Crime and Theories: Terrorism Recruiting on the U.S.Soil - Assignment Example

CRIME AND THEORIES al Affiliation MODULE 4 CRIME Sharkur has been on a series of criminal records. In December 2006, when he was serving a free imprisonment, he was involvement in another case of car robbery. Upon detention, he was convicted of car theft and sentenced to six years in prison. Under the three strikes model law, there was a possibility of him serving a life sentence in jail for his repentant criminal offenses. The three stoke law model require that a criminal who are involved in repeated criminal offenses should be given a longer prison imprisonment even if the offense committed does not attract such as a penalty. Three stroke policy has the interest of public safety first as such criminals as there is a likelihood they will commit a crime another time. In this case, Eysenck’s Theory of Personality and Crime (1951) can be related to the case of Tupac Sharkur. He has a track of criminal records which he has committed over and over again. According to the model, genetic predisposition tends to incline someone towards antisocial behaviors and criminal behaviors. The criminal and antisocial behaviors in compounded by the exposure to environmental factors. These environmental factors encourage crime and hence growing in such a motivating environment would possibly result in the possibility of someone developing and engaging in criminal behaviors. A local case In Telegraph march 2009, a teenager involved in drug abuse faced a long jail sentence for committing repeated offenses. Although the case involved was minor, the occurrence of the criminal behaviors contributed to the teenager being sentenced in jail for more than 25 years for committing repeated offense. MODULE 5 CRIME Jose Gonzales, naturalized US citizen, felt that people he knew were suffering in Mexico due to inequality of resources. He had a way to help them acquire a platform where they would be able to obtain resources to make ends meet. Being a fan of many, he attempted to sneak a group of people from Mexico to come and work in finding a better life in America. When he was passing through the US customs checkpoint border, near San Diego the border checkpoint security officer was intercepted the track where they found 45 illegal immigrants concealed in Brazilian made casket heading to Los Angeles. Jose and the immigrants were arrested and charged with various criminal offenses. For Jose, he was charged with human trafficking, hiding illegal immigrants and aiding them to sneak into the country without appropriate legal documents. The immigrants were charged on various account of the crime committed, and they were deported to Mexico. In his defense, Jose, argued that he was helping the immigrants have a better life by living the American dream. The inequalities of resources in their country limit many to access gainful employment. Most of them tend to be poor on the account that the resources are in the hands of few individuals while the majority suffer in poverty. According to Jose, he was giving them the support to have a good life and hence he didn’t need to be charged with a criminal offense. Additionally, he was doing it in good faith and did not know that they illegal immigrants have a track of criminal offenses. The court found Jose guilty of an offense of human trafficking and allowing illegal migrants who had criminal records to gain entry in American soil.The case of Jose Gonzales can be related to the social conflict theory. Social conflict theory which can be traced during the late 1890s was a concept developed out of Karl Marx hypothesis of capitalism. Social conflict theory is macro-economic driven paradigm in sociology that views the society as a ground of inequality that generates social change and conflict. The basic premise and structure of the theory is that the system is designed in a way that it benefits few at the expense of the others who makes the majority. Besides, there are those factors that are related to the social inequality such as race, class, sex and age. The individuals are discriminated along this line. The theory strives to look at dominant group versus the minority relations. A local case In California law courts, on 7th March 2005, a man was charged on account of helping her friend from Saudi Arabia gain entry to America and accesses other privileges like a regular citizen. The case was held on the in California law courts where the man was found guilty of assisting a criminal gain entry without proper documents. The charges were pressed on cohabiting with a criminal. However, in his defense, the man accused confessed that he knew nothing of her criminal records and was helping her in good faith to access a decent life by living in America. Just as in the case above, there has been inequality in the resources and hence affected the distribution and patterns of job opportunity. People tend to commit a crime because they cannot access resources to live a decent life. MODULE 6 CRIME Heidi Fleiss’s was major news in Hollywood during her prime age but not more than the news of her arrest, trial, incarceration and post-release emergence