Organized crime refers to an enterprise that is non-ideological and consists of several people who interact closely, being organized on the basis of a hierarchy consisting not less than three ranks with prospects of gaining power and profits by being involved in activities that are both legal and illegal. The ranks positions are awarded in terms of friendship or kinship or may be assigned on the basis of skills. The rank positions are independent of the individuals assigned.
It is the role of members to determine the permanency of the enterprise by striving towards pursuing their goals as well as remaining integral. Based on a territory, the enterprise strives towards being a monopoly and eliminates any form of competition. Violence and corruption is part and parcel of the activities to maintain discipline or to achieve the goals set. In organized crime, there is a restriction of membership. Explicit written or oral rules have to be followed strictly, and breaching them may be followed by murder or other penalties such as sanction. It follows then
that organized crime is not politically oriented; membership is exclusive, is hierarchal, characterized by having a subculture, illegal violence is exceptional, is self-perpetuating, explicit rules govern it, and is monopolistic (Abadinsky, 2010).
The Major areas Concerning the Foundations and Definitions of Organized Crime
Governments, agencies, and laws have tried to define organized crime. The definitions are dependent on individuals, government commissions, the legal profession, and academia. According to the FBI, organized crime is a ‘Continuing criminal conspiracy with an organized structure that is successful because of its use of fear, corruption, and violence. The motivation is greed” (Mallory, 2007). It considers La Cosa Nostra, The Russian Mafia, South American, and Mexican drug cartels, among others, to be organized criminal activities.
How Organized Crime Gained a Foothold in the United States
Organized crime was established in the United States during the 1800s when there was a European immigrant’s influx. There were limited resources for them, and there were cultural and language barriers prompting them to be aggregated or clustered into groups to console each other and lived as close neighbors. The cultural cohesion and lack of jobs formed gangs and engaged in crime to make ends meet.
The organized gangs were initially established in large cities such as Chicago, Boston, and New York and were based on ethnicity. The many opposing gangs thrived under the wave of the industrial revolution, where burglary and theft have continued to thrive. The ‘Mafia’ is the name used to mean many clandestine organizations in the U.S. and has thrived in reality and movies irrespective of the efforts bestowed towards their termination by the FBI (Leong, 2007).
How Organized Crime Groups Sought to Influence Government
During the 1920s, the prohibition era formed the basis of organized crime in the United States, where the federal government was fiercely enforcing the law by using raids. Prohibition entailed a ban on the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol in the U.S. However, this made illegal alcohol available to people through organized syndicates that had national as well as international connections. There were anti-gang wars that led to grisly killings. After the prohibition was withdrawn in nineteen thirty-three, organized gangs had to get involved in other illegal activities such as gambling, labor racketeers, and narcotics trafficking (Mallory, 2007).
The Organization of Organized Crime Groups in the Post-Prohibition Era
The post-prohibition era saw gangs seeking political connections and was well aware that inter-gang attacks were a disadvantage. Therefore, there formed the Syndicate led by Louis Kepke Buchalter and Lucky Luciano, which was well organized and more cohesive. It has geographical limits, shared profits, and enforced the rules through murder. The Syndicate leaders were convicted, and this seemed to be the remedy for the gang to be terminated.
However, the hydra was still thriving, headed by new people who were concealed behind legitimate enterprises but indirectly involved with the gang. The Racketeer influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) passed by Congress in 1970 aimed at neutralizing the negative effects of the Mafia on the economy. The kingpin is the defendant who can be persecuted and imprisoned, and the illegal activity is racketeering, according to RICO (Leong, 2007).
Conclusion
The local police are interconnected with the criminal gangs making it a challenge to end them. Today, organized crime assumes a multinational corporation, which is a clear indication that it has conquered the multinational market. Organized crime has risen to a new level and involves illegitimate activities done as a syndicate such as using threat, identity theft, smuggling, online extortion, illegal gambling, pornography, loan-sharking, interstate theft, prostitution, narcotics, insurance fraud, hijacking, among others.
Leong, Angela. (2007). The Disruption of International Organized Crime: An Analysis of Legal and Non-legal Strategies. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Mallory, Stephen. (2007). Understanding Organized Crime. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
This is an expression habitually used to denote crimes that do not involve violence. Perpetrators of these crimes aspire for financial gratification. The term represents a plethora of offences, like forgery, blackmail, money laundering, and tax evasion among many more. Documenting these offences is difficult since law enforcement agencies recognize and document only three examples as crime (Cornell University Law School, 2010). It goes without saying that monitoring and evaluation becomes difficult due to improper record keeping.
This is an activity first performed in the 1920s, but received little attention from the authorities. Several regimes abetted these crimes but were not brought to justice. In the present society, white-collar offenders are accorded more leniencies, as compared to armed robbers and other violent offenders. This is because putting them on trial is difficult, since most of them cover their crimes in a series of intricate processes (Cornell University Law School, 2010).
The laws that regulate white-collar crime
In the American constitution, white-collar crimes are regulated by the commerce clause at national level (Conklin, 2007). This legislation entrusts power of implementing these laws to the congress, although, it recommends punishment for counterfeiting only. It should be noted that most states have established internal mechanisms to deal with the vice (Albanese, 2006).
The RICO act of 1970 was legislated with a view of protecting American citizens from these crimes. The act metes out punishment for organizations and other individuals found guilty of racketeering and other offences. The law recommends 20 a year imprisonment term for every offence mentioned by the act. It also has provisions through which victims can claim retribution from their offenders. All property found to have been amassed fraudulently will be reclaimed by the state and used to compensate victims (thefreedictionary.com, 2010).
The Sox Act was introduced by congress after a near collapse of the stock market in the 1990s. Company executives and their accounting firms doctored their financial records to indicate perpetual profitability. This greatly boosted their share price hence drew many investors to them. After the demise of Enron Corporation, investor apathy rose to unprecedented magnitudes. This affected the economy badly, forcing congress to intervene and ensure such occurrences never arose again. This was a more elaborate piece of legislation as it increased the maximum sentencing period to 20 years from 5. The legislation also outlaws falsification of financial documents. Convicted persons face incarceration for a 10 year period, in addition to, an automatic $ 5 million fine. Most notably the act formulated an act governing crimes of securities, with a 25 year jail term (thefreedictionary.com, 2010).
Impact of white-collar crime on society
It has been noted that tax payers lose well over $300 billion annually as a result of these crimes. Senior Americans will remember the 1980 scandals arising from insider trading. Corporate bigwigs made huge profits by trading based on information other investors did not have. In the early 1990s, the savings industry collapsed, taking down peoples savings with it. This was also attributed to fraud by corporate chiefs (Salinger, 2005).
The aftermath of this misdemeanor was massive job loss by employees of the respective industries and companies. In Enron’s case, for example, investors lost billions of dollars and thousands of workers lost their jobs (Salinger, 2005). Finding alternative jobs was unattainable for them due to the negative publicity of their former employer. Overall, the economy slowed down making life difficult for ordinary citizens.
References
Albanese, J. (2006). Professional ethics in criminal justice (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Since time immemorial, varied disciplines and institutions have been engaged in investigations about the origins and causes of crime. In the process, different factors have been highlighted which have great influence on the type and frequency of crimes in different places. There are different types of crime analysis which help the administrative personnel to plan on preventing and suppressing criminal activities. Some of these, crime analysis include; tactical, strategic, and administrative crime analysis. This paper will seek to answer various relevant questions related to tactical crime analysis (Douglas, 2003).
After reviewing the incident summary from the crimes which occurred in; convenient store in South State Street, Gas-N-Go on corner of State and Main Streets, and Donut Shop on South State Street. It’s evident that, a tactical crime analysis is being performed from the information derived from the three different incidents. The crime analysis is tactical in nature since is carried on immediate crimes which is aimed at providing a quick response. The analysis of the criminal offenses is aimed at providing credible information which can be used by administrative and operational personnel in identification and arrest of the criminals (Paulsen, 2009).
After reviewing the trends of the crimes in the three different situations; the operational personnel are able to identify crime patterns and trends. In addition, the tactical information is helping in linking the offenders in the three incidents that is likely to provide precise and effective leads in investigation. In the case of tactical crime analysis, the information gathered is likely to lead to help in arrest of the criminals, clear the cases alongside solving crimes (Egger, 1997).
From information gathered on the three instances, it’s evident that those crimes were a series of operations. This is strongly supported by the similarities of the there operations and the sequence in which they occur. Firstly, the time of the operations is depicted to be in series; where one is at 2.00 Am, 1.30 Am, and 11.58 Pm. This is a clear evidence that the criminals are the same and definitely strategizing on there consequent operations. Secondly, the mode of dressing is also closely related in the three different operations thus raising controversies. It is noted that, the criminals in the first operation at Convenient Store on South State Street; are in similar dressing with the criminals in the second instance (Paulsen, 2009).
A point worth noting is that, the mode of action of the criminals in the different operations is similar. Though, there is a problem in identifying their accent; the language used in communication is similar. The instructions given by the criminals to the clerks are similar thus making the type of operation to be series. Additionally, the vehicles used by the criminals are closely correlated thus raising questions about the relation of the three instances (Douglas, 2003).
The information retrieved from the third instance is very vital in identifying the criminals. First, one of the criminals is heard yelling “Nemo keep it running”. The word Nemo is a name of a person and can be very useful in deriving viable information about the criminals. Further, the clerk was very conscious and identified a large spider tattoo in the right leg of one of the criminals. This information about the name of one of the criminals and the tattoo is a credible clue that can help in cracking down the criminals. On the other hand, its very possible for the operational personnel to identify the criminals by examining their finger prints from all the objects their touched in the instance of the crimes (Egger, 1997).
Generally, the modus operandi in all the three instances remained consisted in despite some few differences. First, the mode of dressing is consisted whereby all the criminals wore masks. This helped to hide their identity throughout their operations. Secondly, it is evident that, the criminals used vehicles with temporary number plates and moved at high speed at all times. Another similarity in their modus operandi is on the nature of language used, at all times they instructed the clerk not top do something stupid or get injured (Douglas, 2003).
On the other hand, the modus operandi differed at some instances in the three operations. In the first instance and second instance it is revealed that, the two criminals acted in the process of seizing the cartons of Marlboro cigarettes while in the third instance only one criminal participated. Another difference in their modus operandi is noted in the conduct of the criminals, it’s noted that in the first and second instance; the criminals were very minimal in speech unlike in the third instance where they communicated widely (Paulsen, 2009).
From the information derived from the series of operations in the three different instances, it’s possible to apprehend the criminals. Particularly, the clues and information gathered regarding the criminals can be effectively used it cracking down the criminals. An efficient and competent investigative team should be established which should utilize the clues and information about the criminals to arrest them (Egger, 1997).
