Essays on Felonies

In the majority of states all crimes are divided into two groups: felonies and misdemeanors. The difference between these two groups is in seriousness of crimes. (Hasselm, 2011) If this is a felony, an accused person can get 1 year in prison, life imprisonment without parole or even the death penalty. If it is a misdemeanor, an accused person could be punished by less than 1 year or a year of imprisonment and/or fine. Crimes are not equal in weight. General public considers some of the crimes more severe than others. (Kappeler, 2014) The majority of people considers the ...

Question & Answer: Impact of Victim’s Statement

The current case that is worthy of discussion and analysis concerns the case, now referred to as, the "Stanford Swimmer" case. After midnight on January 18, 2015, Stanford student Brock Turner was caught in the act of assaulting an unconscious 23-year-old woman behind a dumpster while on campus. The corroboration of witnesses resulted in Turner's arrest and subsequent trial. He was charged with multiple felonies that could culminate into a 14 year prison sentence. At the trial, the victim had the opportunity to share her victim-impact statement. In total her statement was more than 7,000 words long and ...

Proposition 36 - Literature Review

Before 2000 The three strikes law commonly referred to as Proposition 36 has had a long history. It started in the year 1994 when the state passed Proposition 184, which allowed courts to convict a person from 25 years to lifetime if that person had two or more serious convictions for a violent felony in the past. It also qualified the courts to double a person’s penalty of a convict if had been convicted of a felony before (Farabee et al., 2004). The initial attitude was that it was mandatory in all qualifying cases. This attitude came to ...

Proposition 36 - Literature Review

Before 2000 The three strikes law commonly referred to as Proposition 36 has had a long history. It started in the year 1994 when the state passed Proposition 184, which allowed courts to convict a person from 25 years to lifetime if that person had two or more serious convictions for a violent felony in the past. It also qualified the courts to double a person’s penalty of a convict if had been convicted of a felony before. The initial attitude was that it was mandatory in all qualifying cases. This attitude came to change only in 1996 ...

In the court systems, various felonies are penalized following the court's guidelines. There are a variety of particulars that go into a sentencing pronouncement. An individual who commits a financial fraud may go to jail for a longer period, compared to someone who commits murder, as is the case of Bernard Madoff, who went to jail for 150 years for committing financial crime and Karla Homolka was sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder. It is, however, clear that an extensive range of verdicts are not necessarily rational to the victims or the scam culprits. This paper looks ...

Explain how the Constitution provides protection for treason and how today’s laws compare, citing example. Is the Constitution under Article III relevant in today's world? Section Three of the U.S. Constitution states that one can be charged with a treason offence when they wage war against the U.S., collaborate with its enemies, or gives them comfort and aid (Harbaugh, 2014). The constitution further provides a threshold that needs to be met for a person to be convicted of treason. Ideally, at least two witnesses must confess to overt treasonable acts or confessions made by the accused in an ...

Employment Application and Background Check Critique:

Solarworld Solarworld is a German-based company that has taken root in America as one of the foremost providers of solar panels. For a little over the past decade they have existed as one of the swiftest rising companies in the industry and have pushed forward in leaps and bounds to become one of the most influential businesses within the field of photovoltaic’s. Their employment policies are sound for the most part though there have been periods during which they have experienced a high rate of turnover in personnel. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that ...

In m any states, crimes are usually divided or broken down into two major categories of misdemeanors and felonies. The main difference based on this classification is usually in the form or type of punishment that can be meted out on the commission of either offense. Thus, it is the amount of jail time that an offender once convicted can be sentenced to serve in incarceration that forms the primary difference between these two categories of crimes. Dear client, please refer to the above subject. A misdemeanor is a crime that involves petty offences involving violations that are normally ...

Identify and describe the different categorization of crimes? How are crimes different than torts?

