Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology - Brossura

Unit 1 Explanations of Crime

YES: Emile Durkheim, from The Rules of Sociological Method (The Free Press, 1938)

NO: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, from “Defining Deviancy Down,” The American Scholar (Winter 1993)

Classic sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) theorizes that crime reaffirms moral boundaries and helps bring about needed social changes. Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York) argues that modern crime has gone way beyond the point of being functional.

YES: Adrian Raine, from “The Biological Basis of Crime,” in James Q. Wilson and John Petersilia, eds., Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control (ICS Press, 2002)

NO: Jeffrey H. Reiman, from The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice (Allyn & Bacon, 1998)

Adrian Raine argues that one of the principal reasons why we have been so unsuccessful in preventing adult crime is because crime control policies have systematically ignored the biological side of human behavior. Professor Jeffrey Reiman asserts that social forces create the conditions that become sources of crime in American society.

YES: Sean Maddan, Jeffrey T. Walker, and J. Mitchell Miller, from “Physiques, Somatotypes and Crime.” An essay. (2009)

NO: Chris L. Gibson and Kevin M. Beaver, from “Does Body Type Really Have an Effect on Criminal Behavior?” An essay. (2009)

Professors Maddan, Walker, and Miller argue that body type is related to criminal behavior because more criminals have muscular body builds. In other words, there is a strong correlation between a person’s body build and criminal behavior. Professors Gibson and Beaver argue, in contrast, that both biological and social factors lead to criminal behavior and that no single variable, such as body build, can explain crime. Moreover, they assert that while body type may be a predisposing factor for crime, that predisposition will surface only under certain environmental conditions.

Unit 2 Contemporary Public Policy Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice

YES: Andrew A. Moher, from “The Lesser of Two Evils? An Argument for Judicially Sanctioned Torture in a Post–9/11 World,” Thomas Jefferson Law Review (Spring 2004)

NO: Elisa Massimino, from “Leading by Example? U.S. Interrogation of Prisoners in the War on Terror,” Criminal Justice Ethics (Winter 2004)

Attorney Andrew A. Moher argues that judicially sanctioned torture of terrorists is appropriate for the purpose of preventing a greater evil. He further contends a judicially monitored system in the United States would be far superior to the current policy of practicing torture “under the radar screen” in other countries. Elisa Massimino believes that the use of torture is immoral and counterproductive for the United States. She asserts that if the United States wishes to rely on the protections of the Geneva Conventions, then it must comply with its provisions prohibiting the torture of prisoners.

YES: Jared Taylor and Glayde Whitney, from “Racial Profiling: Is There an Empirical Basis?” Mankind Quarterly (Spring 2002)

NO: Michael J. Lynch, from “Misleading ‘Evidence’ and the Misguided Attempt to Generate Racial Profiles of Criminals; Correcting Fallacies and Calculations Concerning Race and Crime in Taylor and Whitney’s Analysis of Racial Profiling,” Mankind Quarterly (Spring 2002)

Jared Taylor, president of the New Century Foundation, and Glayde Whitney argue that the disparity in crimes committed by members of different races justifies racial profiling by the police. Professor Michael J. Lynch, however, argues that a proper analysis of the crime data does not support Taylor and Whitney’s conclusions. He finds racial profiling to be objectionable from a legal and moral perspective as well.

YES: Barry C. Feld, from Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court (Oxford University Press, 1999)

NO: Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg, from The Florida Experiment: An Analysis of the Impact of Granting Prosecutors Discretion to Try Juveniles as Adults (July 1999)

Law professor Barry C. Feld contends that creating a separate juvenile court system has resulted in unanticipated negative consequences for America’s children and for justice. Vincent Schiraldi, director of the Justice Policy Institute, and researcher Jason Ziedenberg maintain that moving thousands of kids into adult courts is unnecessary, harmful, and racist.

YES: Diana E. H. Russell, from Dangerous Relationships: Pornography, Misogyny, and Rape (Sage, 1998)

NO: Anthony D’Amato, from “Porn Up, Rape Down,” Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 913013 (2006)

Diana E. H. Russell argues that the evidence is overwhelming that exposure to pornography is a major causal factor of rape. She utilizes the concept of “multiple causation” to explain the relationship between pornography and rape. Anthony D’Amato contends that the incidence of rape has declined 85% in the last 25 years while access to pornography via the Internet has become more widely available to teenagers and adults.

Unit 3 Punishment

YES: Gregory L. Hershberger, from “To the Max,” Corrections Today (February 1998)

NO: Rodney J. Henningsen, W. Wesley Johnson, and Terry Wells, from “Supermax Prisons: Panacea or Desperation?” Corrections Management Quarterly (Spring 1999)

Federal Bureau of Prisons regional director Gregory L. Hershberger contends that the challenges posed by hardened prison inmates support confining dangerous offenders in a supermax prison facility. Professors Rodney J. Henningsen, W. Wesley Johnson, and Terry Wells argue that supermax prisons are symbolic of the desperation Americans face in trying to reduce crime using traditional crime control methods.

YES: Eugene H. Methvin, from “Mugged by Reality,” Policy Review (July/August 1997)

NO: David Shichor, from “Three Strikes as a Public Policy,” Crime & Delinquency (October 1997)

Eugene H. Methvin, senior editor for Reader’s Digest, contends that a very small number of juveniles and adults commit the majority of serious crimes. The main solution to the crime problem, then, is to identify them as early as possible and increase the punishments each time they offend, eventually incarcerating the repeat offenders. Professor of criminal justice David Shichor argues that “three strikes” laws are costly, inefficient, unfair, and do little to reduce crime.

YES: Wayne H. Calabrese, from “Low Cost, High Quality, Good Fit: Why Not Privatization?” Privatizing Correctional Institutions (1996)

NO: Jeff Sinden, from “The Problem of Prison Privatization: The U.S. Experience,” Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization & Human Rights (2003)

Wayne H. Calabrese, vice president of the Wackenhut Corporation, argues that the privatization of U.S. prisons saves money and provides quality services. Jeff Sinden, managing editor of Human Rights Tribune, contends that the private prison industry has failed to achieve substantial cost savings and that there have been systemic human rights abuses in for-profit correctional institutions.

YES: David Von Drehle, from “Miscarriage of Justice: Why the Death Penalty Doesn’t Work,” The Washington Post Magazine (February 5, 1995)

NO: Ernest van den Haag, from “The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense,” Harvard Law Review (May 1986)

David Von Drehle, a writer and the arts editor for The Washington Post, examines specific capital punishment cases and data and concludes that capital punishment is a bad social policy. Ernest van den Haag, a professor of jurisprudence and public policy (now retired), maintains that the death penalty is just retribution for heinous crime.

Unit 4 Modern Trends in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Unit 5 The U.S. Supreme Court, Crime, and the Justice System