In sum, crime analysis is very essential in laying down efficient and effective strategies that can be adopted in preventing and suppressing crimes. In addition, tactical analysis of crime is one of the best ways of dealing with present crimes and help in apprehending all criminals thus solving the issue of crime.
Works cited
Paulsen, Derek, Bair, Sean & Helms, Dan. “Tactical Crime Analysis: Research and Investigation”. London: CRC Press. (2009): 124-210.
Egger, Steven. “The Killers Among Us: An Examination of Serial Murder and Its Investigation”. New York: Prentice Hall. (1997): 57-96.
Florida State is situated in the southeastern region of the United States, adjacent to Alabama and Georgia as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Assault is considered a crime against persons in Florida and indeed throughout the world through the preconditions for assault may vary in different states and nations. For instance, in a jurisdiction such as New Zealand and Australia, assault is regarded as an act that causes another person to receive abrupt and personal violence.
However, in America and a majority of jurisdictions, the threat of violence caused by an abrupt show of force is also regarded as assault. This essay aims at looking at assault in Florida from a historical and modern perspective and also identifies how the threshold of assault has been defined with dynamism throughout history in the state of Florida. Laws as a reinforcement part of a justice system demands that all individuals be aware of and respect other people’s boundaries though it is possible to legally give consent for assault.
The elements of assault under historical common law
In the United States of America, the common law referred to assault in its different forms as a battery. The elements of battery are three, the first one being a volitional act depending on whether it is purposeful and intentional rather than reflexive or unintentional(Dressler, 2006). For instance, a person suffering from epilepsy hits his wife while suffering from a fit. Even though the contact causes harm to the wife, it would not amount to the battery since the act was unintentional (Ormerod, 2006).
The second element is that battery is accomplished with the intention of causing harmful or offensive contact with another person or in situations that make the certainty of such contact ample. The final element of battery is that which causes harmful or offensive contact (Bumgarner, 2004). Therefore, throwing a shoe to hit an individual is a battery if the shoe indeed hits the person and is an assault if the shoe misses.
The definition of assault under the historical common law, therefore, disregards the fact that the person may have been unaware that the shoe had been thrown at them (Bumgarner, 2004). Also, the state of Florida did include the description of civil assault as part of the definition of the crime (FBI, 2006).
It is the, therefore, a criminal assault to deliberately place another person in fear of harmful or offensive contact. Fear, according to the Florida state is the awareness of the possibility of assault; hence, fear is not an emotion rather is a perpetuated mental state.
The elements of the current Florida statute for assault
The elements of assault in modern American statutes, including Florida, are essentially two which cover all the aspects of assault. The first element is the effort to intentionally, consciously, or irresponsibly cause bodily injury to another. The additional element is the neglectfully causing of bodily injury to another using a deadly weapon. Also, Florida also defines assault as an attempt to threaten or actual threatening of another by causing the person to experience fear of impending severe bodily injury.
Consent is a complete defense to assault in Florida since some sports like boxing, mixed martial arts and medical procedures such as surgery require consent to take place. Another element of the current Florida statute for assault is the requirement for the offender and the victim to be human and hence it cannot be considered assault if a person violently injures an animal or if an animal injures a person (Dressler, 2006).
Also, there was the passing of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2004 hence, an unborn child is regarded as a separate person in assault cases (Anon, 2009).
A further element is the conscious actions that are intended to instill the fear of violent bodily harm, which can either be immediate or forthcoming. Therefore, the action is vital where words have been used to constitute an assault.
For instance, it is considered assault when a person holding a weapon threatens another person with death regardless of whether they intend to follow up on their threat, a fact that is unknown to the victim (Ormerod, 2006). However, if the menacing words are not accompanied by the gun, the perpetrator cannot accomplish a threat, and hence, an assault has not occurred.
Comparison between the historical common law and the current state statute
Assault, according to the historical common law, was simplified because harm was generally physical (Bumgarner, 2004). For criminal liability to be evident, what needed to be identified were the harmful or offensive contact and the intention to carry out the act. The harmful or offensive contact was defined as the cause of physical or bodily injury while the intention was the premeditated thought that would make the perpetrator benefit directly or indirectly through assault (Anon, 2009).
The elements of assault in Florida have changed dramatically from historical common law to the current state statute with the foremost difference being the changing of battery to assault (Ormerod, 2006).
Elements of assault in the current state statute also differ in action from the historical common law since the elements in the statute have to be justified by the offender’s state of mind (FBI, 2006). The offender thus needs to deliberately cause harm to another either physically or mentally. In the tort of assault, the intent is identified if a sensible person is significantly convinced that particular consequences will result.
Reasons for the differences between the historical common law and the current state statute
Since its conception, the issue of assault has been shaped to focus on physical or bodily harm which has physical depiction. However, as the globe continued to make significant bounds in terms of personal space and liability, the assault has come to cover more ground (Dressler, 2006). For this reason, common assault and battery are two separate entities as offenses. Assault or common assault is committed if a person deliberately or irresponsibly causes another person to experience direct and unlawful personal physical harm.
Under the common law, the physical harm had to be violent but emerging human rights violations cause actions such as touching, stepping or stroking without consent to be considered assault under current state statutes (Bumgarner, 2004). Also, the terms assault and common assault frequently include the separate offense of battery even in legislative settings. The propinquity required has been expanded since the historical common law, giving individual space greater boundaries of property and family (Anon, 2009).
The prospect of physical harm is therefore in its essence assault hence the making of threats could be considered to be an assault if the victim believes that physical violence might be used against him within a given period in the future(Anon, 2009).
Consequently, making a silent phone call, or making statements such as “I know where you live” and “I know your family” are considered to be threats under the modern Florida state statutes (Ormerod, 2006). An aggravated assault is an assault that has any of the aggravating features which Congress has considered being severe enough to justify a higher penalty.
Conclusion
Assault is usually considered to be a minor crime in Florida though there are mitigating circumstances where assault becomes a felony such as when the victim is a law enforcement officer. Aggravated assault is an assault that causes actual bodily harm (ABH) such as the intentional breaking of another person’s extremities and is considered a more serious crime hence is handled as a felony.
With the intention of being a conspicuous element in both the common law and Florida state statutes, an argument that tries to eliminate intention is seriously weighed. For instance, if an offender argues that he or she was drunk while committing the assault and was not intending to do so, the defender will not still be able to justify their drunk state which was deliberately acquired unless they were intoxicated unintentionally.
The evident, current capacity to accomplish an unlawful effort to commit a violent injury upon another person is thus the baseline of assault. Simple assault, on the other hand, is determined by the perpetrator’s intention of injury upon the victim such as the violation of the victim’s personal space or touching the victim in a way considered improper.
Common law, however, requires that a physical threat such as a weapon be together with a verbal threat to constitute assault. However, reasonable fear of bodily injury has now taken the place of the evident threat and hence assault covers significantly greater ground as an offense.
How would a person feel if he or she wakes up one morning to find his or her identity stolen along with their money? Why would someone ever think of doing such a thing? It is noteworthy that criminals engage in different types of Internet crimes. As a result, there are plenty of criminals out there that would have no sympathy for their victims. Unfortunately, there are many places criminals can locate their victims without their knowledge.
Although social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Tweeter have become very popular, these websites have also become the preferred places for criminals to find and hunt new victims. As these sites give criminals the opportunity to stalk, locate, probably pursue their victims and in some cases steal their identities.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is considered a form of Internet crime that occurs when an individual’s safety, personal life, and freedom are taken away by anonymous methods or covert, then pursued and monitored, causing paranoia and fear. This is done by use of any forms of online, Internet or communication using a computer. Thus, it is performed by a group of individuals or an individual not known to the victim (Bocij, 8).
Cyberstalking is rather a new trend. With the declining price, thus augmented the accessibility of online services and computers, more persons are acquiring computers and accessing the Internet. This eventually increases susceptibility to abuse by Internet criminals such as stalkers (Bocij, 9). It is noteworthy that underage children have also fallen victim of cyberstalking. As a result, the criminals might use the children to commit such crimes on their behalf.
Cyberstalkers meet their victims in electronic mail, online chat sessions, communication board, and debate sites. Also, this crime has acquired many forms such as sending of the obscene or frightening e-mail, abuse in chat rooms, posting offensive messages on communication boards, transfer of electronic viruses, tracing and monitoring of an individual’s Internet activity, and identity theft.
Cyberstalking in children involves exposing them to pornography sites. Hence, Cyberstalking is a horrifying occurrence for victims (Siegel, 448).
Location and pursue of victims
Many cyberstalking activities develop into off-line stalking as the stalker can locate the victim. They achieve this by use of the personal information posted on the Internet sites by the victims (Jaishankar, 549). This is because; in most online chat rooms, the victims post their actual details on their profile page.
These include their real names, cellular phone numbers, physical address, and details of their family members. As a result, a victim may receive offensive and excessive phone calls, damage to property, intimidating or pornographic mail, trespass, and physical attack (Jaishankar, 549).
Cyber Stalkers use their technological links to pursue their victims through a variety of ways that are not restricted to; phony claims, obsessive monitoring, bootlegging of the victim’s unique ideas, gathering information for potential assault, soliciting for sexual activities and cracking computer access codes to hack or get IP address (Jaishankar, 549).
It is noteworthy that cyberstalking incidents are on the rise; above all, the victims themselves fan these indecent activities as they keep responding, to the numerous messages and attention they receive from these criminals. Thus, the stalkers develop an interest in the victims thereby continuing to pursue them (Jaishankar, 549).
Laws and other methods of preventing Cyberstalking
It is noteworthy that personal information is becoming readily accessible to many people, who use the Internet and other sophisticated technology; thus, state legislators are dealing with the trouble of stalkers who pester and intimidate their victims over the Internet. Stalking laws and other statutes illegalizing stalking deeds presently in effect in many states may by now deal with this crime (Bocij, 163).
States have started to address the use of electronic equipment for stalking purposes by implementing conditions barring such action in both anti-stalking and harassment legislation. Furthermore, few states, such as Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Hampshire have added ban against any form of irritating electronic contact in harassment laws.
Similarly, Oklahoma, Alaska, Wyoming, and lately, California, have included electronically converse messages as demeanor comprising stalking in their laws that fight anti-stalking. However, some states have enacted both laws (Bocij, 163). Similarly, other states have put in place laws that forbid all internet crimes. Thus, identity theft is constituted in these laws.
Recent federal law has established measures to deal with cyberstalking, as well. For example, the act protecting women against the violence that was enacted in 2000 placed cyberstalking as a constituent of federal laws. Similarly, other federal legislation that deals with cyberstalking has been set up lately, but no such actions have yet been endorsed. Consequently, there is a deficiency of legislation at the federal level to address this crime, leaving the bulk of legislative embargo against cyberstalking at the state level (Bocij, 163).
