The media plays a crucial role in society by reporting some of the heinous crimes that a number of individuals perpetrate. They might use the articles of criminal activities to inform, warn or report current stories. This essay will use and analyze two crime reports from The Guardian. These include an article on assault charges faced by a top entrepreneur in the country and the article of a notorious serial killer who has killed about 25 women over a span of two decades. Behavior theory and low self-control theory will explain the first article while mental illness and naturalization theories would explain the second article.
A Silicon Valley entrepreneur was recently sentenced to jail for one year after violating his probation sentence. The initial charge for the former CEO of Gravity4 was assault after the police argued that he had beat and kicked his girlfriend 117 times severely injuring her (Levin, 2016). The CEO plead guilty for the first offence and was put on probation for one year as it was his first offence. He was charged with more than 40 counts of assault and battery after a security footage was shown of the entrepreneur kicking his girlfriend repeatedly. However, most of these counts were dropped after the defendant’s lawyers argued that the security footage was obtained illegally and thus inadmissible in court.
The purpose of the story is to inform the public and to critique the behavior of the CEO who should be a role model in society. The story portrays Gurbaksh Chahal as a chronic offender who discriminates and mistreats his employees especially female employees. There are also reports of racial discrimination and severe counts of intimidation reported in the article. The story of how the former CEO kicked his girlfriend 117 times brings about the element of crime since the entrepreneur is seen as a repeat offender. Despite the lawyers’ successful efforts to acquit him from the first charges, the CEO repeated the offence by assaulting a second woman.
Criminal justice is portrayed in the article through an analysis of the court process. The article further tries to demystify some of the possible causes that might lead to Chahal’s behavior. It defines Chahal as an entrepreneur with a notorious temper who belittles and abuses women. The article elicits a variety of feelings and reactions such as anger. Despite the numerous counts of assault and battery being dropped, the former CEO was inhumane when he kicked his girlfriend more than 100 times as reported in the article. The girlfriend sustained injuries from the assault and the attempted suffocation. It is unacceptable for a person to assault their partners to such an extreme extent. Despite the video being present at the trial of the case, Chahal was not convicted since the tape was not admissible in court.
The sentence given for the conviction was a bit lenient and it raises the issue that wealthy businesspeople are able to manipulate justice after they commit crimes. The behavioral theory and theory of low self-control apply to this case. According to Thornberry (1997), the behavior theory purports that these criminal activities are earned and reinforced by a person in the course of their lives. Punishment is seen as one of the methods that can be effective in remedying criminal behavior. The theory of low self-control also applies to the entrepreneur since h is known to be short-tempered and violent even at his workplace.
The article of the serial killer highlights the story of Lonnie Franklin who is charged with killing nine women and a teenager. He is given a death sentence for the series of homicide in which he is implicated as the murderer. He was recently caught for a string of murders that the police failed to solve until traces of his DNA found on the women’s body indicted him (Carroll, 2016). The killings which spanned two decades were condemned by the trial judge as unacceptable under the laws of man and the laws of God (Carroll, 2016). The purpose of the story is to inform the public about the injustices orchestrated by one individual. The story explores the plight of various relatives whose family members were killed by the man. He is given the death sentence due to the numerous counts of murder that the accused faces.
The numerous counts of murder portray the element of crime in the story while the court procedure, the sentence and the evidence that the prosecution uses to indict the serial killer display the element of criminal justice. The article also evokes feelings of anger and dismay due to the high number of women that the accused person has murdered in the course of two decades. Statements and questions asked by the victims’ families in the story also raise sympathy for the families affected by the series of murder. Mental illness is one of the theories that can successfully portray the behavior of the serial killer. The neutralization theory may also apply in the story since the killer does not find his acts to be criminal. The convict does not show any form of sympathy for his wrongdoings signaling that he had rationalized his acts to be acceptable.
References
Carroll, R. (2016). 'Grim Sleeper' serial killer sentenced to death by Los Angeles judge. the Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/10/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-death-sentence-los-angeles-lonnie-franklin
Levin, S. (2016). Silicon Valley CEO who allegedly kicked girlfriend 117 times gets one year in jail. the Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/12/gurbaksh-chahal-silicon-valley-domestic-assault-sentence
Thornberry, T. (Ed.). (1997). Developmental theories of crime and delinquency (Vol. 7). Transaction Publishers.
