criminal justice

This year, I have devoted my work life, and sometimes my personal life, to working with Seattle's Community Court. While the full details of the position are somewhat difficult to explain, the meat of the program is that it is an alternative to incarceration and connects defendants with the vital social services they have needed for so long.  Read More »

*long entry alert*

The doctrine of utilitarianism is based upon the principle that what does the most good for the most people is the right thing to do. We've been discussing this principle in my Freedom and Justice class and it's one that has always intrigued me.  Read More »

According to Garofalo, someone who has been influenced by alcohol may be lacking to common trait of pity. Lack of the pity trait allows one to forget to feel upset about the idea of injury to another person. They’ve grown numb to the idea, because there is no pity in them (Criminal Theory p 23).  Read More »

The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is put together from voluntary reporting by police agencies once an offense has been reported. The agencies report arrests made for the crimes, victim’s demographic status (age, sex, religion, race, marital status, etc), and the place that the crime took place. Expanded forms also show hate crime statistics and homicides against police.  Read More »

In an article about Jacob Ind, a juvenile charged to life for the murder of his parents, Mary Ellen Johnson describes the life of a juvenile detainee in the Colorado State Penitentiary. Ind is only allowed out of his cell for two hours a day to exercise under close supervision and is fed through holes in the door of his cell which is completely boxed in by concrete walls.  Read More »

In my Patterns of Criminal Behavior class I am studying about the subject of predatory vs affective behaviors in the violent criminal. The entire thing has me thinking; whose the most predatory, the criminal or the public after they find out about the crime???  Read More »

An Arkansas town has recently been so plagued by crimes (ranging from drive by shootings to home invasions), that the city has voted to place parts of the town on lock down. A 24 hour curfew has been put in place and anyone violating that curfew is subject to being stopped by police and, if they cannot sufficiently explain themselves, placed under arrest.  Read More »