Apart from the laws enacted, there are other methods of preventing cyberstalking. These are the Internet user based solutions and Internet provider based solutions. Internet user based solutions involve Internet users who employ chat rooms to communicate with strangers. Thus, such Internet users should seize from posting their actual details on the profile pages. Above all, information like names, phone number, physical address, and family information should be confidential, thus only given to the people one knows (Pittaro, 2007).
Internet provider based solutions involve Internet users purchasing soft wares from Internet providers. It is notable that these soft wares are used to block redundant electronic contact. It is thus advisable to seek help from the Internet provider. As a result, there exist online agreement policies restricting such misuse of service (Pittaro, 2007).
Effects of cyber stalking
Victims experience emotional and physical instabilities in life, as well as a mental disturbance. Some of these include fear for one’s safety, anxiety, hyper vigilance, and nightmares. As a result, the victims might consider seeking professional assistance like counseling. Also, family and friends support is needed.
Identify theft
Identity theft is a crime that occurs when one’s details are stolen and used without his consent. As a result, it can be used to commit a crime or steal money from the victim. Personal details are used when individuals want to access certain services.
Thus, with such information, a criminal can steal money from the victims without their knowledge, whereby they can run up their victims existing credit card account (May, 10). It is evident that these activities take place without the victim’s knowledge. At times, these criminals can go as far as wiping out their victim’s bank accounts by authorizing electronic transactions in their victim’s name (May, 10).
The Internet is providing avenues through which these criminals can access an individual’s personal information. Hence, they accomplish this by using online chat sessions and soft wares that crash key loggers on the computer, thus transmitting personal details stored in the computers. Online businesses store clients personal details on their web sites. As a result, such details are easily accessed by criminals.
These Internet criminals may set up a counterfeit organization website to trick the clients into submitting their personal information. Further more, these are information which the legitimate organization already possesses.
Internet identity theft has discouraged individuals from engaging in online monetary transactions as they consider it an unsafe mode of fiscal transaction basing on the recent cases of Internet identity theft (May, 10).
Laws and other methods of curbing Internet identity theft
Identity fraud has become rampant in the United States, as a result, in 1998, there was the ratification of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (ITADA) meant to bring justice to the criminals and protection of the victim. More often, Internet identity theft constitutes online transactions, and criminals are always unknown. Thus, tracing of the criminals is tedious but not impossible.
The ITADA considers Internet identity theft as it comes with a 30-year jail sentence. Two states of Wisconsin and California have established a privacy protection office that encourages citizens to seize from engaging in identity theft and help victims recover.
States have enacted laws that deal with identity theft; similarly, in some, identity theft is dealt with in the attorney generals office. Essentially, Identity theft laws are quite new. Thus more amendments are required (May, 13).
Other than the laws enacted to fight identity theft, users must also take care of themselves. As everyone is susceptible to Internet identity theft, the same way, an individual walks along dangerous back streets in town with their wallet. The only difference is that one can not physically see Internet criminals. Thus, the best way to avoid these criminals is for Internet users to apply caution when submitting their details to people and organizations online.
Clients who bank online are advised to employ protection devices that detect any attempts to use their password. Thus, there are banks that offer free downloadable detection devices to clients.
Above all, those who purchase goods online must first confirm the security mark displayed on the screen before submitting their account details. As a result, the use of a debit card is preferred when making online, fiscal transactions. Hence, even when criminals get hold of the information, their expenditure is limited. As a result, they can not put an individual into debt.
It is advisable for individuals to open a different account for transacting online purchases and maintain the other account other functions. This will prevent hackers from accessing details of the other accounts as they are not anywhere on the Internet. Most importantly, one should not engage in online monetary transactions that raise doubts. This is considered the best way to curb Internet criminals (May, 23).
There is no professional and truthful company that will ever ask for clients’ information via an electronic mail. Thus, Individuals are supposed to think before passing over personal details to any company on the Internet (May, 23). After all, the relevant banks or companies already have the details if one uses pay pal. It is recommended that the internet users delete all the cache in their computers. Also, temporary internet files should be deleted, as criminals use them as to getting ways to hack into computers.
Internet users are advised to make sure; they include those people they trust as friends in the online chat rooms. Furthermore, individuals should not leave their computers unattended to or with strangers. As this will make the criminals access their personal information. Above all, Individuals are also advised not to tolerate the criminals in the chat rooms. Also, the Internet connection should always be terminated when not in use as leaving the connection in idle mode will make hackers gain remote access to computers.
Conclusion
Cyberstalking is a crime on the rampage in the United States. Thus, many citizens fall victim, resulting in psychological trauma and fear. On the other hand, identity theft has also taken a new course, with criminals upgrading their means of conducting fraud. As a result, citizens may lose money and acquire debts. Hence, the rising cases of cyberstalking and identity theft have made different states enact laws that fight this crime.
Since the enactment of laws to fight internet crimes, it has been noted that these crimes have reduced significantly. However, there are some criminals who continue to engage in this vise. It is so sad and disappointing as children have also fallen victims of these internet crimes. It is noteworthy that criminals exploit them without their knowledge.
Work cited
Bocij, Paul. Cyber stalking: harassment in the Internet age and how to protect your family. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 Pp 8-177.
Jaishankar, K. International Perspectives on Crime and Justice. London. Cambridge scholars publishing. 2009 Pp 549.
May, Johnny. Johnny May’s Guide to Preventing Identity Theft. Security Resources Unlimited, LLC, 2004 Pp 10-27.
Pittaro, Michael. Cyber stalking: an analysis of online harassment and intimidation. Open access. 2007. Web.
Police arrested Ms. Shanesha Taylor for leaving her two young children unattended in a vehicle while she was on the interview. She was homeless and without job. Upon arrest, she was placed in custody where she did not have chance to communicate with her children for some time. The laws are aimed to make a just society, however, their application sometimes defies logic.
The moral question
A young mother thought that her young children would not in any way lack necessities while she had the capability to make a difference. Parenting is a responsibility which implies that parents do all that they can to ensure their kids’ provisions are guaranteed. Leaving children in the car for a few minutes while she attended a life-changing interview is a misdemeanor that would probably get justification if the results were positive.
When weighing the legal and moral responsibility that such a case should bring to light, the legal perspective more often than does not outshine the moral angle; this masks issues more pertinent. The punitive nature of the criminal justice system has become an issue of concern.
Only three decades ago, the criminal justice system was, according to scientists, a rehabilitative strategy. The overall aim was to ensure that criminals reformed after serving time and were safely handed back to society as persons possessing occupational skills and a different mindset (Carter, 2008).
Privatization of jails has however turned incarceration into a business and rehabilitation is no longer the defining purpose of serving time. In recent past, measures have been taken to ensure that authorities “remain sturdy” in fighting crime and serving time remains the primary focus of arraignment in courts (Weinstein, 2000).
Wrong priorities
However, incarceration should be about separating the criminals from the society, but the question remains whether jailing Ms. Taylor would achieve this goal (McDonald, 2014). It will more often embolden her with resolution that the society does not need her. Her case is not unique and probably shows that it is very difficult for a person to bridge societal classes without being under suspicion. For some, poverty is a crime since the run-ins with authorities hardly affect the middle class.
Elected representatives pass laws, but they hardly know how some of the legislation translates into the lives of the people oppressed by society (Shelden, 2006). While it is very easy to justify making a law which prohibits some offences near government institutions, the application creates a divide in society. Both class and racial discriminations bring about the disparity; demographics of the rich and poor in the American society follow the color patterns and social class (Beatty, 2007).
On the other hand, the states are almost criminalizing parenthood. Examples are abound of parents who lose custody of their children for mere violations like letting their children stroll while playing with others. More often than not, the people who suffer are the minors who lose their parents’ guidance which causes emotional distress. As Davis mentions, victim service programs ignore this category of people (Davis & Herman, 2007).
Conclusion
With such hindsight, it is apparent then that punitive criminal justice system would incarcerate individuals based on class and race. If the system was all-involving, and the principal aim was to rehabilitate, severe checks would be created to ensure that the law does not divide families. It has been long held true that a chain is as strong as the weakest link and by failing to shield the weak from class arrests, the society will hardly gain from the justice system.
References
Beatty, P. (2007).The vortex: The concentrated racial impact of drug imprisonment and the characteristics of punitive counties. Washington, D.C.: Justice Policy Institute.
Carter, M. (2008). Green Jobs, Not Jails. Scientific American, 908 (26), 111-132. Web.
Davis, R., & Herman, A. (2007).Victims of Crime (4th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
McDonald, S. (2014). Shanesha Taylor, arrested for leaving children in the car during a job interview, speaks. The Washington Post. Web.
Shelden, R. (2006). Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in American Society. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Weinstein, H. (2000). Psychiatric services in jails and prisons: A task force report of the American Psychiatric Association (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
Conformity is the transformation of conduct or conviction due to the effect of a real or perceived source of pressure, which dictates the change process. In some cases, the transformation may be referred to as compliance, as in this case the conduct change is only depicted when the subject is being supervised or watched over. An example to explain conformity; is when a student taking an exam keeps his focus on the paper they are handling when the teacher is in the exam room; only to veer so as to look at other students, their books, or outside after the teacher walks out of the exam hall. The other case is the behavior of drivers to come to a complete stop when commanded to by a police officer, but keep moving in case the officer seems to have forgotten that they had commanded them to stop. On the other hand, the behavior change involving internalization or private acceptance does not require surveillance or supervision; as the subject takes to the behavior change on the basis of perceived benefits or advantage. An example, in this case, is the experience of a dedicated Christian; who does not lie in public and is not ready to do so even when not watched by any other person (Brittain, 1963).
The study involved sixth and twelfth-grade students from varied communities exposed to the conditions for conforming, peer pressure perception, and freedom to choose between adopting two major aspects of teenage life. The two aspects under study were the level of socialization they would embrace and misconduct that entailed alcohol and drug abuse; sexual behavior and minor behavioral delinquency. From the study, it was evident that individuals perceived less peer pressure but mostly conformed based on willful involvement. In this case, the subjects showed not much conformity to follow peers going into misconduct. From the study, it was further evidence that perceived peer pressure and the effects of conformity took the control of behavioral change. However, the levels of conformity and perceived pressure varied from one subject to the other, as well as dictating the level of subject-reported behavior (Brittain, 1963).
