White collar crime

Thus week I was pretty familiar with the topics being discussed involving white collar crimes, organized crime, corporate crime etc.  The information that I reviewed this week will be useful to me in my career as I am heading off to law school and I want to focus my studies on corporate law.  I think that ethically speaking it will be easy for me to not be sucked in the world of financial greed as I feel those people were involving the Enron case.  I feel that there were other people in the know who could have put a stop to this crime but were swayed to turn a blind eye due to a prosperous lifestyle.
I found it interesting to know that many of the rich and famous were also swindled out of millions of dollars.  They wanted to believe so badly that their investments were being handled by an honest person who knew what it was to have that kind of money.  We see everyday headlines involving movie stars etc who have been cleaned out financially from those they trust due to greed.  I do hope that those who were affected by this scam do get some of their money recouped.  The questions that I have about this weeks topics were about why the government was not watching these big companies under more scrutiny.  It seems that corporations who deal with millions and billions of dollars of others peoples money should get audited more and the money trail needs to be looked at more closely.  It would be interesting to find out which politicians benefited financially by these schemes.

Non-violent crimes and society

Annmarie Griffin

This week I was pretty familiar with the topics of non-violent crimes.  I remember when I took white collar crime as a course and was shocked to find that many international crime syndicates are focused on internet crimes.  I learned that accounts were being compromised and account numbers sold to make up some of the most notorious identity theft crimes of our time.  I feel that it is the job of these banks and companies to ensure that our privacy is maintained at all costs.  Security of its  customers should be the their number one priority over making a profit.  If they lose their customers then their ability to make money dwindles with each hit they take.  I feel that as society deals with more and more financial stresses due to a sluggish economy that more and more non-violent criminal acts will take place.  I think that society needs to encourage our law makers to change the sentencing guidelines in this nation.  I was a little shocked to see the statistics on the prison building enterprise that is going on in California.  It almost seems like they enacted that three strike law just to make sure that prison building remains profitable in that state.  I feel that if they send less people to prison the national debt ceiling would lower and the economy would get a huge boost.  This would probably create new jobs and people would look to working rather than committing crimes just to put food on the table.  Desperation to survive would cease.

Violence in America

Annmarie Griffin

This week I was pretty surprised to find that America was a leader of industrialized nations that had the most violent crimes.  I think that it pretty much has to do with the fact that we actually report these types of crimes to a national agency to record.  I also believe that because America has such a diverse population with different backgrounds that it can create a cultural divide among it citizens.

If I think back to the days of the Wild West I would concur with the text in the book that states that people have been solving personal problems through violence for centuries.  I also found that it said that homicide rates usually increase after a period of wartime.  I think that it may be because countries at war may face a downturn in the economy causing economic strain for its citizens.  I think that people under this kind of stress will not think before they react to negative attention given to them.  I think this goes along with the statistics that say that crime is more prevalent among the lower class.

I think that power and economics play a huge part in why someone would commit violent offenses.  The book touched on many different aspects of interpersonal violence such as rape, child abuse, elder abuse and murder.  It described almost the same reasons for why violence occurs within each group.  It seemed to all come back to a person wanting control of situations or others and financial stresses in the family or group dynamic.


The one thing that I found interesting was that smoking is a form of child abuse.  I do agree that people should not be smoking in confined spaces where children. I am unsure if I would relate this to a form of child abuse.  I think that America needs to re-evaluate it self defense laws.  I have seen TV programs that document women in prison who killed their spouses due to both physical and emotional abuse.  I feel that these women may have felt that if they did not defend themselves that they would end up dead.  I think that these women should not face criminal sanctions when they can prove that their spouse had repeatedly put their life in danger.  The book said that more attention is now being given to domestic abuse and I think that it has to do with the growing number of murder suicides in this nation.  I also feel that many of these situation also happen due to financial stresses or the desire to have total control over another.

This week I knew what social roles were and what roles I have taken on in my life from past studies.  The thing that was new and interesting to me was about how some scientist called for certain people to be sterilized because their genetic makeup.  I think that the environment in which you grow up in has more of an effect on how you will turn out in later years.  For instance a person who grows up in a dysfunctional family with abuse may grow up and mimic what they have seen in their childhood with their own children   they are allowing for the cycle to continue.  I know that this instance is not always true because some people have strong personalities that allow them to want to makes changes in their lives in a positive way.  I think that both genetic and environmental factors combined will determine how a person will turn out but it will never be 100% accurate since there are too many variables in ones environment that can change.

One of the questions I have about this weeks pod has to do with the video on the Westboro Baptist Church.  I am wondering why the state has not come in and investigated these parents for putting their children in direct harms way by allowing them to be at these protests?  I watched the videos and it would seem that these videos are evidence enough of child neglect.  I also and wondering why there hasn't been a federal law enacted prohibiting protests at funerals.  I understand that there is a right to free speech and peaceful protests but the families of these deceased also have the right to be able to mourn in peace.  You must not infringe on another rights while exercising your own.

Social Controls in Society

In this weeks pod I knew what formal and informal sanctions were due to previous classes that I had taken.  I am not entirely sure if I agree with the text on what it says when it comes to gossiping.  the text had stated that gossiping serves as an effective means of social control.  I personally think that the assumption of that statement is outdated and does not correlate with the times we are in today.  I feel that gossiping can become a mean spirited action that leads to bullying in today's society.  As we have been seeing in the news lately this also leads to teen suicides.  It is being the brunt of such gossip that can take a severe emotional tole on some people.  I also no longer believe that the churches opinion of others can be used as a form of social control given the state of the church and the scandals they have been involved in during recent years.  I think they need to look inside their own house before they can cast judgement on others.  I do know that not all gossipers and church groups have bad intents but there is enough negativity associated with both that leads me not take whole heatedly engage with either groups of people.  I do think that laws are an effective way of maintaining social control when used universally across the board for offenders who commit the same crimes.  If a male and female teacher commit the same crime with a student I feel that they should face the same penalty.

Deviance

I always knew what deviant behavior was but was shocked to find out it included a lot more things than I would have thought.  I related deviant behavior to criminal activity.  i was surprised to learn that it could include bottle feeding over breast feeding.  After pondering that piece of new information it kind of made sense to me because when I had my children the nurses always pushed for me to try breast feeding and kind of looked at me funny when I said  I had no interest in attempting to do that at all.
I also know that many people in society view smoking as deviant behavior because it is something we are taught is bad for us.  It also reminded me of a time when I was smoking outside during my work break and a woman walked by and asked me why I would smoke where people walked by.
I guess it is a matter of personal choice what one would consider to be deviant.  I have read some books and stories about laws in the United States and it is astounding as to the types of things that were considered deviant and criminal in prior years.  I am wondering when society will change their views on many things and accept them as the norm.  I also think that as the times have changed that the laws need to change to represent the current societal views and not those in grained in us from a time where we were not even born.