as an unrepentant sex entrepreneur.. Fleiss was initially arrested on June 1993 on state charges that included five counts of pandering and one count of narcotics possession. On July 28, 1994, during her California trial, she was indicted by a state grand jury on charges of income tax evasion, money laundering, and conspiracy. The case of Heidi point out various issue, but what is more pronounced is her desire to make money from wealthy clients. Arguably, she was aware of her actions and she just chooses to the criminal way over the conventional behavior. Engaging in prostitution and money laundering are state offense and attract stiff legal penalties both in imprisonment and monetary. In the Rational Choice Theory advocated by Dr. William Glasser (1965), he argues that the criminal just like Hollywood madam, the offenders are completely rotational when making the decision to commit a crime. There are a number of reasons that have been observed to motivate criminals to commit a crime that can be based on a number of personal needs such as need, greed, lust, anger, thrills and revenge among others. The theory finds its root on the famous classical school of criminology created by the Italian social thinker which argues that the people have free will to choose from good and bad behaviors and that court sanctions make one fear to commit crime. In essence, the theory concurs with the system of court punishments such as imprisonment, fines, and execution; it is only such measures that the offenders will govern their decisions and choose the conventional behaviors. A local case Heidi Fleiss has not been alone in this prostitution crime. From the local court cases, the tale of Jeane Palfrey commonly referred to as Madam D. C prostitution with powerful and rich men hit the headlines in the year 2006. She operated a powerful cartel of sex workers around the city. It was believed that she had made more than $2 million from this illegal trade. In early 2006, police busted her and arrested her for prostitution charges. She was accused of recruiting college female students to service her customers and hence making money for her. She was later convicted of these charges and sentenced to 56 years in prison. After her conviction, she named influential members of the society and even government officials who she had engaged within her business. Later after two weeks, she was found hanging that left mystery over her death as the police ruled out suicide case. Just as in the case of Fleiss, Palfrey was aware of her actions and deliberately committed sexual crimes to satisfy her personal needs which in this case could be likely motivated by money, greed or perhaps lust. Over the years the she carried out the illegal trade, she has been focused on accumulating wealth. At time of her death, she was estimated to be $2 million reach from her business. In the view of above comment, it is evident that the case of rational choice theory could have been used to determine the motivating factors for the prostitution to take place and the measures that could be taken to change the prostitutions trends in California through supportive and educational social change. MODULE 7 CRIMINAL|PROFILES Frank had an arguably happy life and was very close to his father. This was until his mother left his father. Things didn’t continue to work according as he would have wished it work. Not only Frank was devastated, but even his Father and the siblings could not cope up with a new life. Frank Jr. decided to leave home and stole his dad money for his petty errands. As a teenager, Frank Abagnale started to engage in petty crimes such as shoplifting. With time, he graduated to more serious crimes such as burglary. He severally used gas credit card stolen from his father to make money. He later managed to convince the guys from the gas station to convert some of the sales in cash and have them some of the proceeds. The scam didn’t continue for long as the father noticed about the bills of the card. The event caused financial havoc on the part of the family which made Frank Sr. to send his son to private school after continued delinquency. This was not a solution, however, as Frank left school while he was still at 16 to make his living. He used his dad driver license and forged the documents to represents himself as much older, and he got well paying jobs. As it would be expected, that money was hardly enough to make his ends meets and he decided to quit the job which raised an alarm after over withdrawing more than she had in his account and ran off to New York. After five years of tricking people around the world, Abignale was arrested while pretending to be a licensed commercial airline pilot when an Air France flight junior attendant identified him from a wanted poster on the bulletin board in the employee’s lounge. Abagnale subsequently served time in prisons in Sweden for 6 months and France for six months before he was finally extradited to the United States. Convicted of federal forgery charges, he received a 12-year sentence to federal prison. The case of Frank Abagnale can be related to Broken Window Theory, which was introduced by Goerge L. Kellin and James