From the study, conformity can be considered one of the major determinants of behavior among adolescents. It further was found out that the levels of conformity increase from childhood through adolescence, dictating the levels of peer involvement and misconduct. The high levels of conformity resulted from the view that the affiliation and strength of the group, is dictated by the level of conformity. However, with the development of a stronger sense of self and autonomy in peers later in life; the need for sturdy group affiliation and conformity to the groups’ beliefs and behavior is lowered. However, it should be further noted that the levels of conformity and group affiliation increase from childhood through premature adolescence to middle adolescence, then start to drop after this stage. It was further noted that the levels of conformity dispositions swell from childhood to the ages of adolescence, but dropped in the later ages of adolescents. However, there were the facts that conformity was more felt towards adopting pro-social or neutral behavior than negative behavior. On the other hand, conformity dispositions seemed to be more felt, in making subjects follow antisocial behavior. Gender variations were considered in the response given to antisocial behavior, where females were less conforming than the male subjects (Hartup, 1983).
From the study it was evident that conformity levels vary depending on the area of origin of subjects; the age of subjects and their gender where the levels were lower in females, but invariably distributed over the different ages. Across the different variables, it was found out that adolescents were more willful in adopting and conforming to peer pressure, involving the take-up of neutral behaviors than antisocial ones. It was also found out that the conformity trends in the different subjects and areas of study; followed an inverted U-shaped model with the increase in age. Another fact from the study regarding the differences in take-up of behavior and conformity levels was that; males were more willing than their female counterparts in adopting antisocial behavior through conformity (Clasen & Brown, 1985).
From the different subjects studied in this case; it was evident that the level of perceived peer pressure varied from one subject to the other based on given specific variables. The variables involved in dictating the levels of conformity were the age of subjects, area of residence and environment surrounding the subjects; and the gender of the subjects. Within the area of perceived pressure, it was evident that; adolescents perceived stronger peer pressure in cases that involved peer involvement than in cases that involved the take-up of misconduct. It was also evident that in the different cases of study; the levels of perceived pressure followed a U-shaped inverted change of course with reference to the age of subjects as the main variable. From the different levels of perceived pressure; it was also found out that the levels of perceived pressure among male subjects were reportedly stronger than among the females towards engaging in misconduct (Clasen & Brown, 1985).
As a measure to ensure that the most realistic information was acquired from the study; the levels of peer conformity dispositions and those of perceived peer pressure were closely monitored; showing that there was a close relationship between the levels of self-reported behavior with the varied levels of interactive or independent trends of the two (Hartup, 1983).
From the study, it was evident that the connection between the levels of perceived peer pressure and peer conformity disposition to the varying levels of self-reported behavior; was stronger among subjects falling within the middle areas of adolescence. These subjects falling between the ages of 15 and 16 showed more levels of association between the three variables than in younger or older adolescents (Clasen & Brown, 1985).
In the pursuit of getting this information and ensuring that the information acquired from the study was very accurate; some measures were employed in carrying out the study. One of the measures was that the study emphasized overt peer pressure from friends or individuals that the subject interacted with; where the subject was consciously aware of it. The inverted curved age tendencies achieved from the study through the analysis of peer conformity characters; despite being in agreement with previous studies showed weaker relationships between the different variables (Hartup, 1983).
From the findings of this study, it is evident that the levels to which crime among juveniles takes place depend on the variables of area, age and gender. From this, it is clear that crime among minors is fueled by environmental variables that constitute their environment; the ages at which these minors are exposed to the criminal behavior, and the gender of the minors exposed to the criminal behavior. It was also evident that adolescents are more likely to adopt neutral behavior as compared to antisocial activities. This gives the understanding that most of the criminal activities by minors take place due to having been socialized; to appear social therefore easier to be taken. The level of conformity among females was less therefore this can be used to establish that criminal behavior among female minors may be fueled by other factors; which go beyond the impact of peer pressure and conformity. From the study it was evident that most of the conformity took place from perceived pressure, and not the real pressure; which can help understand the fact that juvenile crime often takes place based on the assumption that others are engaging in the same but not the real pressure (Clasen & Brown, 1985).
From this study, it is evident that juvenile crime often takes place in the middle ages of adolescence, and in areas that promote the take-up of these behaviors. From this account, it is clear that crime can be controlled better by changing the environmental conditions that promote its development; especially among the age group that is more likely to fall victim to conformity and influence (Brittain, 1963).
From this information, it is clear and evident that conformity is higher among the middle ages of adolescence. From this account, it should also be noted that due to the lower levels of conformity at the lower and higher ages of adolescence than at the middle ones; it will be more effective and efficient if the efforts to predict and control crime are employed at this stage. At these stages when the levels of conformity to delinquent behavior are low; good morals can be nurtured in the young offenders or potential ones to avoid them from falling victim to the habit and vice of crime. On the other hand; at the middle ages of adolescence where the levels of conformity are higher, measures to control criminal behavior can be employed to help manage these vices (Berndt, 1979).
The stage at which there is a greater risk of the development of criminal behavior is; during the middle adolescent ages as this period marks a time when these minors are more open to adapt and take up the behaviors practiced by the other individuals who have some command on them; including fellow minors or older role models (Berenda, 1950).
From a review of the different bases of power; it is evident that criminal behavior can be encouraged or discouraged depending on the levels to which the different bases of power dictate the disposition adopted by these adolescents among other age groups. An information base of power can either aid or deter the development of criminal behavior in that; given that a University memo passes the information that a term paper that was to be returned two weeks in the future is to be handed in to the tutor within three hours; any student who had not yet completed the assignment would be more likely to plagiarize or copy fellow students completed assignment. They would do this, so as not to fall victim to the consequences to be born if they don’t hand in the paper (Asch, 1951).
Legitimate power as a source of authority; would make an employee compromise their rightful judgment, policy formulations, and rules to employ a relative in need despite their not being qualified for the post; at the expense of employing a qualified individual leaving out the relative, he sympathizes with who can virtually take the post (Klein, 1999).
Expert power which gives individuals authority based on their professional or technical expertise; would make a lawyer in a position of defending an ignorant or illiterate woman; lie to her so that he can get a portion of the benefits he is defending on her behalf (Klein, 1999).
Reward and coercive power are that which allows a person who is not supposed to receive given services or favors from another to get them; because they reward them in some other way. An example here is the case where an employer compels a female employee to have an affair with them, based on the fact that the employee fears risking the loss of her job (Klein, 1999).
Referent power is that which gives an individual authority based on a relationship or the desire of one. An example here is a child who sacrifices to lie for their parents so as to keep the relationship they share (Klein, 1999).
Reference list
Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In Guetzkow, H. (Eds.), Groups, leadership and men (pp. 177-190). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
Berenda, R. W. (1950). The influence of the group on the judgments of children. New York: Kings Crown Pres.
Berndt, T. J. (1979). Developmental changes in conformity to peers and parents. Developmental Psychology, 15, 606-6.
Brittain, C. V. (1963). Adolescent choices and parent-peer cross-pressures. American Sociological Review, 28, 385-391.
Clasen, D. R., & Brown, B. B. (1985). The multidimensional of peer pressure. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 74,451-468.
Hartup, W. W. (1983). Peer relations. In Heatherington. E. M. & P. H. Mussen (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4): Socialization, personality and social development (pp. 103-196).New York: Wiley.
Klein, G. (1999). Sources of Power: How people make power decisions. The MIT Press.
In corporate governance, it has been established that directors and shareholders are separated from the companies they represent in terms of assets they own or credits of the business. The idea of having the limited company has a separate entity from owners and managers was instituted in 1897. The case of Salomon v Salomon & Co [1897] AC 22 was monumental for this law formulation. The case helped to determine that the company responsible was separate from shareholders’ responsibilities and so were the liabilities even when shareholding was entrusted to the same shareholders. Furthermore, a company will not be described as a shareholder’s representative unless there is strong proof that the company was working as a representative in a specific transaction; Ebbw Vale UDC v South Wales TALA [1951] 2 KB 366. Basically, there is no way the company property belongs to the shareholders, Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart NV v Slatford [1953] 1 QB 248. Shareholders are just creditors to the said company. There are several ways the concept of separation of liability from directors and company shareholders has been described. Some scholars’ term is a legal personality while others refer to it as a corporate veil. This means that a company has a totally separate legal entity from workers and owners.
Responsibilities of Directors in Private Company
In corporate law, a company is an entry to the system just like any other individual is. And that its activities are separate from those of the owners (Griffin, 2000, p. 45). Nonetheless, a company does not have a mind of its own; it cannot, therefore, make decisions, run operations, and carry out transactions on its own. It has to utilize the services of real people. This is achieved by the directors who are the company managers and the shareholders who own the company. Their investments are loans to the company. In some instances, the directors and the shareholders can be the same but they have different roles and responsibilities in the specific categories (Griffin, 2000, p. 45).
Despite the separation of the roles and rights of the business from those of the directors, it’s important for Andy, Roberts and Sugar to realise that there are some incidences when the directors of a company can be liable for the company’s debts. In such cases, the responsible director is required to personally make the payments in total or part of the total sum (Griffin, 2000, p. 45). This means that a director can be culpable of certain corporate offences especially when the director carries out a business deal that he/she knows that it would land the company into a ditch of insolvent liquidation. The only defence in such a case would be when the director responsible can present an attestation beyond reasonable doubt that he/she made all the possible corrections to avoid a greater loss to shareholders (Grier, 1998, p 34). Moreover, resignation does not exonerate or absolve the responsibility from the director.
In order to alleviate possible risks of accusations for illegal trade, any director must ensure that all possible problems that relate to the solvency of the company have conversed with other directors (Dean, 2001, p. 65). From that, a record of the discussion should be documented and the company up-to-date information on finances reviewed. Andy being a director of Freedom did not inform his fellow directors and shareholders of a business deal proposed to him offering Freedom an opportunity to purchase boats at a fair price. He quickly suggested to the prospective seller that Freedom was not in a position to purchase the two boats and in its place, he suggested another company, ‘Ocean’ which he was a shareholder as well. Essentially it is the responsibility of a director to offer expert advice or to disclose any useful knowledge for the good of the company (Dean, 2001, p. 65). Andy as a director failed to do this.
When shareholders get disgruntled, they will automatically go for the director responsible for the said problem in their company. The expenses that can be encountered in defence of such claims and the subsequent damages can be too much (Dean, 2001, p. 65). It’s advisable to avoid such problems when still possible to do so.
Just like many other institutions, Freedom allowed and required that a director can enter a personal deal to try and save the company by acquiring a loan for the company. This was evident in the case of Robert when his father offered to bail Freedom from trouble. However, such guarantees usually end up being personally responsible for the loans as specified (Muchlinski, 2002, p. 46). Basically, it’s presumed that the director should have known or ought to have suggested that the company did not have viable prospects to would help it circumvent the liquidation.