The common categorization of crimes includes treason, felonies and misdemeanors . Treason, which is rare, is one’s act against the state threatening its sovereignty and integrity. Felonies are serious offenses like murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, kidnapping, tax evasion etc. that attract several years of imprisonment and a heavy fine. Misdemeanors are less serious offenses, mostly punishable by fines or a brief stay in the jail. Some of the examples of misdemeanors include simple assault, gambling, prostitution etc. However, other simple offenses like traffic violations are not considered as misdemeanors and are generally considered as violations or infractions. Crimes can ...

Study

Abstract Juvenile transfer laws is one of the most controversial issue on the today’s criminal justice agenda of the United States of America. Thus, the policymakers vehemently argue that the possibility of being tried ‘as an adult’ is an effective general, specific and potential deterrent of juvenile crime. Enacted in the majority of the states, the juvenile transfer laws are thought to be an effective restraint against juvenile recidivism, an effective tool for rehabilitation of the young offenders and a solution, which protects the community against the most dangerous juvenile offenders. Yet, the several studies demonstrated that these ...

Introduction

Much debate has been around the income and bail bond system in the United States. There have been expressed concerns of inequality among detainees based on their wealth and possession. Criminal justice system in the United States is confronted with the increasing number of the incarcerated population. The focus of the paper will be on presenting the arguments why the bail bond systems do not work for low income defendants. The fairness of the criminal systems has been questioned based on the disproportionate affect the bail bond has on the poor detainees.

Bail bond system

Bail bond payment is a money payment ...

Of all wars to have been conducted by the USA, the war on drugs is the least promising, with government and law enforcement agencies fighting it in a losing battle. When American authorities got it going some 4 decades ago, it was doomed to be a losing war for a number of reasons, of which one is a historic precedent never taken into consideration. It is well-documented that the only lesson we ever learn from history is that we do not learn any lessons from it at all. However, what America should learn is that conventional tools of mandatory bans and restrictions imposed ...

One of the key essentials of a fair trial is availing legal representation to a defendant. This is embodied in the right to counsel. Basically, this right enables a defendant during proceedings to be aided by a lawyer at their own expense, or if unable to pay for one, at the state’s expense. The basis for this right is that a defendant may be greatly disadvantaged, especially in criminal proceedings, if they are deprived of legal representation. This right enables the defendant, through counsel, to take part actively in the pre-trial process and also the trial itself.

This right is so fundamental ...

Causes of Wrongful Conviction

Law leading scholars argue that the courts are the most unexamined public institutions in the world. According to Gould and Leo (2010), nobody keeps track of the cases that are prosecuted on the court or the types of convictions made for whatever reason. This may be responsible to the rising number of wrongful convictions in the court system. Several years ago, the U. S Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated that was satisfied with the rate at which innocent people were convicted of felonies. The rate was at 0.27% (Bach 2010). He debated that, for the justice system to ...

Drug courts play a vital role in the criminal justice system. The war against drug, which had started some decades back, is one of the causes of the ballooning of prison population in the US. Today, the US has the most populated prison system in the world (Hale et al 2013, p. 517). Drug courts can whittle down prison population and cut down recidivism rates. They add a facet to the criminal justice system – one that does not only judge and incarcerate, but help in restoring a person as a good member of society. The help that drug courts offer, thus, includes ...

Introduction

This paper explains how the courts in California are organized, particularly the Superior Courts system, and describes the method of determining a defendant’s bail, as well as considering the fairness of that method.

Description of the Superior Court System

The California Supreme Court is the highest court, supported by appeal courts and by a system of superior courts in each county, which have jurisdiction over both civil and criminal cases. In 2001, all 58 California counties merged their municipal and superior courts into a unified superior court per county. Overall, there are 400 superior courts locations, overseen by almost 1,500 judges. The superior courts also hear ...

What do you make of a system that locks people up for profit?

Incarceration is a sensitive issue in the criminal justice system of all states, especially in this era when the criminologists are championing for rehabilitation. Still, Louisiana is recognized as the prison capital of the world. The motivation behind this fact is quite obvious – profit. In the year 1990 a federal court ordered Louisiana to do something about the rising prison population – either to employ policies that would ensure decongestion or to build more prisons (Chang, 2012). The latter option appeared more appealing to the unscrupulous leaders that subordinated wider interest to personal gains. In my opinion, it is against ...

