Compare Classical and Postivist Criminologies
Question: Compare and contrast the key concepts of classical criminology and positivist criminology, and demonstrate how they still continue to influence the principles and practices of sentencing today. Answer: It is from two main schools of thought that modern criminology has been produced from. The classical school believed that individuals who commit crime are the only people who are responsible for their actions and are not influenced from any external factors. Contrastingly, the positivist school believed that the decisions people make when committing a crime are principally affected by 'means' out of their control. These 'means' that affect an individual's condition to make rational decisions can be based on physical, that is for example their race, social, such as weak social bonds at school or the family, biological, that is having genetic abnormalities and psychological factors such as mental health disorders (Pond p.23). On top of the issue of 'free will' which prosecutors are still proving against defendants in courts today, the classical school acknowledged how punishments that crime delivers deter people from undertaking criminal behaviour. We only have to look a country like Bali and their drug trafficking laws to understand how punishment is imperative in controlling behaviour. The harsher the punishment, the less likely people are to commit the crime, so
Biometric Technology
Biometric Technology 1 Biometric Technology: Entry Control Rick Everroad Professor Jeffrey Fowler RC 507 October 12, 2008 Biometric Technology 2 Biometric Technology: Entry Control Biometric Technology is used for human recognition which consists of identification and verification to establish entry into secure areas. The terms differ significantly. With identification, the biometric system asks and attempts to answer the question, "Who is X." In an identification application, the biometric reader reads a sample of the person in question and compares his traits to all the traits found in the system's database. Depending on how the system is designed, it can make a "best" match, or it can score possible matches and rank them according to likelihood. Identification applications are common when the goal is to identify criminals, terrorists or any other person attempting entry to a controlled area, particularly through surveillance. Verification occurs when the biometric system asks and attempts to answer the question, "Is this X?" after the user claims to be X. In a verification application, the biometric system requires input from the user, at which time the user claims his identity via a password, which usually is a body part like a hand, eye or a voice command. The user inputs the part into the system and the system finds a match or does not find a match.
Digital Evidence. If a computer is the fruit or instrumentality of a crime, the investigators will focus on the hardware. If the crime involves contraband information, the investigators will look for anything that relates to that information,
Computer technology is evolving rapidly but the fundamental components and operations are relatively static. A central processing unit starts the basic input and output system, which performs a power-on self test, and loads an operating system from a disk. Rules of evidence also remain fairly static - distinguishing between hearsay and direct evidence and requiring proof of authenticity and integrity. So like the officer had said, in an investigation, the nature and extent of the search will depend on the known circumstances of the crime. If a computer is the fruit or instrumentality of a crime, the investigators will focus on the hardware. If the crime involves contraband information, the investigators will look for anything that relates to that information, including the hardware containing it. If information on a computer is evidence and the investigators know what they are looking for, it might be possible to collect the evidence needed quite quickly. Swift searches are necessary in exigent circumstances. If the information is evidence but the investigators do not know what they are looking for, then either a lengthy search of the computers involved will be required or it might make sense to collect everything and search it later in a controlled environment. On the other hand, the investigators must be able to prove the authenticity and integrity of the evidence
Moral Panic. How much concern in how many individuals constitutes a genuine case of moral panic? Why do some panics occur among certain segments among the public but not others?
"What we can learn from debates of penal populism is first and formost that attitudes about crime and punishment are not rational, and the causes of crime have to be found, not primarily in its sanctioning system of punishment, but in the macro conditions of society rather than in individual micro considerations." Societies everywhere have at time been gripped by moral panics and yet, as Cohen (1972) says, they have received insufficient systematic attention. Focusing on moral panics in the guest lecture raises questions in my head. How much concern in how many individuals constitutes a genuine case of moral panic? Why do some panics occur among certain segments among the public but not others? Moral panics frequently erupt in our modern society, a fact that should cause us to question their sophisticated and tolerant towards nonconformity. It is entirely likely that moral panics serve as a mechanism for simultaneously strengthening and redrawing society's moral boundaries, the line between morality and immorality, just where one leaves the territory of good and enters that of evil. When a society's moral boundaries are sharp, clear, and secure, and the central norms and values are strongly held by nearly everyone, moral panics rarely grip its members, nor do they need to. However, when the moral boundaries are fuzzy and shifting and often seem to be contested, moral panics