It is pertinent for the three directors of Freedom; Andy, Sugar and Roberts to know that a director or directors will be held legally responsible in case of a concealing or fraudulently shifting company assets, falsifying or covering up debts, destroying or making fraudulent omissions in records of the company (Muchlinski, 2002, p. 46)…“To try to further improve Freedom’s credit problems, in January 2010 Robert approached Risk It Finance Limited and applied for a short-term loan of £30,000. In support of the loan, Robert takes along a set of accounts. These accounts had not been audited and Robert knew that they contained some erroneous figures concerning Freedom’s balance sheet. In fact, they gave the impression that Freedom had assets worth approximately £50,000 more than it actually had. On the strength of the accounts Risk, It agreed to lend Freedom £30,000 repayable over two years at 15% interest per annum, and the money was transferred to Freedoms Bank account on 29th January 2010”.
Even when the directors did not actively participate in the fraudulent acquisition of the loans, they knew what was taking place and as such, they are still liable for the offence. They conspired in the act. The company’s act demands that directors and business officers of a certain company maintain the records updated. Failing to do this means that they are acting against the law and in case of problems arising from the same then they will be held responsible for the respective offences (Muchlinski, 2002, p. 46). This would be failing to maintain up-to-date records and deceitful acquirement of money. The directors will pay the fine in default.
Regarding the duty of care, the directors’ duties are fiduciary to the company. This, therefore, means that they are ethically accountable and hold legal responsibility to act with the best interest of the business owners at heart. On the same note, their decisions and advices are expected to be in good faith and towards the betterment of the corporation (Muchlinski, 2002, p. 46). When a director fails to exercise due care, it translates that the director will be personally responsible. Andy can be held answering to such offence since he is guilty of acting on his personal interest to benefit himself and leave freedom to collapse, after all, his shares were less than 50% and he had only paid part of it.
The case was that the seller had initially contacted Andy to find out whether Freedom was interested in purchasing the boats but as Andy told the seller, Freedom did not have available cash at that time to make the purchase (Goulding, 1999, p. 49). Andy did not bother to tell the other directors of Freedom about the potential deal. Instead, Andy told the seller that Ocean would make the purchase in place of Freedom. Ocean completed the purchase of the boats in November 2009. Ocean has now re-sold the boats in France, at a healthy profit, to contacts known to Andy through his dealings in Freedom. The value of Andy’s shareholding in Ocean has increased by £60,000 as a result of the profits made on the re-sale of the boats. There situation here is that Andy increased his shares by sixty thousand pounds. However, the other shareholders in Ocean are not mentioned, this seems to be a good deal that would have helped Freedom spring back into operation considering that it was going for loans much less than 60,000 pounds. Furthermore, the buyer he was dealing with in France, he only got to know them through Freedom. There is a very high possibility that these buyers took his thinking that it was a Freedom deal. Andy did not act in good faith.
Fiduciary Duties
Despite the fact that companies are separate entities from their owners and directors, the administration is entrusted to them. Directors are therefore managers acting as company agents and fiduciaries. From Aberdeen Rlwy Co V Blaikie Bros [1854], it was defined that directors have the responsibility of managing a business. For this reason, they had only a ‘simple duty’ which was to do everything under their power for the company with the interest of shareholders at heart (Goulding, 1999, p. 49). Basically, it’s from the definition of the responsibilities of directors that problems usually stem out. Great Eastern Railway Co. v. Turner (1872) case derived the explanation that directors were trustees of the properties and money that the specified company held. From this case, Lord Selborune confirmed what was suggested by Lord Johnson that directors’ rights and duties were twofold in McLintock v Campbell; company trustee and agent. However, acting as an agent was the main priority (Goulding, 1999, p. 49).
Comparatively, it’s important to suggest to Robert, Sugar and Andy that as directors, their duty was a direct consequence of what has been generated by equity courts as loyalty on fiduciary codes. The tort law addresses business in terms of negligence regarding duty of care and professional responsibility (Pass, 2004, p. 52).
The three directors have the right to enter into any contract on behalf of their business since the law provides for that moral authority. However, if their actions can extend outside what they are required to do, then they will be responsible for breach of the pledge of authority. When directors regard themselves as agents of creating companies and happen to make profits, then they have the moral obligation to account for how the profits were made to the shareholders (Pass, 2004, p. 52). If the directors are shareholders, then it’s important for the involved director to inform others about the deal still.
Directors persuaded shareholders in Allen v. Hyatt (1914) 30 T.L.R. 444 to give them an option of reinvesting the share indicating that it was very necessary at that point. As the directors exercised the said option, the profits were overwhelming. Nonetheless, they were required to account for it to the shareholders. When a person acts as an agent and at the same time possesses a special skill, then he/she must exercise the skill (Pass, 2004, p. 52). However, since being a director, in this case, is not a professional worker to the company this law is not applicable to him. The UK law does not make it mandatory that directors must have special skills. Still, when a director or a shareholder knows something that touches on the survival of the company, then he/she has the moral duty to communicate it to the rest of the directors and shareholders and together they can come up with an important decision that would see the survival of the company (Pass, 2004, p. 52).
Directors can be charged for breaching fiduciary responsibility when they divert business deals from their company entirely even when they had already left it. Collins J. Lawrence held one of the directors liable for fiduciary offence in CMS Dolphin Limited v Simonet ChD 2001 case as a result of redirecting an opportunity to do business from his company even though the said director was no longer attached to the company (Arsalidou, 2002, p. 62). Such is the case with what Andy was doing. When he was approached by a prospective seller about a potential deal for Freedom to purchase the boats, he never told the other directors but drove the seller away from Freedom and suggested another company (Ocean) instead.
Bell v Lever Brothers Ltd [1932] AC 161 case helped to determine that a director cannot be prohibited from running a competing business in which he is also a director. However, taking information obtained by dealings in Freedom to Ocean. This is a breach of fiduciary responsibility and from the above case, it was determined that even after leaving a company, a director still had the fiduciary duty and, in this regard,, he/she cannot redirect possible business deal from the company (Arsalidou, 2002, p. 62). Furthermore, the case helped to determine that the directory in such a situation cannot misuse information that he/she obtained while a director. This case accused a director (Bell) who moved with the company’s workers and customers to begin his own business (Arsalidou, 2002, p. 62). Andy has acted just the same by stooping the seller from accessing Freedoms and then leading Ocean into purchasing the boats. He even goes a head to assist in selling the boats later to a dealer he knew while carrying out Freedom Deals.
Common-Law Responsibilities
The UK common law recognized the duties of directors as trusteeship and acting as agents of a company. They are hence required to represent the interests of the shareholders. Whatever the company does is not to be charged on individuals (Ritcher, 2002, p. 32). However, when the director acts on behalf of a company, then the company is held liable for the deals or transactions undertaken by that particular director considering that he/she was representing the company. However, it’s pertinent for Andy, Sugar and Robert to take note of the fact that a director can be responsible for fraud even when they were representing a company. Briess v Wooley R [1954] is consequential in exposing this concept. Through some fraudulent trade, the managing director of a company, N Ltd acquired a lot of profits. He later negotiated the sale of shares the firm had in E Ltd without giving an explanation on how the company had become so profitable. The shareholders approved the deal and the sale was done. Upon discovery of the fraud, all the shareholders were prosecuted for colluding with the director to acquire money deceptively (Kakabadse et al, 2001, p. 4). As Robert went to acquire a loan with un-audited accounting records, he posed a bigger risk to the entire business. Fraudulent acquisition of money is a crime.
At times the best interest of the shareholder may not be the same as those of the company, for instance, when shareholders need to be paid their dividends which would, in turn, paralyze the company’s cash flow (Ritcher, 2002, p. 32). This case is dilemmatic for directors regardless of what capacity they are working in.
Common law demands that directors must not in any manner make use of the influence or powers they have due to the position they hold to carry out secret personal ventures that are profit-making at the expense of the company (Ritcher, 2002, p. 35). Such undertakings are illegal and the law will treat the profits that arise from these deals by the said director as belonging to the betrayed company. Under this law, the company can claim that the increase Andy got from diverting an opportunity from Freedom belonged to Freedom Diving and Leisure Limited. There is also the case of conflict of interest say for example another company with which a director owns or is willing to do business. Such conflict needs to be declared and the director in play should not take part in the negotiation. This is not however the case in our case. Andy does not disclose his dealings with Ocean in fact he literally hijacks Freedom’s opportunity. UK law requires that directors should take responsibility for the due skills. Though subjective, directors are not expected to be quiet on important issues for the business (Kakabadse et al, 2001, p. 4).
Statutory Responsibilities
Directors hold personal responsibilities of making sure that their businesses comply with the United Kingdoms’ law regarding company operations. Company law that is dealt with here includes duties as follows;
Proper preparation of the accounting records; these accounts have to be accurate and fair and be adequately prepared according to the standard of the UK accounting body (Dulewicz & Herbert, 2004, p. 263). The accounts should be audited by an external auditor. Following such requirements, it’s a criminal offence for shareholders and directors to deceive or intentionally fails to provide critical information to auditors the way Freedom decided to use accounting record inflated by 50,000 pounds to acquire a loan from Risk It finance.
Duties to Creditors
Basically, shareholders are responsible for meeting the creditor’s demand. And directors, however, company debts are not directly on their shoulders. When a company suffers solvency, directors do not have any duty to creditors (De Lacy, 2002, p. 58). Conversely, if the company suffers a financial crisis then the directors become directly responsible for any fraudulent deals or illegal trade immediately prior to the liquidation of the company (Armour et al, 2003, p. 532). The law defines fraudulent trade as a situation where the company or directors for this matter deliberately deceives or defrauds their creditors. However, this legal action can be tough to take since the intent of fraudulence has to be proved. Liquidation means that the company closes down and sells all the properties it owns and then compensates all the creditors (Dulewicz & Herbert, 2004, p. 263). Jack can be able to get repaid through this means. In some cases, the assets cannot manage to compensate for all of them.
Directors can be held liable for letting the company trade (wrongful trade) and incur more debt even when they vividly understood or should have discovered that the company showed no practical prospects of settling its debts (Aguilera, 2005, p. 4). The fact that a company is making losses in itself does not qualify to be termed as wrongful trade. However, when there is no feasibility of it reviving again and there are also more doubts as to whether the property it has will be able to re-pay the debts as the company goes due, then that is wrongful trade. The value of the property the company has is very tricky since when in the liquidation process, the sale is forceful and as a result, the value can be very low (Armour et al, 2003, p. 539). Lower than the quotation in financial books since there is pressure to sell and compensate creditors.
Common law requires that in the event of liquidation, the liquidator has to present a report about the activities and behaviour of the directors prior to liquidation. The report includes the compliance of the company with a number of regulatory statutory as well as the performance of every director (Aguilera, 2005, p. 6). Whether the directors consulted with the insolvency practitioners is assessed to show whether the directors acted fast to mitigate the situation as soon as the signs of collapse became evident. This is because the directors have the duty to make sure that the situation was under continuous monitoring and that every decision thereafter is documented properly (De Lacy, 2002, p. 58).
