Crime and Punishment
Law and Order
Crime and Punishment: The American Penal System
Session 3
Deacon Edward P. Munz
What We Will Cover
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Types of crime and types of criminal
Who is in prison and why?
Social Contract Theory
California Crime Project (Assignment)
The death penalty
“The Prisoner’s Dilemma”
Before We Begin
What is your response to these questions?
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People in prison deserve to be there
The threat of prison helps prevent crime
Generally speaking, the criminal justice system in the U.S. is
fair and treats everyone equally
I would vote for a politician who promised to “get tough on
crime”
My view on criminals is simple: Lock them up and throw away
the key
Prisons or capital punishment are the only realistic ways to
deal with wrongdoers
If I were an employer, I would not hire someone who had
spent time in jail
I personally know someone who is, or has been in a prison
All accused people have the same access to a fair and
impartial defense.
Social Justice and Criminal Justice
Types of Crime
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Social Justice = Discrimination and unjust social structures
Criminal Justice = Treatment of people in the judicial system
White-collar Crime = Embezzlement, Fraud
Blue-collar Crime = Rape, Murder, Burglary
Crimes against People = Assault, Murder, D.U.I.
Crimes against Property = Crimes against Business.
What are the most common crimes?
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What is your stereotype of a criminal? (Be Specific)
The most common crimes may not be committed by those
who fit your stereotype
One crime kills more than all other crimes combined
What is your stereotype of one convicted of D.U.I.
Most costly crime against property
Fraud and Embezzlement (treated less harshly)
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Making bail, quality legal services, company attorneys
Enron/Tyco – AIG/Stanley-Morgan. What harm resulted?
Who is in Prison and Why?
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Vast majority of prisoners are those with “invisible
disabilities”
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Poor
Undereducated/Uneducated
Mentally ill
Member of a minority group
Under represented
Unstable family backgrounds
Repeated failures in school
Lack job skills or no record of long-term employment.
National Statistics for Types of Crime
Breakdown of Violent Crime by Race
Table 40. Personal crimes of violence, 2003:
Percent distribution of single-offender victimizations,
by type of crime and perceived race of offender
Percent of single-offender victimizations
Perceived race of offender
Type of crime
Number of
single-offender
victimizations Total
White
Black
Other
Crimes of violence
4,076,810
100 %
63.0 %
21.3 %
12.6 %
3.1 %
Robbery
Completed/property taken
With injury
Without injury
Attempted to take property
With injury
Without injury
Assault
Aggravated
Simple
288,770
160,740
68,220
92,520
128,020
26,790 *
101,220
3,618,690
764,700
2,853,980
100
100
100
100
100
100 *
100
100
100
100
40.8
28.8
28.8 *
28.9 *
55.8
59.1 *
54.9
65.4
58.0
67.4
39.5
49.5
55.0
45.5
26.8
40.9 *
23.1 *
19.7
22.6
18.9
15.2
17.5 *
16.3 *
18.5 *
12.4 *
0.0 *
15.6 *
12.0
15.3
11.1
4.5 *
4.1 *
0.0 *
7.1 *
5.1 *
0.0 *
6.4 *
2.9
4.1 *
2.6
Note: Detail may not add to total shown because of rounding.
*Estimate is based on about 10 or fewer sample cases.
(a) Includes verbal threats of rape and threats of sexual assault.
Not known
and not
available
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/corr2.htm
Plea Bargaining: The Process
Plea bargaining is a process whereby
someone accused of a crime pleads guilty
to the charge or to a lesser crime in
exchange for a recommendation of a lighter
sentence than the one usually given for the
offense. In our overworked judicial system,
this might be a reasonable choice.
Consider the following …
A person unable to raise bail is accused of a crime and
incarcerated. He is later told that a court date will not be
available for perhaps a year; but if he pleads guilty, he can
get off with a sentence of 6 months with time served. The
accused person, guilty or not, might reasonably choose
plea bargaining for the shorter sentence than spend an
additional 6 months or so just awaiting trial. Such a
scenario may sound wrong, but in fact it represents the
norm in many local prisons. Nationwide, over 50% of
county jail inmates are simply awaiting trial, presumably
“innocent” but unable to raise bail or hasten a court date.
“The Farm:
Life Inside Angola State Prison”
Thomas Hobbes
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(17th Century)
Most people don’t act ethically
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Egoism - I am Number 1 & you don’t count
Natural Law & Virtue Ethics too lofty
State of Nature = Selfishness/Greed
Too much wealth, power, security? Never
State of nature - how person’s behave without law
Wealth, power, security are limited commodities
State of nature is not peaceable and harmonious.
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The State of Nature …
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People are naturally competitive
All pretty evenly matched, but live in fear
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“I better kill you before you kill me”
Strongest in society also fearful of attack
So… attack the other or retreat into hiding
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No commerce, no culture, no knowledge, no arts,
only continual fear of violent death!
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(Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher – 1950)
(Time for a Game – Groups of 3) HOLD!
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Conflict between “A” and “B”
What is best interest for “A” is worst for “B”
2nd best option for both is to cooperate
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“A” and “B” cannot trust each other enough to
cooperate - too risky.
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Characteristics of Law:
5 Characteristics to Consider
1)
Law provides basis for good order
within society.
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Good order is the aim of laws
Laws free AND restrict us
Law tries to preserve “the common good” in 3
ways:
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Respect for the person
Social wellbeing and development of group/society
Peace.
