The Rhetoric of Crime and Punishment - Admission/Application Essay Example

Rhetoric of Crime & Punishment Table Contents Table Contents Letter of introduction 2 Letter of introduction The journalism, mass media, and communication course has facilitated my growth as a student in this course. The emphasis on learning current affairs has broadened my knowledge on different aspects of life. As I joined the course, I only expected to learn how to take photos, edit, and write a newspaper. However, as time went by other subjects were incorporated into our syllabus, broadening my knowledge on different aspects in life. Some of the readings that have broadened my knowledge spectrum are the rhetorical perspectives, and their influence on different aspects of people‘s lives. For instance, on this subject I got knowledge that symbols are used to create the impression to the members of the public so as a journalist it is important to know how to use symbols or images to persuade the members of the society. On this subject, I learned that for rhetorical discourse to be effective it must be persuasive and facilitated by human motives. In the course, issues like the judicial system were highlighted, and how the media takes an upper hand in the facilitation of the judicial systems. In this, it is important to understand that the judicial system is mostly made based on the customs in a given society. The customs determine the rules to be made regarding a certain crime. The subject also targeted at defining prison industrial complex and its effect to the members of the society especially the poor people and people of color. The visit to the media houses gives knowledge on the usage of facilities in the media house. Rhetorical discourses. Rhetorical perspective mostly deals with what persuades or influences people. It mostly deals with social truth and what influence people’s political and social decisions. On the other hand, rhetoric is an art mostly of discourse that aims at improving the capability of the speakers or the writers to pass information to the intended audience. It mostly aims at passing information to the audience through a persuasive manner. Rhetorical discourse helps in developing and understanding a given concept. It persuades people especially in public areas for instance in the courts. Research shows that rhetoric has the power to shape the society and influence the civic life (Warnick & Barbara 141). Rhetoric discourse is concerned with how writers and speakers use symbols especially language to deliver a given message. This plays a great role especially in helping them to deliver given information appropriately. For a rhetorical discourse to be effective, it must be planned, persuasive, adapted to an audience, and shaped by human motives. In the planning stage, the writer and speaker must consider the evidence that supporting his or her argument, how to order the evidence and arguments (Warnick & Barbara 155). The writer must also consider the audience, which he or she plans to target. The role of rhetorical discourse is to persuade the audience to accept a certain idea achieved by appeals and aesthetics. Rhetorical perspective emphasizes that symbols are very influential especially within the society. For instance, the image below seeks to persuade the audience that war is not the solution to problems but instead they should seek peace. War is not the answer to problems. With the rise in crime in today’s society images of crime are very important. This is where the issue of rhetorical discourse is used in criminal and punishment aspects. TV adverts are used as a rhetorical symbol to show how crime is on the rise in today’s society. They are persuasive to the audience they focus on. For instance, in the commercials, criminals who commit crimes like rape and murder face life imprisonment. The TV commercials feature all manner of criminal behaviors so that the audience may not commit them this is a manner of rhetorical discourse (Warnick & Barbara 113). The advertisements show how the poor people commit most of the crimes. They remind people of the crimes found outside thus bringing awareness to the people so that they can avoid the forms of crime such as theft and murder. Crime and punishment are mostly associated with forensic rhetoric. This is because legal scholars try to bring out complex law discourses mostly in the courts. This means the court is an institution, which functions within a larger rhetorical culture, because they help in defining the cause of the crime and giving the final judgment. Political, economic, or ideological conditions that have made prison privatization possible A controversial issue has arisen as the prison population increases day by day. The prison industry is likened to any other form of industry that is why it has been privatized. There are political, economic, and ideological conditions that have led to its privatization. As stated earlier the population in prisons has risen. This means that, there is a need for more medical services, food, furniture, construction, and transportation. The economic condition comes in with the emphasis of expansion of the prisons (Kicenski 51). This is because the prisons need more materials as the inmates increase. In the economic industry, the prisoners provide cheap labor because of the minimum payment given to them, no strikes and they work full time. This is to say that most prisoners are used in the private prison industry to provide labor in most of the industries. Because of this, many people are being imprisoned for minor crimes so that the private prison industry may get free labor from the inmates. In return of the labor of the inmates, the private contractors appreciate their labor by providing the prisoners with housing and clothing. That means private prisons are cost effective. Research has shown that the first privatization of the prison began in Britain and opened in the year 1992. It was in the same year when Wolds Remand Centre was privatized. The ideological perspective came in because other prisons were to be privatized if the Wolds Remand Centre succeeded in its privatization. Due to its success, more prisons were privatized especially in England and Wales (Dayan 43). Prison privatization took root because as the years went by the government especially in England, noticed that more prisons that are private did better than the public prisons. The other ideology that has made privatization of prisons to be possible is that private prisons function well just as public prisons do. The other ideology is that privatization of prisons encourages cost saving strategies hence few staff is employed in the prisons. This is an ideology, which has resulted in the privatization of prisons. The political perspective that led to the privatization of prisons is that politicians were tired of paying for governmental programs such as prisons thus the only option was to privatize them. This is to say that privatization of prisons saved the state more expenses because the cost of prisons was catered for by the private sectors (Dayan 34). The private prisons make sure that prisoners provide labor to the industrial sector thus raising the economy of a state. By privatizing the prisons, the government believes that it will obtain tax from the privatized prisons thus getting a source of income. As stated above prisons provide cheap labor to the industries in a given country. By