Conclusion
The corporate law concept is designed to be purposeful, exercise pragmatic truth and which cannot contradict. Corporations hence present themselves as liberal and the environment in which they operate an ultimate evolution of human laws that take care of every concern. But the critical assessment of the internal organizational structure and the interaction with the legal system indicate that these corporations are legal entities built on the ideological construct, planned to progress vested interests. As a consequence, they are susceptible to transformation just like other institutions, as people understand this, the better their survival in a corporate environment.
Reference List
Aguilera, R. V. 2005. Corporate Governance and Director Accountability: An Institutional Comparative Perspective. British Journal of Management, 16, 1–15.
Armour, J., Deakin, S & Konzelmann, S.J. 2003. Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance. British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41, pp. 531-555.
Arsalidou, D. 2002. ‘Directors’ Fiduciary Duties to Shareholders: The Platt and Peskin Cases’, Comp. Law. 23(2), 61-63.
Dean, J. 2001. Directing Public Companies – Company Law and the Stakeholder Society. Cavendish.
De Lacy, J. 2002. ‘The Reform of United Kingdom Company Law’, London, Cavendish Publishing Limited.
Dulewicz, V. & Herbert, P. 2004. ‘Does The Composition And Practice Of Boards Of Directors Bear Any Relationship To The Performance Of Their Companies?’ Corporate Governance, 12(3), pp. 263–280.
Grier, N. 1998. UK Company Law. Wiley.
Griffin, S. 2000. Company Law – Fundamental Principles 3rd ed. Longman.
Goulding, S. 1999. Company Law 2nd Ed. Cavendish.
Kakabadse, A., Ward, K., Korac-Kakabadse, N., & Bowman, C. 2001. Role and Contribution of Non-Executive Directors. Corporate Governance Journal. Vol. 1. Issue 1, pp 4 – 8.
Muchlinski, P. 2002. ‘The Company Law Review and multinational corporate groups’, in John de Lacy (ed.) Reform of United Kingdom Company Law. Cavendish.
Pass, C. 2004. Corporate Governance and the Role of Non-Executive Directors in Large UK Companies: An Empirical Study. Corporate Governance Journal, Vol. 4. Issue 2, Pp 52 – 63.
Ritcher, J. 2002. Holding Corporations Accountable – Corporate Conduct, International Codes and Citizen Action. Zed Books.
Table of Cases
Aberdeen Rlwy Co V Blaikie Bros [1854] 1 Macq 461.
Allen v. Hyatt (1914) 30 T.L.R. 444.
Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart NV v Slatford [1953] 1 QB 248.
Bell v Lever Brothers Ltd [1932] AC 161.
Briess v. Woolley [1954] A.C. 333, 353–354.
CMS Dolphin Limited v Simonet ChD 2001.
Ebbw Vale UDC v South Wales TALA [1951] 2 KB 366.
Great Eastern Railway Co. v. Turner (1872) 8 Ch App 149.
MCcLintock v Campbell Salomon v Salomon & Co [1897] AC 22.
The increase in popularity of crime investigation series such as Without a Trace, Bones, and Crime Scene Investigation has created a perception now referred to as the ‘CSI effect’. This is the response of the public who have been exposed to forensic science evidence from a fictional point of view. As a result, most people expect to see a manifestation of what they watch on television in court. What the public fails to realize is that there is a huge gap between the real and fictionalized forensic evidence.
It is important to note that the technology and procedures behind scientific proof had taken many years of research before actually being tried and adopted. These processes are too complex to be learned and mastered after watching only one episode of crime shows. One of the institutions that have been tremendously affected by the ‘CSI effect’ is the jury.
The jury is one of the most respected institutions in America. The American society considers the jury a symbol of justice and impartiality. However, the jury has been blamed for predisposition. The juror holds preconceived views and expectations even before a trial begins. These ideas affect legal proceedings and ruling.
According to Cole and Villa, the jury is confused about the real potential of forensic proof (1337). Amongst other types of evidence, the panel of judges looks forward to see DNA samples, expert testimony and fingerprints. The fact that this evidence can be contaminated is taken lightly. Currently, trials without a high standard of proof are acquitted while the same trials would have led to convictions a few years ago. Based on these facts, it is clear that the credibility and competence of the jury is threatened by the ‘CSI effect’.
This realization poses a risk to the judicial system and questions the jury selection process. If crime related shows negatively determine the decision of the jury, then the jury’s selection system must be altered. This paper addresses the correlation between crime related shows and the judicial system to determine how popular customs and jury selection can create a possible skewed jury. It further addresses the need to change the jury selection structure.
Common misconceptions in crime related shows
One of the greatest challenges about crime related shows is the fact they generate and promote a lot of scientific evidence myths and misconceptions. Consequently, the misconceptions created spread through prosecutors, lawyers, members of the jury, and judges alike. The only people who are spared from these misconceptions are those who can discern the boundaries of each form of evidence. There are four primary misconception discussed by Durnal in his article, Crime Scene Investigation (As Seen on TV).
The first area is the capability of various analytical procedures. Crime shows are created to develop a fallacy where all you need to do is click a button on a computer or machine to obtain the results (Durnal 4). However, this is not true. Most procedures require the sample be carefully prepared before it can be tested or scanned. In most shows, the police department usually has a database that contains all the information. While it is true that such database exist, it has limited functions.
The second delusion is in the division of duties and responsibilities (Durnal 5). CSI creates a scenario where investigators and scientists are available all the time. Each person has a special duty and no cases of overlap or backlog arise at a particular time. With regard to evidence, crime shows communicate that there is abundance of evidence left behind after a crime. If this was the case then investigators would have such an easy task. However, criminals tend to leave no evidence that will point towards them.
The final misconception was about timing. In CSI, all the investigator has to do is buy football tickets for the lab specialist and he gets his evidence tested in ten minutes. No wonder a respondent in a survey had this to say about the jury, “They believed DNA was a test that only took a few minutes to do; they had seen it used “all the time” on CSI” (Robbers 91).
The correlation between the need for forensic evidence in court and the increase in crime related programs
In order to determine the extent to which crime related shows has influenced jurors’ expectations, it is imperative to establish the relationship between the need for forensic evidence in court and the increase in crime related shows. Research done by Baskin and Sommers in their article, Crime Show Viewing Habits and Public Attitudes towards Forensic Evidence: The “CSI Effect” Revisited, highlight this correlation.
The authors claim that pretrial feelings do not influence the rate of acquittal or conviction based on the availability of scientific proof but, instead, crime show viewing has a direct impact on jurors’ decisions (Baskin and Sommers 101).
In a survey where the main aim was to determine whether the public consider forensic evidence more reliable than other types of evidence after watching crime show, and whether crime dramas or other factors have an effect on these views. The authors concluded that forensic evidence has indeed become popular over the years.
Results from the survey carried out revealed that the public believed that evidence and testimonies had different degrees of credibility and reliability. Scientific evidence was highly regarded compared to other forms of evidence such as eyewitness testimony. DNA was the most popular type of scientific evidence. This was followed by fingerprints, medical expert and police testimony in that order. Majority of the response indicated that the testimony of the injured party and eyewitness would not bear any weight during a trial.
According to the survey, more than half the people did not think the presence of DNA highly significant in a rape case. Even without this type of evidence the prosecution still held a strong case. However, a good number of people would condemn offenders in a rape case without forensic evidence as compared to defendants in a murder case.
A Bivariate examination of the survey revealed that the degree of influence depends on several factors. This means that several issues determine the hold of CSI effect on a person’s life. These issues include nationality, sex, unfair treatment, race, level of education and crime related shows. For example, a high significant number of white people would trust the testimony of a police officer and fingerprints as opposed to other forms of proof.
On the other hand, white residents are less likely to convict an offender in a murder case if forensic proof is absent. Normally, white people find it so easy to believe in justice and the hand of the law rather than forensic science. This however, does not hold true for women and scholars. Majority of the women and highly learned respondents did not have confidence in the evidence provided by eyewitness (Baskin and Sommers 105).
Respondents who had been victims of crime disregarded the testimony of medical specialist compared to respondents with no account of victimization. The most reliable evidence for people with high levels of education was forensic evidence, fingerprints and the authentication of police officers. Majority of the respondents who had served in the justice department thought the evidence of police was more dependable compared to medical specialist evidence.
In addition, the study showed that the number of hours spent watching crime related shows greatly determined the predisposition toward scientific evidence (Baskin and Sommers 110).
The findings of the survey confirm that the most reliable form of proof is scientific evidence. Moreover, it authenticates that the number of hours spent watching crime dramas has a significant influence on the preference of evidence by members of the jury. Basically, crime related programs directly influence the views and the opinion of the public and the jury concerning forensic proof (Baskin and Sommers 110).
The ‘CSI effect’ effects
Cole and Villa in their article, Investigating the ‘CSI effect’ Effect: Media and litigation crisis in criminal law argue that criminal investigation dramas are disadvantaging legal proceedings and ruling. The ‘CSI effect’ has different effects on the members of the jury, the prosecutors, defense attorneys, television producers and the public (1343). All these people react differently to the effects of CSI.
To support this claim, Hughes and his colleagues allege that civilians attempt to correct the actions of law enforcement agents in their article The Perceived Impact of Crime Scene Investigation Shows on the Administration of Justice (261). The main objective for each party is to meet the expectations of the jury. These effects culminate into what the authors refer to as the “CSI effect effect”. In the end, the verdicts issued in courts mostly expose the effects of CSI on the criminal justice system.
The authors allege that the CSI effects trigger other effects: “the strong prosecutor’s effect”, “the weak prosecutor effect”, “the defense effect’’, and “the police chief effect (Cole and Villa 1344).
The Strong Prosecutor’s Effect
“The strong prosecutor’s effect” gives the jury an upper hand as opposed to the prosecutor during a trial. Essentially, this means that the jury expects more from the prosecution in terms of forensic evidence. Furthermore, the jury requires the scientific evidence presented to be more persuasive. In the event that the expected evidence is absent or insufficient, the cases are usually acquitted. In order to find out the effect of CSI on the jury, a study was carried out.
The survey focused on citizens who had been awarded jury duty in Michigan. The respondents were questioned on crime shows viewing habits and presented with a variety of crime related cases. They were further questioned about the types of evidence they expected in a hypothetical trial (Cole and Villa 1350). The results reveal that respondents who spent more time watching crime related programs expected a high standard of proof compared to individuals who did not watch crime related shows.
