law can be best understood within the neoclassical theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is a direct approach to policy making for the prevention and control of crime. It focuses on policies rather than crime causation and less concerned with finding causes of crime, along with finding what deters future criminal behavior. The neoclassical theoretical framework can be coupled with the specific and general deterrence theory. The specific deterrence theory emphasizes a point on the individual itself. The theory explains the discouragement of criminal behavior from future criminal acts by understanding the consequences. General deterrence theory concentrates on the prevention of crime by forging examples of distinguish criminal behavior. It exercises the public view to deter other individuals from committing the same crime. The experience is use to restrain others from perpetrating the same criminal acts. Schafers Argument: 3 Strikes as Deterrence The concept of deterrence is divided into two categories: general deterrence and specific. General deterrence takes place when potential offenders identify the consequences of other peoples actions and decide not to follow into their footsteps. Specific deterrence is triggered when offenders learn from their past. Schafer believes the three strikes laws often are seen as the answer to crime problems in America because it reduces crime either by throwing offenders in jail or deterring potential offenders from committing crimes. (p311) Schafer argues that three strikes law is an effective crime control policy that deters youthful offenders from becoming repeat offenders. In California, statistical evidence is provided by how crime has dropped 26.0 percent since 1994. (p 312) He then proceeds to contend on how juvenile offenders are more likely to be violent throughout their generation. The data he claims suggest that a small number of young offenders commit numerous unpunished crimes because the courts, especially the juvenile justice system, provide the offenders with countless second chances. The three strikes law would reinforce the motivation to change their criminal behavior because the juvenile justice systems do little to rehabilitate or deter young offenders from crime. (p 313) Schafer reinforces his argument by conducting a survey to measures the offenders experiences with the consequences of their crimes. The result of the survey concluded that, 61 percent of the offenders said they would not or probably would not commit a serious or violent crime if they knew their prison sentence would be doubled and 70 percent said that would not or probably would not commit the crime if they knew they would receive life in prison. (p 314) His survey demonstrated a deterrent effect from the root of the source. To conclude Schafers argument, he proved that offenders, who have repeated experiences with the criminal justice system, have learned through their consequences, and the rewards of the criminal act do not outweigh the consequences. Vitiellos Argument: 3 Strikes is not a Deterrent to Violent Crime Vitiello argues that three strikes law have no effect in reducing serious crime and the cost of the law is not beneficial to our society. Vitiello explains three strikes supporters argument is based on empirical data that defines the efficiency of the law. The efficiency of the law is supported by data that does not have a connection with the three strikes law. Reports from California prove that prior to the three strikes law, crime was already declining and after the three strikes, there were no drastic change in crime. Vitiello furthermore argues that when law makers were trying to measure the three strikes deterrent effect, they failed to find a marginal deterrent effect. There was a small change, but there was no significant explanation on the decline in the crime rate. The law itself is not helpful to the criminal justice system. Vitiello compared Californias and the nations crime rate average. He proved that Sectary of State Jones position on how California exceeding the declin e in crime nationwide, cuts both ways was false. The example given was that New Yorks policing polices had problems with crime during the 1990s, but it did not adapted the three strikes law; however, New York, had a higher decline in crime than California. Vitiello also reference the authors of Punishment and Democracy to support his position. The authors of Punishment and Democracy found that the decline in crime rate followed by the three strikes was not the cause of the decline, but the authors found that the decline in the crime rate preceded passage of the law. Even when the law was passed, there was not dramatic change because the crime rate stayed the same. The cause of the crime rate to be neutral was the decline that was operating prior to the passage of the law continued to be the primary reason for the drop in crime rates. Therefore, the three strikes play no role in the decline in crime rate. Overall, Vitiellos argument is based on empirical studies. His research found t hat California would have experience virtually the entire drop in crime without three strikes. ANAYLSIS: Schafers position on the three strikes law deters repeat offenders. Based on his studies, the evidence he provides concludes a convincing argument. Schafer explains how the concept of deterrence reflects on offenders and repeat offenders. Following by his survey, the results created a solid foundation for his argument. The whole idea of general deterrence is very effective. People are likely to commit a crime when the opportunity arises. If the consequence is tough they will be afraid to commit the crime. The creation of three strikes law is to put the fear in peoples mind to make them think twice about violating the law. All it takes a single thought about if its worth it or not. I see