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Characteristics of Law
2)
Laws protect welfare / rights of individual
members of a community
 Without laws powerless have no protection against
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powerful
Good laws balance concern for common good with
concern for individual rights / welfare
 Right to privacy vs. society’s right for info. to serve the
common good
 Right to firearms (individual freedom) vs. public concern
for safety
 Right to smoke in public places vs. public right to
healthy air.
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Characteristics of Law
3)
Laws usually minimum requirements of
community’s members
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Paying taxes is minimum of good citizenship
Attending class is minimum requirement of a
student
Laws do not specify everything required.
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Characteristics of Law
4) Laws typically stated in negative terms
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“Do not kill”
“Do not cheat on tests”
“Do not arrive late for class”
“Do not throw food in the cafeteria”
“Do not exceed the speed limit”
Laws do not usually guide us in what we should do.
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Characteristics of Law
5) Laws reveal what society considers
important
 Laws against shoplifting = concern for private
property
 Recycling laws = concern for the environment
 Traffic laws = how society protects its citizens from
harm.
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The California Project
Presentations Begin as Agreed!
Death Penalty: Arbitrary & Fallible
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ARBITRARY: 1 in 100 convicted murderers
sentenced to death
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Half overturned
FALLIBLE: Innocent people executed
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Since 1973 = 139 sentenced to death – found
innocent/released, 23 executed.
Death Penalty: Racist, Sexist, Classist
 RACIST:
Black kills White? 11 times more
likely to die than if a White kills Black
 SEXIST:
1980-1999, 1% women on death
row. 15% of homicides committed by women
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CLASSIST: 90% of death row inmates
cannot afford an attorney.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976#defend
The Death Penalty …
Not effective in crime prevention
Must be consistent and prompt (appeals)
States with death penalty do not have lower capital
crime rate
During the 1980’s
Death Penalty States 7.5 homicides/100,000
Abolition States
7.4 homicides/100,000
2008 Homicides/100,000 D.P. States
5.2
2008 Homicides/100,000 N.D.P. States 3.3
2008 Homicides/100,000 Overall Rate 5.4
Currently there are 3,279 on death row.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence/page.do?id=1101085
International Abolition: in 1977,16 countries had abolished the death penalty
for all crimes. By 1988, 35 countries had done so and another 18 had
abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes like treason.
As of the end of 2009, 139 countries were abolitionist.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-trends/page.do?id=1011572
Execution of Minors: Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia and until recently, NH allowed execution of minors.
 Costs
more than life without parole
 Single death penalty case (from arrest to execution)
ranges from $1.0 million to $3.0 million per case
 Life imprisonment averages $500,000 including
incarceration costs
 CA: D.P = $137.0 million vs. $11.5 million N.D.P. (California
Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, July 2008)
 Most
Americans oppose the death penalty if convicted
murderers were sentenced to life without parole and
were required to make financial some kind of restitution
to victims and/or society.
Death Penalty Costs …
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/globalrights/dp/dp-cost.html
TRIAL
Capital
Defense Defense Prosec.
Attorney Invest. Attorney
Prosec.
Invest.
Court
LA Jail
Prison
TOTAL
Cost LA
$136,875
$385,998 $ 48,523
$771,996 $ 48,523
$506,408
+
$2,087,926
$189,603
TRIAL
Regular $160,058 $ 5,105
$320,116
$ 5,105
$ 82,188
$ 54,750
$1,448,935
+
$821,613
Current Studies:
A study done by the Sacramento Bee argued that California
would save $90 million per year if it were to abolish the death
penalty.
The average cost of a capital trial in Texas is $2.3 million-three times the cost to incarcerate an individual for 40 years.
The average cost of a capital trial in Florida is $3.2 million.
Capital Punishment:
Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It?
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1972 U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty
unconstitutional.
1976 U.S. Supreme Court did not disallow new state laws
making it legal.
39 states made capital punishment legal
3,279 persons on death row, 1,193 executed since 1976
Average stay on death row = 10 years, 6 months
Capital punishment does not make society safer
Capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime
Capital punishment is more expensive than life.
Capital Punishment:
Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It?
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Church position - Death penalty OK when “NO OTHER
MEANS OF DEFENDING SOCIETY IS POSSIBLE”
Deterrence means that punishment or fear of punishment
can prevent crime
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Particular Deterrence = An individual who committed a crime in the
past is deterred from committing future crimes. Death penalty passes
the test for Particular Deterrence
General Deterrence = Fear of punishment inhibits people in general
from committing certain crimes … No conclusive evidence here!
Capital Punishment:
Are We a Better Society With It … Or Without It?
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Rehabilitation - One of the major goals of the prison system
Penitentiary - A place to do penance. To see and understand one’s
errors and return to society as a reformed person. Prisons have a
poor record here
More often prisons make criminals feel more victimized, angry, more
anti-social
Retribution - Restoring order through punishment, eye-for-eye
Restorative Justice - Restore as close as possible to before crime
Revenge - Goal is to inflict equal or greater harm (hatred, revenge).
Capital Punishment:
Why it Should Be Abolished …
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Sends a message that we can break cycle of violence
We need not take life for life, there is a higher means of
punishment
Statement of our belief in unique worth and dignity of each
person
God is the author of life
Example of Jesus - practiced forgiveness of injustice
Death penalty provides only an illusion of safety and resolution.
Assignment: Position Paper
Please Follow
“Guidelines For Success”
What is the most compelling reason to abolish the death
penalty?
Include in your development the Catholic moral philosophy on the
death penalty.
Must include two outside, credible sources from my website
Questions
Comments
Concerns
Problems
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“Dead Man Walking”