There has been an ineffective penal system for punishing criminals. The government should aim at getting tough on criminal activities to ensure that the society becomes safe and comfortable in a criminal free environment. However, there has been conflicting influences in the penal system that has proved to be inefficient in protecting people from crime. Law makers have tried to raise issues to solve the problems within the penal system but with less success because the criminals have always been given less punishments. For a penal system to be effective, it should focus on reasonable principles and should serve the purpose ...

Now it is time to give careful consideration to the nature of corruption that is the case in the USA. Pepys (2) notes that corruption within the system of justice may be defined as the use of management reserves or public authority to one’s own advantage or for personal gains resulting in an inappropriate legal protection of citizens and delivery of judicial services. In a broad context, the system of justice embraces judges, police, prosecutors, public defenders, court personnel, private bar, and a variety of court decision enforcement agencies, such as, for example, penal institutions. Whatever the variety of justice ...

Individuals with high social status are the associated with white-collar crimes, and this occurs especially in the context of their jobs. The legislature is reluctant in taking actions against these crimes since they least prosecute and investigate these crimes. The legislature seems to neglect the cases as the public gets less concerned with these types of crime. Due to ignorance in prosecution, the U.S congress formulated laws and statutes in the 1980s. The legislature has a challenge when it comes to dealing with corruption, frauds and corruption on the officials (Dorpat, 2007). The crimes against persons involve murder, rape, ...

Explain why individual rights and public order perspectives are such contentious issues in contemporary American Society

Individual rights are such a contentious issue in contemporary American Society because some laws cannot be interpreted in the same ways for all the cases. Individual rights have been outlined by the Founders and written in the Bill of Rights. The Founders believed that an individual has a right for freedom of speech, religion, press, as well as the freedom for unreasonable searches. Besides, an individual has social, political and economic freedoms. Nowadays, there are many cases, in which the individual rights have been violated (for example the cases of unreasonable searches and seizures). However, the trial did not take into ...

Scenario One

Sebastian commits this offense when he dishonestly buys business class tickets with the intention to sell them. Evidence of further dishonesty is illustrated by his travelling in economy class while the company records indicate that he travelled in the business class. Even though no harm results to the company from his actions, the case of Attorney General’s Reference (No. 3 of 2003) held that the key determinant in the offense is the conduct, not the results. Accordingly, Sebastian has committed the offense regardless of the outcome of his conduct. It is however imperative to note that it ...

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of the legalization of prostitution. It presents two major arguments in favor of and against making the trade a legal occupation. The proponents of legalization argue that legality is directly responsible for the reduction of violence, human trafficking, and the use of children in the sex market. The adversaries of legalization are of the opinion that legality contributes to the higher rates of violence, women trafficking, and child sexual exploitation. Multiple examples observed in countries like the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, and Sweden that have either made the trade legal or declared it outlawed ...

As highlighted by the United States penal code, murder is classified as a crime. Whether it is in the first degree, second or third, it is still a crime that is punishable by law. In addition, armed robbery is a felony that is considered serious in nature because it poses a danger to the victims. In addition, murder can be classified into instigated murder under manslaughter. Criminal acts are acts that are against the law. The criminal act in question is a case that involved the murder of two store owners during a robbery incident in a Chicago store. The robbery was done by a man called ...

Abstract

The project deals with the problem of juvenile justice and court punishment provided for juvenile offenders. The research gives a full coverage to the reasons that motivate the youth to commit crimes. There are various types of offenses and punishment considered based on the information provided by the finest law experts who represent international organizations and the collegiums of lawyers, addressing the problem of juvenile justice and the ways of overcoming the issue in their respective reports, reviews, and programs. Key words: juvenile justice, crime, offender, court, delinquency Adult delinquency is high enough while that of youth is ...