the specific deterrence theory as a way to deter repeat offenders. The three strikes helps fix the criminal justice system by putting those who choose to become repeat offenders to stay in jail. Most crimes today are from repeat offenders. From the Bureau of Justice Statistic Special Report, A 2002 st udy survey showed that among nearly 275,000 prisoners released in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years, and 51.8% were back in prison. Explaining how more of our prisoners that get convicted are more likely to go back in prison. This is where the three strikes law takes place. We created a barrier for those offenders to think about what they are doing. We make them think about if its worth twenty five years to life. Another effective reason why three strikes is effective is because it targets repeat offenders who fail to change their criminal behavior after the second time. The mandatory twenty five years to life for third time offenders will put them away for a long time and it also keep them off the streets. This type of get tough law has done its part on reducing the crime rate throughout the nation. It serves as a deterrent and its the best weapon we got against repeat offenders. From Analysis of the California Attorney Generals Report, the drop in the crime rate that California has experiences since 1993 is drastically different from the first four year of 1990-1993 where the overall crime rate dropped only 2.4% and the violent crime rate increased 7.3%. When the three strikes law took effect, the crime rate dropped drastically to about 5 %. Some may argue that crime was reducing before the three strikes law. Data shows that crime was dropping before the law was passing, but when the law di d pass, it drastically declined boosting the drop further. Moreover, crime can be seen as a rational choice theory. The theory proposes that offenders measure the opportunities, cost, and benefits of particular crimes. (Hagan.2010. p 101) Hagan referenced Cornish and Clarkes (1986) rational choice theory by explaining how crime is a matter of situational choice and we need to increase the certainty and the severity of the punishment to exclude the temptation and the choice of criminal activity. Therefore, the three strikes law plays that role of decreasing the situational choice, so that crime cannot happen. The cost and benefit of the crime does not equal the punishment. In results, offenders are more likely to disregard criminal behavior because the three strikes law decreases the motivation to commit a crime. CONCLUSION: The three strikes law is used as deterrence. Many argue that its a waste of governments money. Some argue that its the best tool we got against repeat offenders. I personally feel that its the only defense we got against repeat offenders. The theory behind the law supports why the law would work. This law is based on human behavior. The human behavior based on learning from experience and making sure that experience was enough to deter the offender from committing the same act. The three strikes law revolves around the Neoclassical Theory and it deters repeat offenders.

Good Will Hunting Identity Essay Essay

The identity theorist’s Erik Erikson and James Marcia were crucial contributors to the psychological interpretation of a person’s personality and social development. Erik Erikson is most famously known for his theories on the adolescent search for identity and his ideas regarding a person’s self-discovery. James Marcia expanded further on Erikson’s concepts through his proposal of the four identity statuses, which include moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion, and achievement, as well as the four human crises’. As psychology is becoming more and more developed in our modern society, it has become more socially acceptable to criticize or expose the issues psychology entails, particularly human identity, which often times can be the most controversial topic. In the blockbuster film, Good Will Hunting, the main character Will has natural genius capabilities but struggles to understand his place in the world due to a dramatic past and his tough exterior as an orphan from South Boston. Although it is arguable that Will appreciated his talent but preferred to live his life as it was before recognition, Will Hunting depicted the theories of identity through his relationship with Skylar and his guidance from Sean. Even though Will enjoyed his life of literature and education behind closed doors, it was indeterminable whether Will was content with his life or eager to leave his comfort zone in Southie to challenge his intellect at the beginning of the film. For example, while working as a janitor at MIT Will solves a problem that the current students at the institute had yet to conquer, however Will would not admit to the professors that he had solved it. This shows that Will lacks aspects of self-realization because once the professors realize he is the genius, Will mocks the therapy sessions and mathematical lessons that the professors organized in order to help him reach his full potential. In addition to that, Will’s best friends depict the epitome of â€Å"city kids† who balance blue collar jobs with nighttime bar reunions and it is evident that because this is the only life Will has ever known, he is hesitant to lead the life he is stereotypically supposed to. It takes the guidance from Will’s best friend Chuck, to finally persuade Will to take advantage of his gift, not for himself, but for his friends and  every other kid with the same lack of opportunities who would give anything for Will’s intelligence. At first Will was uncomfortable with realizing his intelligence but eventually he learned he needed to take advantage of his skills. Sean’s influence on Will proved that Will experienced the process of identity discovery proposed by James Marcia