Criminal Event
A criminal event is analyzed in this paper through the use of classical and positivist perspectives from an article in Washington post. This article was authored by Clarence Williams and Peter Hermann. The story was written on Monday 24th February 2014. The article briefly highlights the way eight killings were done during daylight in Washington where the involved families were tortured. Further, the brief reveals that guns’ possession by some people in the society has caused violent behaviors with victims being the innocent civilians.
Classical School Tenets Perspective
The tenets perspectives of the classical school explain the decisions of the offenders to take part in certain crimes. Offenders find taking part in such criminal activities easy, rewarding, fun and satisfying. The perception of classical tenets depicts humans as being rational with behaviors that can be prevented or modified via punishment in order to instill fear. This perspective further show that a person’s social contract has a social binding that depends on their consent and this makes them a responsibility of a society.
In regard to this event, it can clearly be seen that young individuals participate in criminal acts because they can access guns. Thus, their behaviors are a responsibility of the society because it is only via society’s consent that they can change. For example, during a criminal event, Calving Woodland, an activist claims that there is a change when young people are allowed life changing opportunities “Hermann & Williams 2014, p. 64). The implication of this is that every society ought to allow youth an opportunity for changing violent behaviors through the identification of criminals followed by their punishment.
Additionally, the view of classical tenet specifies that the free-willed people are the only ones liberated to engage in individual decision making. This shows that committing a crime is an individual’s choice and people who take part in it should be held responsible for making that choice. Consequently, they are to be blamed for the crime. In the story of a criminal event, individuals who take part in killing opt to do it and since they should be blamed, police respond quickly during such events in order to reduce the rate of violence in the society. Nevertheless, a factor that is more worrying is that most residents fear since they do not know when crime incidences are likely to occur.
The tenets of classical school postulate that during a crime, individuals tend to find pleasure while avoiding pain. The implication of this is that people choose to commit a crime after carefully considering the costs and benefits that will be incurred once they behave that way. For example, personal factors are incorporated in pleasure. These include urge for revenge, money and entertainment. The story of a crime shows how an 18 years old girl became a gunshots’ victim just because some men were attempting to accomplish a deal on marijuana worth $ 100.
This event shows that the involved men wanted money. On the same perspective, the punishment ought to be employed in deterring their criminal behavior. This will persuade criminals to desist such offenses due to the intensified fear of the punishment. There should be measures implemented with an aim of deterring people from engaging in crimes. The narration of the crime story shows that the application of this occurs when criminals are quickly arrested. Additionally, detectives and police work hard in ensuring that sufficient resources are availed in order to keep criminal activities from recurring.
In relation to the tenets of classical school, the basis of punishment ought to be the crime’s seriousness. This will help in avoiding inexplicable and interconnected violence where criminals in the society hide one another. Washington post contends that recently violence caused 23 people’s death and they are connected to a past occurrence of 2009. The implication here is that such criminal events will always recur because police do not induce severe punishment on the criminals. Consequently, the criminals join the rest of the society members upon release and they continue engaging in criminal acts. This causes the same criminal incidences putting the lives of the people at risk.
The emphasis of the tenet perspective of classical school is on punishment for the identical crimes which should also be identical. The implication is that criminals ought to be punished as per their crimes. For example, there should be common punishments for violent crimes and these should be applied on all criminals. Killers in this event ought to be sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment to ensure peace in the society.
Positive School Tenets Perspective
When the tenets of positive school are analyzed, free-will concept denial is incorporated. This constrains the freedom of making choices for the criminals. This entails punishment as well as imprisonment threat as well as the effect that the criminals will not be held responsible for their own actions. Consequently, there is a persistence of similar crime events which increases social insecurity. Tenets of positive school show different causes of criminal behavior. They range from the environment to parenting measures as well as genetic makeup. The implication is that wrong habits during parenting and growing up within an environment where crime is prevalent as well as having similar genes with relatives who are criminal can make a person a criminal.
Closely related to the perspective of positive tenets is the idea that crime events are caused by environmental and biological factors. The biological aspects of criminals are not directly inherited by children from the parents and there are few such cases which have existed. As such, all criminals involved in killing in relation to this even did not have inherited qualities from parents. Therefore, several criminal events are due to environmental factors. People who grow up in societies where crimes are prevalent are a good example because they are likely to become criminals. According to scientists, the heredity aspect can lead to a criminal habit that is unavoidable and inevitable. On the basis of scientific methods as well as their relation to criminality, it is evident that parents can pass such characteristics to the offspring.
Criminal activities in this story occur because there are parents who allow children to bring guns home. This increases crime. Scientifically, there is a probability that the parents were also criminals and therefore the behavior is reflected on their children. Going by this perspective, the action taken towards criminals ought to correct their behavior instead of punishing them. This is due to the fact that not every criminal may be accountable for their crime and punishing the suspect for a crime that they have not committed is wrong. On the basis of the tenets perspective of positive school, finding the right means of correcting behaviors is the best option. For example, punishment in this case seems to be torture. A mother is in fear because the son who has been jailed might meet a fate similar to the one that he would have met when freed and this instills fear among the families of the criminals.
Reference
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/eight-daylight-killings-in-23-days-leave-dc- families-reeling/2014/02/23/430f40fe-995e-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html