Essays on Culpability

Reconstructing a crime scene incorporates three specific environments: crime scene, Investigation, and court (Lee & Howard, 2011). There are inherent limitations in a reconstruction and imitations are tied to each of these three environments. It is important for a reconstructionist to not go beyond what he knows, but at the same time be cognizant of the fact that the very thing that can neither be defined nor acknowledged may be more powerful than what can be defined (Lee & Howard, 2011).It is also paramount that an appropriate methodology is employed that suitably corroborates the process (Lee & Howard, 2011). The process ...

The discussion, whether free will exists, persists in philosophy for centuries. Numerous arguments were put forth by both determinists and libertarians. And while the aim of these arguments is to prove either of the viewpoints, the question of why exactly should either of them be proven and their practical consequences are not less important. In this paper, I will argue against the existence of free will in a libertarian sense, explain the consequences of libertarian and determinist positions and tell why I found this topic particularly interesting. The debates around free will mostly address the free will which is ...

Theoretical Essay

In the world of law punishment (alternative name – penalty) is considered as an “infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for misdeed (i.e., the transgression of a law or command).”1 Penalty may take different forms and vary from forced labor, flogging, body mutilation, fines and imprisonment to the capital punishment. The punishment has been very retributive, mostly in the form of revenge, during the pre-modern ages and usually the prosecution was executed by the victims or their families. There was not any proportion between the quantity and quality of wrongdoing and the punishment. The ...

Issue

In examining the criminal liability of the four persons about the death of Betty, several issues should be focused on approval or disapproval of any liability. In the case of Naveed, there is a need to prove whether he committed an actus reus in his threatening Betty. In the case of Peter, we need to establish under which circumstances and criminal law he might have been the causal link in the shooting, injury and eventual death of Betty. Also, there is a need to prove whether there was any state of mind with criminal liability and intent to cause ...

03 June 2, 2016

Documenting and investigating a crime scene are important procedures to investigating a crime, and assigning culpability as an investigator documents, recognizes, and collects physical evidence as the scene of a crime. In order for a crime to be solved, and culpability assigned it is critical for the investigator to reconstruct the scene by putting each piece of evidence together in order to paint a picture of what happened at the scene of the crime. The principle that guides the crime investigation process is called Locard's Exchange Principle. This principle suggests that something physical is always ...

Introduction

No form of punishment engenders more controversy than the death penalty. Although capital punishment has been used since ancient times, its modern utilization is repeatedly called into question. The United States stands alone among Western world counterparts in its continued use of the death penalty. Among the international community, the general trend largely reflects a discontinuance of capital punishment. For instance, member states of the European Union have all abolished the death penalty (Shin, 2007, p. 505). Given the overwhelming number of nations that have since abolished the death penalty, it is somewhat surprising that the United States continues ...

There is a sharp distinction between active and passive euthanasia. The former is the voluntary act of ending life or “mercy killing” while the latter is the cessation of the activities used to prolong a patient’s life. There have been strong debates concerning the moral permissibility of the active euthanasia. In this essay, I will present the arguments put forth by Rachels and Callahan concerning the issue and argue that the active voluntary euthanasia is not morally permissible. In his justification of the active voluntary euthanasia, James Rachels stands that judging from moral grounds active and passive euthanasia ...

Introduction

Defamation is the publishing of a statement regarding a person’s reputation to the effect that the statement lowers the person in the estimation of right thinking members of the society. The offence is divided in two different torts; slander and Libel. The earlier distinction between the two indicated that libel involves publications made in printed form while slander is basically oral defamation. However, with recent technological advancement, the approach is that libel occurs when the defamatory statement is in permanent form while slander has to make statements which are not recorded or not in permanent form. In order ...

Ethical Arguments Against Capital Punishment

Morality can be defined as “The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.” (thefreedictionary).

The morality of capital punishment is an heavily contested issue and one that often polarises people’s views. However, in 2011 and in a leading civilised nation such as the U.S. it is arguable that there can be no circumstances in which sentencing a person to death is acceptable. America is known around the world as being a well-respected, leading democracy. The act of punishing people by death is an ancient one; it is also one that no longer has place in society.

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