so doing, the government is able to obtain more income from such sectors. That is why the politicians give emphases on the privatization of prisons. Common law, typical crimes, and requisite punishments In every given society, there are laws that a set down and every member of the society is expected to obey them. By this crime is defined as an offense that one does against the members of the society. This means that when a member of the society fails to follow the set rules he or she has committed an offense. On the other hand, criminal law formalizes the common law to forbid offenses against the society. With this, common law is defined as the dominant morality that is expressed in the society. It can also be defined as collective opinions on judgment of crime that came up because of different cases ruled by judges. The judgment was based on the customs and traditions of the people (Friedman 64). The common law develops from time to time. During the colonial period, there were different types of crimes that resulted in the incorporation of the common law in the society. The types of crimes included harmful misconduct. That means any act that contributed to personal and public disorder was regarded as a crime. These disorders included blasphemy, drunkenness, idleness, and lying. During the first 100 years of colonization, crimes involving sexual acts were considered as offenses to the community especially in the 18th century. The sexual crimes that were punishable by law included bestiality, fornication, and bearing illegitimate children (Friedman 129). The other crime that was punishable by law was slander. This means that no one was supposed to speak ill of any member of the society. Slander mostly deals with defaming among the members of the society. In addition, people were also convicted of crimes against property. That means that theft was punishable by law. That is because theft was a product of idleness, which was perceived as a socially harmful misconduct as stated above. There are different types of punishment that were administered to those found guilty. As earlier stated, the common law was set according to the customs and traditions in a given society especially during the colonial period. One of the punishments administered to the offenders was the corporal punishment (Friedman 75). In corporal punishment, gossipers had their lips sewn together and their tongue cut out. On the other hand, rapists were castrated and thieves their hands were amputated. The other form of punishment was restitution in this form of punishment the offender paid the victim. Capital punishment was another form of punishment that was administered to criminals. Capital punishment involved beheading for nobility and hanging for common criminals. Criminals were also confined in local jails while in jail they were whipped to prevent them from committing crime (Kicenski 56). Fines were also administered to the criminals. The jury decided to fine some of the criminals especially the rich for their misconduct. As stated earlier, the customs and traditions during the colonial period in a given society determined how the rules in a given society would be set. That means that the primary goal of the colonial criminal justice system was social norms in a given society. Criminal cases were equated to sin, thus religion took an upper hand in administering justice to the members of the society (Friedman 33). The system of criminal justice was revolutionary this is because there were no forms of punishment set for a given crime, the juries determined the punishment to be administered to a given crime thus leading to the creation of the criminal justice system. The influential leaders took an upper hand in punishing the criminals. Prison Industrial Complex The prison industrial complex is mostly used to describe how the government uses imprisonment, surveillance, and policing as a solution to political, social, and economic problems (Hartnett & Stephen 32). They are mostly used to secure the authority of people who get their poor through structural and racial privileges. That is the white people and people with money. Prison industrial complex mostly benefits the people who hold power in the society, the government, and the industry. The power gained is maintained through creating media images that perpetuate stereotypes of immigrants, people of color and the poor in the society. The prisons require more materials to ensure that the high number of prisoners is catered for. The prison industrial complex responds to social and economic concerns in order to maintain the current systems of power. This is because prison industrial complex ensures that they punish people who present the greatest threats to the State power (Hartnett & Stephen 82). The prisons industrial complex aims at making member of the society socially dead, silencing their voices and making them invisible. There are different components of the industrial complex criminalization, media, surveillance, policing, courts, and prisons. Criminalization is the process through which some actions become illegal. Through the process of institutional policies, legislation and court ruling actions become crimes. Criminalization is important because the courts and police are able to target a given number of people in the society. Prison industrial complex maintains physical and social control using media (Hartnett & Stephen 119). The media are used as a tool to facilitate the actions of the prison industrial complex. This is because the media are mostly used to disseminate information to the public. Media use images to depict crimes and the punishment administered. Media portrays the Latino and Black people as the sources for the criminal activities thus targeting them for punishment and criminalization. Surveillance is another component in the prison industrial complex. In this case, people’s physical activities are closely monitored through video, audio and e-mail surveillance thus keeping track of people’s actions and communications (Hartnett & Stephen 46). Surveillance is as a crime fighting tool especially electronic surveillance. The policing policy targets the poor people, immigrants, and people of color. The police are involved in law enforcement. In courts, the lawyers and juries administer justice in sorting the crimes. Because of the poor people and people of color are targeted for surveillance, they find themselves in the courts. The rich people are advantaged and most of the times they are not imprisoned because they are able to hire their own attorneys. Prisons are designed to isolate criminals from the members of the society. The prison industrial complex is used as a tool to reduce crime issues. One of the problems facing industrial complex is that prisoners are re-arrested every three years. Work cited Dayan Colin. The story of Cruel & Unusual (Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2007) ISBN: 9780262042390. Friedman Lawrence. Crime and Punishment in American History. (NY:Basic Books) 1993. ISBN: 0465014879,9780465014873. Hartnett & Stephen J. Challenging the Prison-Industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011. Print. Kicenski Karyl. Chasing in on Crime: The Drive to Privatize California State Prisons. (Colorado: Lynne Reinner) 2013 Warnick, Barbara. Rhetoric Online: Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web. New York: Lang, 2007. Print. Read More