Three Strikes: Is it effective?

Introduction California’s draconian imprisonment law, the “Three Strikes” law, was the completion of a decade long movement of adopting “get tough on crime” laws. However, though these types of laws have resulted in a 300 percent increase in the prison population in the United States, many Americans felt more prone to violence than the decade before the enactment of the law (Vitello, 1997, p. 395). Washington was the first state to enact these laws in 1993, so called because of the manner of their operation for incarcerating anyone convicted of three separate cases of violent offenses to serve a ...

The paper reviews state criminal statuses from the legal information institute. The paper seeks to compare range of punishments for both misdemeanor and felony offences. The paper tries to explain the punishments attached to misdemeanor crimes. Finally, the paper identifies two first-degree felony offences and the punishments for each. - INTERNET RESOURCES USED I used the legal information institute (LII) on an open access to law. I also used the journal of Racial and Ethnic Disparities and criminal Justice in USA. 2. MISDEMEANOR CRIMES The LII identified misdemeanor as crimes as those petty crimes with ...

Criminal charges are classified in two categories; felonies and misdemeanors. In reference to Laws (2006) misdemeanors are crimes that are less serious than felonies and they carry punishments that are less severe. A misdemeanor, according to Laws (2006) is punished by less that one year arrest in a jail facility. On the other hand, felonies are more serious offenses with imprisonment ranging from one year to life sentence. Notably, all the cases that Mary Jones had previously been charged i.e. resisting arrest, public drunkenness, possession of uncontrolled substance, prostitution and felony larceny are misdemeanor. In this case study, we focus ...

There are numerous expressions of crime in the United States. However, throughout the jurisprudence a categorization of felonies and misdemeanors is general. Under this categorization, the former is usually reserved for serious crimes while the latter often refers to petty crimes. According to the Uniform Crime Reports, there is a prevalence of some felonies across the US most notably drug abuse violations, property crimes, driving while intoxicated, larceny and assaults. Many theories have been advanced in the area of criminology in an attempt to understand the compelling factors of criminality and its existence. But one grain seems to be common ...

Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment is the highest form of punishment wherein the law offender who was accused of committing grave offense will be convicted and faces death as a penalty of the crime. Many convicted felonies are on death row and just waiting for their sentence to be executed. The Capital Punishment is legal in some of the States and not being implemented country-wide. The capital punishment, also known as death penalty, has different execution method as well as crimes subject for each State, which have also been changed through the years. The capital punishment in The United States has some degree ...

Introduction

Asked to stereotype a criminal, many people are likely to go for a certain gender (usually male), a certain social class (usually low class), a certain race (usually black) and a certain age (usually under the age of 30). In the early days, courtrooms exclusively comprised of white decision makers. Today there is more racial diversity in the composition of judicial benches. In spite of this progress; race, class and gender still play a critical role in numerous criminal justice outcomes. The role of these issues usually comes in handy in the sentencing of convicts. More than 40 studies have been conducted in regard to ...

Introduction and Description

The three strikes law is coined from the game of baseball, where the batter is only allowed two strikes before he strikes out for the third. Three strikes laws are a group of statutes that are enacted by various states in the United States mandating state courts to inflict harsher punishments by issuing more punitive sentences for individuals who are convicted of perpetrating three or more staid criminal offenses. Most jurisdictions consider crimes at the felony level only as serious offenses. As such, the three strikes laws are applied to individuals convicted thrice or more for committing felonies (Pollock, 2012). ...

Introduction

Humans are peculiar creatures endowed with ability to think, reason, socialize, and make rational and logical decisions. This aspect differentiates human beings from other animal species living in the universe. Unlike animals, human beings have formulated and enacted laws that guide their daily activities. Nations across the globe have formulated and enacted criminal laws through the act of parliament with the aim of maintaining status quo and social order (Engdahl, 2010). Although criminal laws differ across nations, they remain effective in deterring crime; promote coexistence and unity among the people. Under the provisions of the constitution, members of the ...

