(Name of Professor)
Crim431 – Criminal Law
- Economic Sanction, their uses and effectiveness
An economic sanction is generally viewed as a domestic penalty imposed upon by one country to another often for political reasons. The sanction involves a restraint in the international trade of one country in order to enforce changes in that country’s policies not acceptable to other countries. It involves a deliberate governmental effort that seeks to withdraw financial and economic relations between countries. The purpose of economic sanction is to expressly show condemnation to a country’s policy and behavior. The United States government for instance defines the purpose of economic sanction as one of condemning a country’s objectionable behavior, impose a barrier for its productive economic flow or trade, to isolate its economic trade and industry and to coerce a change in that country’s objectionable behavior. Economic sanctions are often implemented against one country through various means such as cancelling governmental contracts, denial of foreign loans and giving a negative credit vote, curtailing import and export trade and the cancellation of foreign assistance of any form.
Researches made by the Peterson Institute for International Economics indicate that economic sanctions are most effective in implementing foreign policy goals whenever the country imposing the sanction is bigger and economically more powerful than the country where the sanction is imposed upon and that prior to the imposition of the sanction, the countries involved were able to establish a good economic ties with one another. Therefore, before imposing economic sanctions, considerations such as the status of the country imposing the sanction will affect the effectiveness of the implementation of the same.
- Intensive supervision
An intensive supervision involves a highly structured program of monitoring an individual who is under probation. Its main difference from a regular supervision is that the latter involves a more lenient schedule of reporting of an individual who is under probation with a probation officer. The number of times of the contacts made between the probationer and his probation officer is four times more than the one who is under a regular supervision. The main objective of an intensive supervision is to ensure that the probationer who is assigned to a particular community corrections is under the highest supervision by the probation officer. Specifically, the contact made between the probation officer and the probationer takes place at the latter’s home or to the place where he is employed.
- Determinate sentencing and indeterminate sentencing
The main difference between an indeterminate and determinate sentence involves the length of term of serving a sentence. In an indeterminate sentencing, no specific length of time on the prison term to be served by a convict is provided upon his conviction by a final judgment in contrast to the determinate sentencing where a fixed term of imprisonment is provided. The determinate sentence offers more advantages than the indeterminate sentence. In indeterminate sentence, the convict is specifically given the opportunity to determine their own sentence by showing good behavior while in prison that would warrant their earlier release from imprisonment. However, the determinate sentence does offer the same opportunity for convicts to obtain a parole term upon serving a portion of their term of imprisonment and upon showing good behavior that would convince they are no longer a threat to the public. What makes the latter to be more effective than the former is the fact that convicts are sanctioned with a more accurate term as punishment for their crimes that will serve as a deterrent of committing the same again. Judges are able to exercise a better decision further with determinate sentencing, helping them to exercise their duties and responsibilities more accurately when sentencing a convict. Lastly, the determinate sentencing is more effective because would be criminals are assured of getting a mandatory sentence that would help deter them from committing a crime.
- The Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program (JISP)
The Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program or JISP is under the Family Court Justice that offers an alternative detention for youth offenders and the disposition of cases involving crimes committed by juvenile offenders. The program is designed to determine the most appropriate sanction and the rehabilitation sentence to juvenile offenders. The JISP Regional Supervisor and its staff work closely with the family courts and the family members of juvenile offenders to ensure that the court imposed conditions for the offender is complied with high supervision. The program aims to help juvenile offenders to become more engaged in community services with positive reinforcements to help them become more productive citizens of the state. The program includes the imposition of curfew, attendance to school or work, the attendance to support groups especially when it involves substance abuse and mental rehabilitation of a juvenile offender and home detention as the case may be.
- Sex Offender Typologies
Sex offender typologies involve the descriptions of groups or sub-types of sex offenders. The typology is important in order to help determine the specific intervention necessary that works best for each type of sex offender which are classified as follows:
- Child sexual abuser
This involves sex offenders who sexually abuse children. The fixated type primarily targets children because they have a specific sexual desire for this population. The regressed type is one where the sexual desire is not mainly directed at children but they are inclined to be sexually interested in children as a means of coping or finding a substitute for a sexual partner.
- Rapists
This type of sex offender shows characteristic patterns and behavior to their female victims. The power rapist is a sexual offender who focuses the commission of sexual abuse in possessing and controlling their victims. The anger rapist is one whose sexual aggression is not centered to sexual gratification but rather is influenced by anger caused by conflicting intimate relationship with their victims. Lastly, the sadistic rapist derives excitement and pleasure in their sexual aggression acts. They are the more dangerous sub-type under this category because they like tormenting their victims and take the pleasure in watching their suffering and fears.