because of Sean’s ability to help Will out of his identity crisis. According to Marcia a person experiences four identity crises including future work, moral standards, religion, and political view. During the movie, Sean helps Will by guiding him past the future work crisis through therapy sessions and Sean’s real life experience recollections. In addition, Sean enables Will to overcome his moral standard crisis particularly regarding women. Throughout the movie Sean is able to overcome Will’s sarcastic defense mechanisms and on their last session when each man reveals they were abused as children, Sean sees the true person that Will is and realizes he has properly prepared him for a future job in the real world. Sean encourages Will’s relationship with Harvard Student Skylar because he wants Will to recognize his ability to have an emot ional relationship with a woman without pushing them away, which ultimately proved his change in moral standard. When Will meets Skylar she is unlike any girl he has ever known, and as their relationship grows serious, Will’s fear of commitment supports his struggle with his identity status. After Will receives Skylar’s number he is not contemplating commitment nor immediately calls her. Psychologically he is at the stage of moratorium where he delays decisions about Skylar before going out with her again as well as not disregarding his options with other woman, as he tells his psychologist Sean that he has slept with many woman. However, when Will takes Skylar to the dog track he proves his committal to her as his girlfriend, which supports the proceeding identity status of foreclosure. Next, after their relationship grows serious, Skylar asks Will to come to California with her as she attends Stanford yet Will refuses her offer and feels the need to distance himself from her. The issue escalates further when Skylar tries to comfort Will about his tragic past, which infuriates Will even further. After their break-up Will searches for the  meaning of life with help from his best friend’s who purchase him a car to help him commute to a new job which would enable him to break from his â€Å"tough city guy† image. Between the time of breakup, job interviews, and guidance from Chuck Will discovers his potential and strives to successfully use his talent through the identity status of diffusion. Finally Will reaches the achievement identity status as he leaves Boston to reunite with Skylar in California, which proves to be the greatest decision of his life. Overall, Will did undergo the four identity statuses and experience the crises that James Marcia and Erik Erikson proposed in their theories of self-discovery. Will’s relationship with Skylar particularly proves that Will underwent the four identity statuses of moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion, and achievement because of his refusal to get emotionally attached to her at first, and then by the conclusion of the movie, ready to commit his life to her. Also, through the guidance of Sean Will overcame the identity crises of future work and moral standards. In the end, although it appeared as if Will could never behind his reputation of a South Boston rebel, through his relationships with Skylar and Sean Will was prepared to reach his full potential.

Using Samples Essay on Mobile Deposit

Using Samples Essay on Mobile Deposit As mobile usage started to pick up pace and cellular devices began to position themselves at the middle of our online lives, commentators had plenty to say regarding the mobile revolution. Overall, mobile games aren't bad as long as you don't get addicted to them and are in a position to restrict your indulgence for only a little time period during the day. For many individuals, losing a cell telephone is a very emotional experience. To conclude, mobile phone is essential for our modern lives today. The precise cost and timing of the job will be contingent on the specific instance, thus we can only roughly orient you by price. If you want, I can supply you with current samples of my work. While working on your purchase, you can adhere to the procedure for working on your undertaking. The entire procedure of applying to college is tricky from the beginning. What Everybody Dislikes About Samples Essay on Mobile Deposit and Why Mobile phone is a revolutionary step in the industry of tele-communication. It is a good technology which is not lacking from our lives. It has completely changed the concept of the telephoning. It is a revolutionary step in the field of telecommunication. Attempt to know why such devices may be dangerous and begin to compose an essay on cellphone addiction. There are a big number of different cell phone devices and it's a huge challenge for banks to provide a cell banking solution on any kind of device. With mobile gaming, you've got to keep your eye on the screen and handle the control through your small gadget. Review what you've been requested to address in your essay Sometimes educational institutions wish to find out more than just your career targets. There are lots of books that purport to offer you an advantage in seeking admission. Colleges and universities wouldn't exist without students so the duty of the college admissions office is essential to the diversity and financial health of any university. The finest argumentative essay writing service on the net is a business that gives good quality and very affordable help on argumentative essay and argumentative essay topics. For organization, a very good resource for you is most likely the five-paragraph essay. Accessing the net is now mandatory in many professions. Reading example essays works exactly the same way! They may be lightly modified for readability or to protect the anonymity of contributors, but we do not edit essay examples prior to publication. Every essay should incorporate every honor