Q. Wilison. The theory uses the principle that if a house has few cracked and broken windows panes, and the windows are not repaired the most likely thing is that the windows will continue to break. Eventually, the building may even break and collapse. Even untended pavement tends to accumulate litters. The same case applies to criminal behaviors; one tend to learn small and petty criminal behaviors and later turns to be major criminals. In the case of Frank, a small theft he committed while still young motivated him to commit crimes even when he was old. He was not governed by anything, and he had a way to make easy money while he needed it most. The trend continued until he became an international criminal among the most wanted. A local case The local courts have been not short of impersonation cases. A classical technology impersonation case happened in 2006 when student barely 13 committed suicide. Magena Meier fell in love with a teenager boy in MySpace. One day, she received a message that said the world would possibly be better without her and she could not hold it anymore. After forensic investigation, the MySpace account was found to be held by a daughter and her mother. They were convicted of misrepresentations that caused the life of a young girl Magena. MODULE 8 CRIME Terrorism Recruiting on U.S.Soil Latest News in Washington revealed that the state is pressing criminal charges against eight suspects in the on-going expansion into alleged U.S based recruitment network aimed at preparing young men to go and fight in Somalia making it one of the undetected militant operation since the September 11 attack. The hearings that were held at Minneapolis courts disclosed how well-respected and older member of the Somalia community was luring young men with money to join Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. Those held  on the grouns of  supporting the militant group, stood before the court on multiple criminal accounts include providing financial support, attending terrorist training and trying to overthrow the transitional government in Somali. As well as fighting against the Ethiopian troops and the combined armed forces in Africa. The recruitment of young men that was done in Minneapolis and other states in American soil have received intense investigation on the part of the security personnel. The newly charged men added to the list of growing number of young men and elderly who have been labeled as Al-Shabaab sympathizers. A suspect group of 20 men were believed to have traveled to Somali in 2007. The recent cases show how terrorism is continuously being carried out on American soil. The wake of the recent cases has, however, alerted the security agents and was conducting through investigation. The form of communication is word of mouth or The case of terrorism on American soil can be closely related to frustration-aggression theory. The militants who are affiliated to the Al-Qaida group feel restricted by the American and all nation of the world to carry out their terrorism activities. The intention is to fight them and regain the control over their illegal businesses. Therefore, the terrorist will finds ways to weaken the government or the joined African army in their endeavor to disrupt national and international harmony. The group is motivated by the need to avenge those who have suppressed their illegal activities. This is, however, not done from an individual point of view; it should be an effort from various parties. The local case In 2009, there was a report on growing Homegrown Terrorists, consisting of Islamic training camps in US soil. This was reported as a case of terrorist training and empowered themselves in US soil and then launching attacks within or outside United States. There have been alarming increases in such unlawful organization in isolated areas in America. This gives the terrorist group leverage as they will have prior information of the security details hence be able to launch an attack. Just as in the case of young men training to join the militia, these unlawful groups are motivated by causing revenge. They have been suppressed from the mother countries and hence try to hide their faces in America to cause aggression after being frustrated. The positive news is that the US government through its security agents has been on high alert and has managed to mute the illegal groups long before the sprout to unmanageable levels. In both the cases, terrorist should be a concentrated effort as it keeps changing the face and hence new and timely methods should be used to curb their ill motives. Bibliography Terrorist training camps in US. (June, 2009 3). Retrieved November 29, 2014, from military.com video center: http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/domestic-terrorism/terrorist- training-camps-in-the-us/660940716001/ Frank Abagnale Biography. (2014, June 19). Retrieved November 28, 2014, from bio: http://www.biography.com/people/frank-abagnale-20657335#synopsis News, a. (2007, june 17). Heidi Fleiss News. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from abc: http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/heidi-fleiss.htm Read More