Introduction

Apparently, animal cruelty is among the most prominent phenomena in the state of Texas. Currently, most human services agencies as well as other animal rights bodies have invested much effort into having the law configured in such a way that it addresses the relationship between the perpetrators of such heinous crimes and the enforcers of the laws. In the recent years, the legislation of the Texan society has been modified in such a style that all the people that are caught or prosecuted for the felony of maltreating animals are held answerable for the same. Unfortunately, the legislation is held in ...

DNA Testing

The idea of holding a national DNA database is not a new phenomenon since it has been debated within the last two decades in criminal justice circles. Research affirms that the first national DNA database commonly abbreviated as NDNAD was established in 1995 in the United States (Gerstenfeld, 2006). Since then, many countries across the globe have taken the initiative of establishing their national DNA database. In 1997, the French government decided to establish a national DNA database known as FNAEG: the second in the world. There are various reasons that compel governments to establish national DNA databases. For example, the government ...

Felony is a legal term. When anyone breaks the lawful statutes of a country, then he may be termed as a criminal punished. We have different statutes for different crimes and to help our law enforcers, for example, a burglary or a homicide are both different crimes. Any crime, which calls for a punishment of confinement or imprisonment for a year and more, is called a felony whereas if the sentence is confinement for a period less than a year, then the offence is a misdemeanor. Hence, major crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, rape etc. are felonies, although the period of punishment or incarceration period may differ from case to ...

Described variously as the dire lack of deep emotions, psychopathy is a personality disorder found in various sections of society. The belief that Psychopaths are only found behind prison walls and rehabilitation institutions is a serious misconception. On the contrary, finding a Psychopath in the boardroom is equally probable as finding the Psychopath in a state penitentiary (Wynn 259). The major explanation behind this observation is the fact that every person is obsessed with power, domination and control. Such desires are likely to make an individual lose the empathic considerations an average human being is expected to have for their neighbors and associates. ...

Abstract

“Sexual predator” refers to the most dangerous sex offenders. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a sexual predator is any person 17 years of age or older who commits any of a number of sexually violent offenses that are prohibited under the Texas Penal Code.

Keywords: sexual predator, sexually violent offense

Sexual Predators Under Texas Law The public image of a “sexual predator” is that of a man who attacks strangers, perhaps stalks his victims, is a multiple offender, and commits brutal crimes. The law takes a broader view. There is no section under the Texas Penal Code that specifically codifies “sexual ...

The three components of the criminal justice system are the police department, the courts, and the department of corrections. The police maintain public order and investigate crimes, as well as protect the rights of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals (Schmalleger, 2009). To accomplish these goals, the police department constantly patrols cities and arrests those suspected of committing a crime (Cole & Smith). The courts exist to formally charge individuals with a crime, hold trials to determine a defendant’s guilt or innocence, and to sentence those found guilty. The corrections department functions to carry out sentences imposed by the courts. (Schmalleger, 2009) ...

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Introduction The National Crime Victimization Survey is an agency in the United States supported by the Department of Justice to measure the amount and kinds of felonies people & units encounter in six month period after the interview. NCVS handles a workload of approximately 700 cases and respondents are surveyed two times a year for three years. The major purpose of NCVS is to collect detailed information about victims of certain types of crimes. Some of the crimes surveyed include motor vehicle theft, burglary, theft, robbery, identity card thefts, assault rape, pocket pickers and school crimes to children between ...

Introduction

The Western world has been characterized with various systems of criminal prosecution. Each system is renowned manly by the trend adapted in deciding on the public prosecution. For instance, looking at the continental England, it is the sole duty of the state to place a dismissal to the prosecutions that have been initiated by the local police. This is a trend that has been initiated since the early 19th century (Jon-Christian 156). The historical Europe is characterized by the state which has entirely been given all the criminal justice implementation initiative. American however has a hybrid criminal prosecution system which has evolved ...