1 Understanding Crime in Canadian Society: The Trial of the Murder of Alicia Lewandowski Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Professor Date 2 Understanding Crime in Canadian Society: The Trial of the Murder of Alicia Lewandowski Catherine McDonald writes about the case of the murder of twenty-five-year-old Alicia Lewandowski. The accused murderer is her former boyfriend, 39-year old Joseph Chang, who is accused of shooting her near her home in 2018. The case began the trial, and the trial will last for four weeks through the month of May. Joseph Chang and Alicia Lewandowski are said to have been in an on-and-off relationship for four years, one that is characterized by toxicity and drug abuse. Police reported that the couple did not have a recorded history of domestic violence. However, the strife in them did culminate in a murder, indicating that the relationship may have been more detrimental than beneficial. Alicia's mother, Mira, recalls the numerous instances of violence that her daughter spoke of where Joseph would dominate her and physically assault her. Additionally, she presents that Chang had threatened to kill Alicia hours before he killed her. Chang has pleaded not guilty, and the case is ongoing in trial. Currently, the case is in court, and the sessions are being conducted by a judge-only since the pandemic restricts full courts as would be done in previous years (McDonald, 2021). Murder is a serious crime, one that, once that has occurred, will undergo all the stages of the criminal justice system. Starting off with the police call made by Alicia herself, to the case currently being in the courts, it is expected that the case will also proceed into the corrections stage, should Chang be found guilty of the crime. The court has the jurisdiction to convict the correct people of crimes and prove that the accused is guilty of their crimes. Therefore, even if all evidence seems to lead up to Joseph Chang as the perpetrator of the murder, he has to be proven that he is guilty. 3 Critical Analysis of the Case-Based on the Theories of Criminal Activity Murder, or any other form of crime, is informed by an individual's existing behavior and thought process. According to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Trait Theory, behaviors are informed by three aspects of the person's personality: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id gives a person their identity, their instincts, including all things they have when they are born. The ego moderates our instincts (id) and the superego, which defines our societal values and morality. The premise of this theory is that people’s personalities are capable of predisposing them to crime. While the behavior and character traits of Joseph Chang have not been mentioned in this article, it has been mentioned that he was a drug deal. Despite being more than a decade older than Alicia, Chang is also taking up a relationship with a young girl battling drug addiction. According to Fishbein (2017), a person’s superego is responsible for their morality, and it would be responsible for a person’s choices in life. One would argue that Chang is detached from morality, for him to be a drug deal and isolate a recovering drug addict from her family members in the pretext of their relationship. The crime he has committed of murder is an extension of this moral detachment, which guides him to being disinterested in preserving Alicia's interests of beating an addiction to drugs. Criminals tend to feel a sense of fake superiority with the people around them, including their friends, family, and partners (Weaver, 2019). Based on the case of Alicia and Chang, it is evident that besides being older than her, Chang had a sense of power over Alicia, as her mother states that he was able to keep her away from the world for a long time while they were together. The trait theories of criminology explain his actions and the result 4 to murder in the perspective of power over his girlfriend, to the extent where he feels powerful enough to threaten her with murder if she does not leave his house. The cognitive theory is applied to criminology to explain the reasoning of a criminal in a bid to present what their ideologies are that lead them to commit the crimes they do. The environment people are in influences their ideologies and reasoning (Fishbein, 2017). Based on the cognitive theories of criminal behavior, a perpetrator of crimes does so due to a defect in their moral thinking processes and their mental development. Therefore, the cognitive theory can help to understand the behavior of a criminal. In this case, the choice of Chang to shoot and murder Alicia seems clearly informed by a bridge in moral thinking, influenced by the environment he is often in. The drug-dealing scene is characterized by violence, revenge, conflict, and rowdy behavior. Often, drug dealers will conflict with one another, and murder is not uncommon in the drug use environment. Such environments would directly influence the thinking of Chang. The moral development theory presents that often, people whose only reason for not breaking the law is to avoid punishment are likely to offend more than those who avoid crime for the common good. For most criminals, the community is not the main focus of their morality, but instead, they will make decisions based on what is good for them. Chang's first decision after murdering Alicia was to run away from the law to avoid capture, an indication that his primary thought after the crime was to preserve himself. His first thought is not to turn himself in as a moral approach but to run away to avoid punishment. Chang's moral judgment is very low, as is evidenced by his continued denial of committing the crime, despite the evidence that exists that points to him being the potential murderer of Alicia. 