The Law And Criminality

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

"While the term criminality is used often in criminology to refer to actual criminal characteristics of a person (i.e., propensity evidence such as past criminal record, etc.), we use the term criminality to refer to the extent to which a person’s appearance triggers stereotypes about criminals.  Research on facial stereotypes and their effects on social and cognitive processes has been predominantly limited to the attractive and baby face stereotypes while we know that people are quick to make attributions based on appearance little work to date has evaluated the stereotype of criminality. Stereotypes of criminal appearance are important not simply for broadening our understanding of the link between face perception and trait attributions, but for the practical applications in the legal system.  Eyewitnesses, lawyers, judges, jurors and police officers make decisions directly related to interactions with individuals who may or may not have committed a crime.  Criminal stereotypes introduce a bias into these processes that negatively affect people’s lives and affect the course of law enforcement activities."

The history of punishments began in the eighteenth century B.C; the first recognized death penalty was in these ages. Death sentences were carried out by such means as beheading, boiling in oil, burying alive, burning, crucifixion, disembowelment, drowning, flaying alive, hanging, impalement, stoning, strangling, being thrown with wild animals and quartering (being torn apart). But this is the twentieth century and things are very different in the United States. There are pros and cons of this there are two common arguments in support of capital punishment: that of deterrence and that of retribution. According to Gallup, most Americans believe that the death penalty is a deterrent to homicide, which helps them justify their support for capital punishment. Other Gallup research suggests that most Americans would not support capital punishment if it did not deter murder Does capital punishment deter violent crimes? In other words, will a potential murderer consider the possibility that they might be convicted and face the death penalty before committing a murder? 

The answer appears to be "no." 

Social scientists have mined empirical data searching for the definitive answer on deterrence since the early 20th century. And "most deterrence research has found that the death penalty has virtually the same effect as long imprisonment on homicide rates. Data on murder rates seem to discredit the deterrence theory as well. The region of the county with the greatest number of executions -- the South -- is the region with the largest murder rates. For 2007, the average murder rate in states with the death penalty was 5.5; the average murder rate of the 14 states without the death penalty was 3.1. Serious punishments exist for serious crimes. The most serious crimes in our nation are considered felonies. The three most serious types of felonies are murder, manslaughter, and assault and battery.

 

Murder

 

While to many of us, murder may be the act of taking another’s life, in law, murder is defined as the intentional act of killing someone. In this sense, intention involves malice aforethought; that is, a person has time to consider his or her actions and acts with the desire to take another human being’s life. Under this definition, a person must be sane to commit murder, have no legal authority or excuse to kill someone, and act deliberately. Murder is often classified as first degree or second degree. The definitions of each degree vary slightly according to each country, but generally, first-degree murder is considered any murder that was occurred under special circumstances. Special circumstances include things like the murder of a police officer, judge or witness to a crime. Whilst second-degree murder is thought about, meditated so that Non pre-meditated murder may include killing someone in that the moment if you knew that your actions would take the life of another and just decide to do it then that specific moment. No matter what degree of murder a person is charged with, the prosecution must prove that there was a reason for a person to be convicted of murder. While it may seem obvious that the person who committed a murder is the one who will be charged with murder; however, it is important to be aware that, in some countries, individuals who were involved in crime with a partner who killed someone may also be charged with murder because they were also part of the violent act that took another persons life. In addition, a person does not need to be killed instantly for an individual to be charged with murder. Rather, a person must die within a year of the attack for a death to be considered a murder. Sentencing for murder varies from country to country, but murder is generally punishable by life in prison or the death sentence. For both degrees you get a life sentence in prison but usually second-degree murder convictions generally have a shorter incarceration time before they are eligible for parole while first-degree murder convictions are imprisoned for life without eligibility for parole.

 

 

 

Manslaughter

 

Manslaughter is very different from murder, even though both crimes involve the taking of another human life. Where murder has elements of intentionality and reasons for it, manslaughter does not have any intention what so ever and is generally classified in two levels: voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter occurs in the ‘heat of passion’. And the reason this is considered not to be a murder is because of the persons state of mind, they might not be thinking properly because of all the anger that has built up in that very situation, when a person loses control of themselves in is not considered as murder because of the situation him or her was put in. Murder is intentional, manslaughter, even if it is voluntary, is not. Voluntary manslaughter is provoked killing, not pre-meditated killing. Involuntary manslaughter occurs when there is no intention to kill but someone dies as a result of someone else’s negligence or recklessness.

 

"Assault and battery is a combination of two crimes: threat and actual beating. A person may be charged with assault or battery individually or assault and battery combined. Depending on the severity of the crime, an assault and battery charge may be a misdemeanor or a felony and the punishment for such activity is based on the severity of the crime.’’

 

Assault

Assault occurs when there is a threat or actual attempt to harm another individual. As such, assault is both a civil and criminal wrong. This means that a person who commits assault may be charged and tried for the crime and be sued for damages by their victim. Assault may or may not result in physical contact,

 

Battery

 

Battery is an intentional physical action against another individual. It is the act of striking another human being with an intention to harm them; criminal offense allowing a victim to recover damages at the same time a suspect faces criminal charges Harsh and long sentences for assault and battery exist when these crimes are carried out against vulnerable people groups such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly.

 

"The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection under the law. Once in use everywhere and for a wide variety of crimes, the death penalty today is generally forbidden by law and widely abandoned in practice, in most countries outside the United States. Indeed, the unmistakable worldwide trend is toward the complete abolition of capital punishment. In the United States, opposition to the death penalty is widespread and diverse. Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant religious groups are among the more than 50 national organizations that constitute the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty."