Criminal Justice

1. Classical criminology placed great emphasis on punishment being a deterrent to criminal behavior.  Is that the belief of the criminal justice system?  Do we punish known offenders to deter them or society from wanting to commit crime?  Or is there another purpose for punishment?  Beccaria and Bentham indicated the need for a balance between pleasure and pain.  Why not make all crimes punishable by death?  Would that not be the ultimate deterrent?

2. Analyze the listed ideas and discuss their relation to the United States Legal System.  Reflect on how this subject matter may relate to your life and the life of others as well as popular culture in general.

https://learn.vccs.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-109193464-dt-content-rid-119179078_2/xid-119179078_2

3. An eight-year-old child breaks in to an apartment.  While in the apartment the juvenile severely beats an infant in a crib.  The juvenile is apprehended and subjected to psychological examinations.  The conclusion of those examinations is that the juvenile is a lost cause.  What do you do with the juvenile?

4. Social structure theories place much of the criminal activity into the lower class.  If someone would say to you that crime only happens in the lower class, how would you answer?  Do all people in the lower class commit crime?

5. Analyze the listed ideas and discuss their relation to the United States Legal System.  Reflect on how this subject matter may relate to your life and the life of others as well as popular culture in general.

7. Is our society in general, and the criminal justice system specifically, operated under a social conflict perspective or a consensus perspective? Articulate why you feel this way?

8. Should communities with concealed carry permits have lower rates of robbery?  Would the potential of the victim being armed be enough to deter would-be offenders, especially in the situations of highway robbery?

9. Analyze the listed ideas and discuss their relation to the United States Legal System.  Reflect on how this subject matter may relate to your life and the life of others as well as popular culture in general.

https://learn.vccs.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-109193514-dt-content-rid-119179080_2/xid-119179080_2

10. Gary Potter’s assessment of dealing with organized crime and the attempt to eliminate it involves a reduction in the products of organized crime.  If we can reduce or eliminate the consumer’s demand of the products of organized crime, we can control organized crime.  Is this possible?  Many have made the same argument about prostitution.

11. The medical community has accepted a medical use for marijuana.  States have passed legislation legalizing marijuana for medical reasons.  Even in states with such laws, possession of marijuana is still a violation of federal law.  As part of the legalization debate, is it time for the federal government to rethink the controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act? Marijuana is a Schedule I drug with no currently accepted medical use in the United States.  Should the government reevaluate that listing?

12. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Reno v. ACLU that the Communications Decency Act was unconstitutional.  It violated First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.  The Act may have been wrong legally but should ethics be considered?  The act may be illegal but is it immoral?  Should ethics become a part of the decision when child victims are involved?

13. There is significant difference among the crime rates across the globe.  In light of globalization, could the United States learn from some of the other countries?  For example, the crime rate in Japan is much lower than that of the United States.

14.  Analyze the listed ideas and discuss their relation to the United States Legal System. Reflect on how this subject matter may relate to your life and the life of others as well as popular culture in general.