The Weak Prosecutor Effect and the Defense Effect
The second effect is “the weak prosecutor effect”. Cole and Villa allege that this effect changes the prosecutor, not the actions of the members of the jury. This influence has forced prosecutors to change their strategy because they have knowledge that the jury expects forensic evidence. As a result, the prosecution tries to show that the evidence provided by the defense attorney is not sufficient (Cole and Villa1344). The third effect is triggered by the defense attorneys in an attempt to make the ‘CSI effect work to their advantage.
It is known as “the defense effect’’. Attorneys strategize to augment the credibility of forensic evidence and expert testimony (Cole and Villa 1345). Baskin and Somers support this effect by claiming that, “The impact of the presumed CSI effect has reverberated throughout various sectors of society, with attorneys reporting changes in trial strategies so as to counteract it” (100).
The Police Chief Effect and More Physical Evidence
The fourth effect dubbed “the police chief effect” describes the countermeasures used by criminals to distort or contaminate evidence (Cole and Villa1344). To hide their crimes, criminals wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints on the crime scene. In addition, law enforcement agents have been affected by all these effects.
Durnal in the article “Crime Scene Investigation (As Seen on TV) supports this effect by arguing that outside the court of law, the police department experience unwarranted expectations from the public, jurors, defense attorneys, and the prosecution. He says, “The police, alongside actual crime scene investigators and evidence technicians, are now finding themselves gathering more pieces of physical evidence than they ever dreamed necessary” (Durnal 4).
The problem of gathering so much evidence is that the police have no space to store it. In addition, it is difficult to keep track of the number of evidence that comes in. This is one of the important truths that producers fail to show in the crime related programs. The fact that the evidence is not easy to manage means that it can easily be lost, destroyed, altered, or contaminated.
CSI Effect Effect
To curb the effect of CSI, the media has tried to educate the public on the CSI effect. However, the actions of the media have triggered another effect known as the “CSI effect effect” (Cole and Villa 1371). It points out the attempt of the jury to correct their predisposed notions. This corrective mechanism is biased because the juror pities the prosecution and takes side without giving thought to the evidence presented by the defense attorney. Consequently, the juror sides with the prosecution during trial.
These effects reflect the “CSI effect” as a strategic game played by the jury, prosecutors, attorneys and the police in a court of law (Cole and Villa 1371). Bearing the burden of equity, are judges who have the mandate of ensuring that justice is fair. Judges in America are frustrated by the predisposed notions influenced by the effects of CSI.
Apart from doing their job, they have to take time and ensure that the members of the jury understand the limits of scientific proof. However, research shows that the efforts of the judges have been futile in the past (Durnal 9). It is important for law makers to realize that the ‘CSI effect presents a deep-seated legal and social problem that need to be addressed.
The role of the media and “Junk science”
Mann in his editorial The CSI Effect: Better Jurors Throughout Television and Science claims that the media is to blame for the biased expectations of jurors that threaten the credibility of the justice system. Hughes supports this claim when he says, “One potential source of cognitive expectations is television” (260). As the viewing habits of jurors increase, the jurors are exposed to crime and criminal proceedings in a negative way. They hold the notion that fingerprints can be obtained in less than ten minutes.
On the other hand, the jury expects evidence of DNA in every crime scene. Mann goes ahead to explain that these shows are not realistic; particularly considering the time it takes to collect the evidence and the availability of evidence in the crime scene.
They last for a maximum of 45 minutes and by that time, crimes have already been solved and the criminal convicted. Additionally, Mann conveys the challenges faced by the prosecution and jury in court to meet the new standards set by crime related shows. The prosecution is under pressure to present evidence that meet legal and “Hollywood” ideologies (Mann 216).
Another analogous view on this issue is that of Robbers in her article blinded by science: the social construction of reality in forensic television shows and its effect on criminal jury trials. The author alleges that a greater part of the guidelines dealing with crimes are misrepresented or distorted depending on what television producers present. She relays the fact that the media has influenced both the public and the jury in a similar way.
For instance, Robbers claims that “not only does it appear juries expect the same level of evidence in a court room as they see on television shows (regardless of agency’s resources), but they also expect evidence to be produced extremely quickly” (84-85). Following these claims, the media is depicted as the force behind the negative changes experienced in court. This therefore explains why the CSI effect is a threat to the criminal justice system.
In order to illustrate the role played by the media in promoting the ‘CSI effect’, Mann looks back at the history of court proceedings (217). He asserts that in the past, criminals were acquitted by bribing or threatening inexperienced prosecutors. Because this trend was threatening the purpose of justice, the government introduced forensic science in an attempt to reform the justice system. Nevertheless, the jury did not readily accept this type of evidence.
Therefore, the government made several efforts to convince the public about the significance of scientific proof by using the media. Even though these efforts were successful, they cannot be compared to the effect of crime related shows on jurors’ decision. Mann emphasizes that “ The finite time allowed to a single episode of a television show, coupled with the public’s demand that scientific answers come quickly and mysteries be solved neatly, result in a portrayal of forensic science that could not be more contrary to real life” (220)
The author does not dispute the importance of the body of knowledge revealed to the public from crime shows. But, there is a difference between promoting knowledge and threatening an institution which takes pride in applying scientific knowledge. The present day members of the jury fail to remember that what they see on television is only entertainment. In fact, some television producers make money by recreating popular story lines from events that capture the attention of the public.
For example, in the case of the Oklahoma bomber Terry Nichols, a potential juror initially informed the court that the accused was guilty because another accused Timothy McVeigh, had previously been convicted for a similar later (Mann 222). Later, the court learned that the opinion of the juror did not originate from the case of McVeigh, but on views aired in a popular crime related drama (Mann 222).
In another incidence, a mother who drowned her five children was acquitted because of the testimony of an expert. The witness argued that a similar story had once been aired in the popular drama Law & Order (Mann 223). In that episode the accused was released on a plea of insanity. In the same way, the psychiatrist who argued in favor of the accused testified that the mother was insane.
This incidence demonstrates how confusing it is to distinguish between fiction and reality even for individuals who are highly learned. To promote his allegations, Mann asks “if an expert is confused as to what reality is and what fiction is, how we can blame a juror from being confused” (223).
According to the author, CSI effect activates one more issue dubbed “junk science” (Mann 231). It means that even the most reliable scientific proof can sometimes be flawed. This can be illustrated in case of Martha Stewart. The prosecution presented the evidence of an expert who lied to the court. In another public case, the public did not understand why they had to wait for DNA results for two months while it only took hours in Crime Investigation Scene.
In addition, the fact that forensic scientists work with different employers also questions their creditability. For each case, the scientist can work for either the prosecutor or the defense. Depending on the client, scientists will take up the objective of the client as their own (Mann 232). This means that scientists can change or contaminate evidence in their favor. It is sad to think the very evidence the jury believes in to make their decision in court can be modified to favor one party.
What the Juror Expects
According to Trask in her editorial “The “CSI Effect”: Popular Culture’s Effect on Civil Juries,” the effect of CSI” is a phenomenon where crime related dramas endorse idealistic hopes about forensic science amongst jurors (1). Therefore, Jurors regard forensic science as a determinant of whether an accused is innocent or guilty. Similarly, jurors have changed their expectations about the burden of proof. Instead of looking at evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt”, the jury totally depends on forensic evidence (Trask 1).
During some trials, jurors would go as far as asking why forms of evidence were not presented (Hughes and Magers 263). The prosecution is tasked with testing DNA sample, obtaining fingerprints or hair strands; for fear that the jury will acquit the case for lack of CSI evidence. Consequently, the prosecution or defense attorney can even lie in court to make their evidence look credible.
For this reason, some legal scholars are worried that the “CSI effects” will revolutionize the justice system if the government is not careful. According to Trask, one of the fundamental principles in law “deductive reason” is gradually being substituted by a call for absolute “forensic substantiation” (Trask 2). Trask alleges that jurors have less consideration for credible evidence but, instead, they expect lawyers and the prosecution to submit evidence similar to that seen on television.
To support her allegations, she provides statistics of the number of people who watch the CSI franchise series in a week. Her statistics show that crime related dramas as ranked among the top ten shows with more than 45 million viewers in a week (Trask 2).
To further support her claim, the author points out that the juror fails to consider that forensic evidence can be contaminated or compromised by human beings (Trask 2). In addition, prosecutors have claimed that the juror acquitted cases that lacked scientific evidence even though forensic evidence was immaterial or unavailable.
The other expectation of the jury is the presentation of the evidence in court. Members of the jury can be influenced by the arguments of lawyers and their ability to support the evidence presented. This finding is consistent with the study done by Robbers in her article blinded by science: the social construction of reality in forensic television shows and its effect on criminal jury trials. The author claims that after watching the way in which evidence is presented on television.
The jury expects the defense and the prosecution to present evidence in a similar way. In a survey carried out, she points out that the prosecution felt the need to go through the scientific evidence following the testimony of an expert (Robbers 95). On the other hand, the defense attorneys spend unnecessary time convincing the jury about the credibility of the forensic evidence presented. Robbers reports that more than two thirds of the respondents noticed these changes as the popularity of crime related programs rises (95).
To illustrate the expectation of the jury, Trask says “They are used to seeing such farfetched technology as: pouring caulk into knife wounds to make a cast of the weapons. They expect machines that can identify cologne from scents on clothing” (Trask 2). This statement advocates that jurors have their minds made up about what a trial should look like. They expect lie detectors, professional testimonies, fingerprints illuminators, and microscopes amongst other devices.
For example, In Robert Blake trial, one of the members of jury defended the accused because the prosecution was unable to provide sufficient physical evidence. The jurors claimed the evidence provided was “insubstantial” because the prosecution could not prove that gun residue was found in Blake’s body or clothes.
Instead of carefully considering the reality and credibility, prosecutors, defense attorneys, investigators, and law enforcement officers struggle to gather evidence to satisfy the expectations of the jury. What the jury fails to do is take time and ponder over the motives of the crime.
Although Trask agrees that there is little empirical fact to support the influence of CSI on the Juror, she understands that subjective and qualitative data makes it difficult to disregard the effect (4). To prove this point, she relates the effect of CSI to other topics such as pre-trial publicity and media campaigns. Trask likens the “CSI effect” to pre-trial publicity. Jurors are more likely to believe the report presented by the media even if the evidence is inadequate.
An accused in a case highlighted by positive publicity is likely to get acquitted as compared to a similar individual exposed negatively by the media. Mancini notes that the jury does not take time to examine evidence presented by the media before they make a decision (157). In the same light, if a producer of a crime show implies during one of the episodes that one type of evidence is more plausible than the rest, the jury will assume the evidence is reasonable in a real court.