5 Biological traits and their explanation of crime seem to fit Joseph Chang in his physical appearance. As described by Natalie, Alicia's sister, John is a tall, thin and shy man. He was also manipulative, which points to him being intelligent enough to dictate how people around him think and act. The Biological trait theory presented by William Sheldon points to one's body type being capable of defining their tendency to commit crimes. Even though the appearance of someone's body is not enough to label them as a criminal, the positions of this theory are supported by other theories. For instance, Chang's profile as someone who is likely to commit a crime is supported by his biological features, the environment within which he is, and the resultant superego characteristics that he has. Chang’s behavior towards Alicia is aggressive, a habit that is explained by the biological trait theory in terms of trying to make up for his non-muscular body that is ‘preferred’ for men. The individual biological characteristics of Chang fit those predicted b Sheldon as indicators of a likely criminal or offender. Mira presents that he was an older man compared to his victim. The biological theories of criminology suggest that when there is an extremely wide age difference between partners where one partner murders the other, it is likely that the older partner will control the younger one. Such is the case of Chang and Alicia. Witnesses present that they did hear someone scream 'Is she dead' on the morning Alicia was shot, an indication that Chang, the likely killer, felt strong and physically powerful enough to start shooting with the intent of taking her life. The biological trait theory explains criminology from the perspective of the biological makeup of people, indicating that gender is also a key player in the occurrence of crime. Being a man, Chang fits this theory, as he is a man who was committed a crime against a woman he was in a relationship with. Even though the actual motive is yet to be uncovered, he does fit the theorists’ explanation of who is likely to offend. 6 Another theme or theoretical position that relates directly to the current case is that of the social ecology of victimization and the rates of the same in Canada. For example, women in Canada are more likely to be sexual assault victims and violent crimes. Similarly, 30% of these crimes (Rotenberg, 2019) occur in areas the victims are familiar with, such as Alicia being murdered a few meters from her mom's house. While her murder was not private, it occurred in a private parking lot, but in public. Her murder was committed in an area where people could see and witness the crime, indicating that the perpetrator is accustomed to such behavior of public aggression. Such is in line with the experiences of drug dealers, who are in constant fear of the law and in constant public and public wrangles with other dealers or their customers (Wells & Walsh, 2019). Alicia fits the projected victim profile, where she has been exposed to a violent fatal crime in public in an area she is familiar with and should feel safe. In this case, the police played a role in arriving at the crime scene, securing physical evidence, getting witnesses, and processing the arrest and investigation of the crime. The police played the major role of identifying the potential offender, bringing him in into the station, and investigating the crime to find prosecution evidence to present in court. The role of the media is critical in this case. Not only has print media taken up this story, but there are also numerous articles and videos of witness accounts on this case on the internet. Society's position on the murder of Alicia is that the offender deserves to be convicted, not just for the pain he has caused her family, but also for the insecure perception and unrest his actions brought upon the residential area. Conclusion The murder of Alicia Lewandowski fits numerous themes and theories of criminology. While such cases go unreported as presented in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), the media 7 played a major role in publicizing the events of the case, informing the ability to get prosecution witnesses. Based on the theoretical analysis of the case, it is possible to conclude that Chang is the most likely murderer and that the ruling may come up guilty and lead the case into the corrections stage. 8 References Fishbein, D. H. (2017). Biological perspectives in criminology (pp. 3-48). Routledge. McDonald C. (2021). Trial begins for GTA man accused of murdering 25-year-old girlfriend in Mississauga. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/7834160/trial-begins-manaccused-murder-girlfriend-mississauga/ Rotenberg, C. (2019). Police-reported violent crimes against young women and girls in Canada's Provincial North and Territories, 2017. Juristat: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1-52. https://www.proquest.com/openview/aceaf646b6eadc5b2bdd94f3f07fa8c0/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=44168 Weaver, B. (2019). Understanding desistance: a critical review of theories of desistance. Psychology, Crime & Law, 25(6), 641-658. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2018.1560444 Wells, J., & Walsh, A. (2019). Biosocial theories in criminology. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.245