or prize you've ever won. Banking essays can be real fun to play with if you've got a comprehensive understanding about the discipline and have keen interest in writing, so should you think that you cannot write decent banking essays than again you're erroneous. In addition, indulging in mobile games offers you an opportunity to relax the mind and receive a breather from the problem you've been thinking about. So, a bit of gaming on a normal basis can really help you improve your skills in a huge way. Indulging in just a little bit of gaming through your mobile is actually excellent for the mind as it can help you knock out the stress you've accumulated. Mobile phones may be used in either positive or negative approaches and can be consider ed either a blessing or a curse based on the way a specific person views the entire subject. You begin by asking a question, which is a great way to begin. In that scenario, it's more important to stick to the instructions on the work listing. The issue, nevertheless, is that often terminally ill folks aren't capable of ending their life in a painless, dignified fashion, and so require the aid of a relative of close friend. The only problem includes grammar problems like harmful rather than harm in the question at the start. Assuming you want to get hired by a superior company, generally you'll be requested to write an expert goals essay to demonstrate that you're the most appropriate candidate to occupy the available position. Compare and contrast essay is widely utilized in many different types of writing assignments. It's very valuable to take writing apart as a way to see just the way that it accomplishes its objectives. Before writing argumentative essay, a suitable comprehension of the subject ought to be developed, and relevant and authentic material ought to be used. Research studies also have claimed that mobile phones have a negative effect on health of someone. Mobile banking is utilized in many elements of the planet with very little or no infrastructure, especially remote and rural places. The mobile phone assists us in keeping a fast-paced way of life and they are continuously improving with many more to select from. Today, it plays a major role in our lives, which brings many benefits to us but also contains some drawbacks.

Robert Lynds Essay on the Pleasures of Ignorance

Born in Belfast, Robert Lynd moved to London when he was 22 and soon  became a popular and prolific essayist, critic, columnist, and poet. His essays are characterized by humor, precise  observations, and a lively, engaging style. From Ignorance To Discovery Writing under the pseudonym of Y.Y., Lynd contributed a weekly literary essay to the New Statesman magazine from 1913 to 1945. The Pleasures of Ignorance is one of those many essays. Here he offers examples from nature to demonstrate his thesis that out of ignorance we get the constant  pleasure of discovery. The Pleasures of Ignorance by Robert Lynd (1879-1949) It is impossible to take a walk in the country with an average townsman—especially, perhaps, in April or May—without being amazed at the vast continent of his ignorance. It is impossible to take a walk in the country oneself without being amazed at the vast continent of ones own ignorance. Thousands of men and women live and die without knowing the difference between a beech and an elm, between the song of a thrush and the song of a blackbird. Probably in a modern city the man who can distinguish between a thrushs and a blackbirds song is the exception. It is not that we have not seen the birds. It is simply that we have not noticed them. We have been surrounded by birds all our lives, yet so feeble is our observation that many of us could not tell whether or not the chaffinch sings, or the colour of the cuckoo. We argue like small boys as to whether the cuckoo always sings as he flies or sometimes in the branches of a tree—whether [George] Chapman drew on his fa ncy or his knowledge of nature in the lines: When in the oaks green arms the cuckoo sings,And first delights men in the lovely springs. Ignorance And Discovery This ignorance, however, is not altogether miserable. Out of it we get the constant pleasure of discovery. Every fact of nature comes to us each spring, if only we are sufficiently ignorant, with the dew still on it. If we have lived half a lifetime without having ever even seen a cuckoo, and know it only as a wandering voice, we are all the more delighted at the spectacle of its runaway flight as it hurries from wood to wood conscious of its crimes, and at the way in which it halts hawk-like in the wind, its long tail quivering, before it dares descend on a hill-side of fir-trees where avenging presences may lurk. It would be absurd to pretend that the naturalist does not also find pleasure in observing the life of the birds, but his is a steady pleasure, almost a sober and plodding occupation, compared to the morning enthusiasm of the man who sees a cuckoo for the first time, and, behold, the world is made new.And, as to that, the happiness even of the naturalist depends in some me asure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer. He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes. He wishes with his own eyes to see the female cuckoo—rare spectacle!—as she lays her egg on the ground and takes it in her bill to the nest in which it is destined to breed infanticide. He would sit day after day with a field-glass against his eyes in order personally to endorse or refute the evidence suggesting that the cuckoo does lay on the ground and not in a nest. And, if he is so far fortunate as to discover this most secretive of birds in the very act of laying, there still remain for him other fields to conquer in a multitude of such disputed questions as whether the cuckoos egg is always of the same colour as the other eggs in the nest in which she abandons it. Assuredly the men of science have no reason as yet to weep over the ir lost ignorance. If they seem to know everything, it is only because you and I know almost nothing. There will always be a fortune of ignorance waiting for them under every fact they turn up. They will never know what song the Sirens sang to Ulysses any more than Sir Thomas Browne did. ​The Cuckoo Illustration If I have called in the cuckoo to illustrate the ordinary mans ignorance, it is not because I can speak with authority on that bird. It is simply because, passing the spring in a parish that seemed to have been invaded by all the cuckoos of Africa, I realised how exceedingly little I, or anybody else I met, knew about them. But your and my ignorance is not confined to cuckoos. It dabbles in all created things, from the sun and moon down to the names of the flowers. I once heard a clever lady asking whether the new moon always appears on the same day of the week. She added that perhaps it is better not to know, because, if one does not know when or in what part of the sky to expect it, its appearance is always a pleasant surprise. I fancy, however, the new moon always comes as a surprise even to those who are familiar with her time-tables. And it is the same with the coming in of spring and the waves of the flowers. We are not the less delighted to find an early primrose because we ar e sufficiently learned in the services of the year to look for it in March or April rather than in October. We know, again, that the blossom precedes and not succeeds the fruit of the apple tree, but this does not lessen our amazement at the beautiful holiday of a May orchard. ​The Pleasure Of Learning At the same time there is, perhaps, a special pleasure in re-learning the names of many of the flowers every spring. It is like re-reading a book that one has almost forgotten. Montaigne tells us that he had so bad a memory that he could always read an old book as though he had never read it before. I have myself a capricious and leaking memory. I can read Hamlet itself and The Pickwick Papers as though they were the work of new authors and had come wet from the press, so much of them fades between one reading and another. There are occasions on which a memory of this kind is an affliction, especially if one has a passion for accuracy. But this is only when life has an object beyond entertainment. In respect of mere luxury, it may be doubted whether there is not as much to be said for a bad memory as for a good one. With a bad memory one can go on reading Plutarch and The Arabian Nights all ones life. Little shreds and tags, it is probable, will stick even in the worst memory, just a s a succession of sheep cannot leap through a gap in a hedge without leaving a few wisps of wool on the thorns. But the sheep themselves escape, and the great authors leap in the same way out of an idle memory and leave little enough behind. ​The Pleasure Of Asking Questions And, if we can forget books, it is as easy to forget the months and what they showed us, when once they are gone. Just for the moment I tell myself that I know May like the multiplication table and could pass an examination on its flowers, their appearance and their order. Today I can affirm confidently that the buttercup has five petals. (Or is it six? I knew for certain last week.) But next year I shall probably have forgotten my arithmetic, and may have to learn once more not to confuse the buttercup with the celandine. Once more I shall see the world as a garden through the eyes of a stranger, my breath taken away with surprise by the painted fields. I shall find myself wondering whether it is science or ignorance which affirms that the swift (that black exaggeration of the swallow and yet a kinsman of the humming-bird) never settles even on a nest, but disappears at night into the heights of the air. I shall learn with fresh astonishment that it is the male, and not the female, cuckoo that sings. I may have to learn again not to call the campion a wild geranium, and to rediscover whether the ash comes early or late in the etiquette of the trees. A contemporary English novelist was once asked by a foreigner what was the most important crop in England. He answered without a moments hesitation: Rye. Ignorance so complete as this seems to me to be touched with magnificence; but the ignorance even of illiterate persons is enormous. The average man who uses a telephone could not explain how a telephone works. He takes for granted the telephone, the railway train, the linotype, the aeroplane, as our grandfathers took for granted the miracles of the gospels. He neither questions nor understands them. It is as though each of us investigated and made his own only a tiny circle of facts. Knowledge outside the days work is regarded by most men as a gewgaw. Still we are constantly in reaction against our ignorance. We rouse ourselves at intervals and speculate. We reve l in speculations about anything at all—about life after death or about such questions as that which is said to have puzzled Aristotle, why sneezing from noon to midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky. One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. One envies so inquisitive a man as [Benjamin] Jowett, who sat down to the study of physiology in his sixties. Most of us have lost the sense of our ignorance long before that age. We even become vain of our squirrels hoard of knowledge and regard increasing age itself as a school of omniscience. We forget that Socrates was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realised at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing. * Originally appearing in  The New Statesman, The Pleasures of Ignorance by Robert Lynd served as the lead essay in his collection  The Pleasures of Ignorance  (Riverside Press and Charles Scribners Sons, 1921)