Robbers supports Trask that the members of the jury have developed a high expectation on the type of evidence and the time taken to gather the evidence. To endorse her allegations, she illustrates what the reactions of the jury to scientific evidence. She divides the observations of a survey conducted into themes. The first theme shows statistics of precise instances where the jury favored forensic evidence instead of eye witness testimony (Robbers 91).
Another specific instance is whereby the jurors dismissed the police because they think officers are incompetent if they fail to present DNA tests as part of their substantiation. Despite the fact than no DNA testing is required; the jury expects nothing less from the crime scene investigators. For example, in a case where the defendant knew the person who slit his throat in an attempt to kill him, the jury still insisted that the blood of the victim found on the crime scene be tested.
Similarly, Robbers observed that the jury demands forensic evidence despite its irrelevance in the case. If evidence is unavailable, the police are blamed for a “sloppy job” (Robbers 91).The last specific instance is where the jurors are not able to tell opinions from facts.
The second theme describes the changes in the way attorneys, judges, prosecutors, and members of the jury carry out their work. Majority of the respondents representing 86 percent of the people interviewed, felt like the effect of CSI had changed their duties (Robbers 94). They are now forced to spend more time talking about scientific evidence. Judges spent more time ensuring that the jury comprehends the role of forensic evidence.
The attorney and prosecutors spent more time differentiating CSI evidence and the real evidence while the jury tried to understand the difference. As a result, trials take more time and money. The third theme narrates other effect of CSI. The most common effect is the impractical expectations of jurors. This includes the belief that the police department has all the resources required for scientific testing and all the time to gather the evidence.
Civil Cases
Trask discloses that the effect of CSI manifests differently in civil cases as compared to criminal cases. On the other hand, she notes that the expectation of the jury does not waver. The jury has failed to distinguish the difference between civil and criminal cases. The panel of judges forgets that they are dealing with a technical lawsuit and still expect to see hard evidence. For example, in a civil case highlighted by Trask in her article, a plaintiff filed a case against her employer (5).
The plaintiff accused the owner of a food chain of being raped because of poor security at her place of work. During the proceeding, the jury agreed that the owner of the restaurant was negligent on his part. However, the jury doubted that the girl was raped because there was no DNA to confirm her plea.
Lawyers have been blinded during proceeding due to the expectation of the jury. Instead of proving a case for or against the client, they waste time looking for evidence that may be immaterial or absent. Mancini claims these heightened expectations have led to acquittance of many criminals and the questioning of the defense lawyers’ capacities (163).
Changing the jury selection system
Based on these findings, it is clear that the effect of CSI is moving among the multitude like bush fire. This phenomenon has affected the criminal justice system both positively and negatively. This study has mainly highlighted the negative impact which is high standard of expectation of the jury. It is also clear that some of the jurors’ expectations are not reasonable.
These high expectations do not lead to the improvement of the system but threaten it in a way that it might eventually collapse if action is not taken. To make matters worse, “CSI effects” further trigger other effects that threat the credibility of the entire justice system. Essentially, these expectations have created a skewed jury whose central objective is to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt”. For this reason, the jury selection process needs to be altered.
Education is the first key in implementing change in the jury’s selection system. If the Jury is aware of the “CSI effects” to watch out for, then it will be easy to mitigate issues arising. Education involves briefing the jury prior to a trial about the principles and procedures approved by the constitution and the rule of law. For example, for civil cases, it is important to let the jury know that forensic evidence might not be relevant or available.
It is better for the members of jury to understand why a certain type of evidence is not available than to create their own assumptions. In view of the fact that CSI has led jurors’ belief in ‘beyond a doubt’ instead of ‘reasonable doubt, it is essential for jurors to understand what the law considers reasonable. Other important terms like motives, opinion and facts should be highlighted to avoid confusion. Practitioners in the justice department should take time and discuss their complaints.
Correspondingly, such discussion will enable the different parties to understand the different aspects of the effects. Understanding these ideas will help the jury distinguish between the real evidence and tailored evidence for entertainment purposes. In addition, it may be essential that lawyers and judges take into consideration, from the beginning, that prospective members of jury may hold predisposed ideas that were formed through viewing in crime related shows and these ideas may contribute to their decision making.
Currently, the common trend adopted by criminal justice professionals is to excuse practitioners who work in the organization from jury selection because they have information about the system. However, the effect of CSI might force this trend to change. Selecting professionals who have knowledge may be beneficial to the system in the long run. This is because these professions have knowledge that there are other forms of reliable evidence apart from forensic proof.
More importantly, jurors should go through a series of interviews before they are selected. In the Bivariate analysis results shown earlier in the study, there are other factors that affect jurors’ predisposition such as race, age, sex, nationality, and level of education. These factors can be taken in to consideration during interviews.
For example, the selection panel can ask a potential juror about his or her profession, his or her age, what he or she does during his or her free time and his or her thoughts about the justice system, amongst other details. Another useful strategy to select jurors who are not clouded by the “CSI effect” is to use questionnaires. Instead of judging from the appearance, it is best to ask questions before selecting the jury. Implementing these strategies will ensure that the jury rises above the effects of CSI.
Works Cited
Baskin, Deborah R and Ira Sommers B. “Crime-Show-Viewing Habits and Public Attitudes Toward Forensic Evidence: The CSI-Effect Revisited.” The Justice System Journal 31.1 (2010): 97-113. Print.
Cole, Simon A and Rachel Dioso-Villa. “Investigating the CSI Effect: Media and Litigation Crisis in Criminal Law.” Stanford Law Review 61.6 (2009): 1335-1373. Print.
Durnal, Evan W. “Crime Scene Investigation (As Seen on TV).” Forensic Science International 199.1-3 (2010): 1-5. Web.
Hughes, Thomas and Megan Magers. “The perceived impact of crime investigation shows on the administration of justice.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 14.3 (2007): 259-276. Print.
Mancini, Dante E. “The CSI Effect Reconsidered: Is It Moderated by Need for Cognition?” North American Journal of Psychology 13.1 (2011): 155-174. Print.
Mann, Michael. “The CSI Effect: Better Jurors Throughout Television and Science?” Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal 24 (2005-2006): 211-237. Print.
As the world continues to develop and the income gaps between the poor and the rich widen, joblessness rate increases the rates of crimes committed increases and it is during this process that the law enforcers are given the power to control or reduce these rates. Their powers include but not limited to carrying out investigations, making arrests, and presenting suspects to the courts. If there is one place where citizens know of their rights, then it is in the United States.
The constitution clearly protects them against unreasonable raids from the police force in that in case a police officer wants to conduct a search he must be armed with a search warrant issued by the relevant authorities in this case an officer in the judicial system a judge or a magistrate. A search warrant is a legal manuscript allowing the security personnel to conduct a search and confiscate available evidence from an alleged place (Siegel, 2009). This protects the American citizens against surprise police intrusions by the 4th amendment of the country constitution that states that
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon Probable Cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized (Hill, n.d, pg 1)
Nonetheless, a search warrant is necessary in the incidences of (lawful) arrest and items seizures as long as the security has got the evidence of the open view criminal offense.
Search
Under the US (criminal) justice, a search is the pursuance by the security personnel for property (or communications) which if seized will of hints on how to solve given crime. There exist two types of searches: Routine searches and non routine searches. A routine search is not subjective to a particular individual but it is a compulsory activity. It’s a day to day activity for example when boarding a plane or when traveling to a long journey together. Searches are made to ensure nothing illegal has been carried or no individual is armed to ensure the safety of everybody. Non routine searches occur when the search goes beyond the limited intrusion for example in case a drug smuggling case where individuals smuggle the drugs through their digestive system and scans have to be done.
Seizure
Collection of evidence and the arrests of the suspected individuals can be described as seizure. Most of the times seizures are made when ever evidence which can be produces as an exhibit towards solving a particular case are discovered. In short it can be explained as meaningful interference with an individual’s possesory interests in that property.
Arrest
An arrest refers to the action of a police officer taking an individual against his or her own will for questioning or prosecution; it is usually not a voluntary occasion as most of the times it will interfere with the individual’s freedom. As long as an individual does not commit a crime in the presence of a policeman or there is no probable reason to arrest an individual then an arrest warrant has to be issued by the magistrate or a judge. When an arrest is made the police officer has to inform the suspected criminal of his or her rights when in the police custody (which are usually known as Miranda in the United States) before the interrogations can begin
Reasonableness
When the government interest advanced by a particular search or seizure seems more reasonable than the privacy of an individual or freedom of movement or if the particular situation may affect the peace of a nation then there is a reasonable reason for the arrest or seizure under the American law (Doyle, 2006).
Reasonable distrust and probable cause are known (common sense) reasoning whose considerations is practical to the day to day life. They are instead mind concepts that warrant a certain activity by a law enforceable be it a search, a seizure, or an arrest.
How Privacy is Affected by Searches and Seizures
The fourth amendment to the US constitution ensures right of all its countrymen to be secure in their persons, houses, and places of work among others. The law is also against unreasonable searches and seizures. Unreasonable searches and seizures affect human privacy when conducted without prior warning or when done involuntarily without the individual in question awareness. When searches and seizures are conducted the privacy is lost since whatever they come across, even though unrelated to the crime, will be available to them and may lead to discovery of other things not helpful in the line of justice.
The Concept of Stop and Frisk
This is a random process whereby if a policeman has got reasons to suspect an individual of any law breaking offence, e.g. the person is driving while drunk, transportation of drugs or the person is armed. The policeman has the power to stop and search you. The police officer can request for the identification documents as well as seeks for the answers to what seems to be suspicious about the suspect. An impromptu search may be conducted in the individual clothing or the vehicle in case he was anyone subjected to this concept does not have to respond to specific questions about a particular crime which may have been committed in the area (Stemple, 2010).
Automobile Search Rules
As you move away from your private home so does your privacy freedom reduce. In the US, courts have ruled that when it comes to automobile, people are entitled less privacy compared to their houses or places of work. The explanation given under this perception is that automobiles are usually mobile thus they are not practitionable to issue of a search warrant before searching for evidence can take place. As long as this is done in sobriety checkpoints whereby the law enforcers stops every vehicle or stops vehicles in a predetermined mathematical basis on a public road where there is no abuse of privacy laws.
Border and Regulatory Searches
Border and regulatory searches are searches that are made at the border pursuant to a sovereign country to protect itself by stopping and searching persons and properties entering a particular country. Since they are at the border they are not subject to search warrants and a simple policy goes that if you don’t want to be searched carry nothing when crossing the border. The main aim of conducting the searches is to be aware and control what enters and leaves the country
Conclusion
As the authorities try to solve and reduce crimes in the country, individuals will have to be subjected to the above situations if suspected or as a routine occurrence depending with the situation the individual finds themselves in. thus if you don’t want to be a subject of any of the above don’t be suspicious in anyway.