Crime and Punishment

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Crime and Punishment
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Essay Questions

• What do you consider to be effective means of
  keeping law and order in todays society?
  (Cambridge 1988)
• Consider the arguments for and against the use of
  death penalty in a modern society. (Cambridge
  1997)
• Juvenile delinquency is on the rise because
  parents are not doing their job. What do you
  think? (YJC)
• The abolition of capital punishment is a humane
  but unwise move. Discuss. (CJC)
• The threat of global terrorism is a destabilising
  force in todays world. Give your views. (JJC)

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Crime a definition

• A violation of norm that has been entered into
  law and is backed by the power and authority of
  the state to impose formal sanctions eg. fines,
  arrest and imprisonment

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Causes of crime

• Are criminals born or made?
• Nurture (Social and Economic factors)
• Weakening family institution
• In my judgement, one of the basic reasons we
  have had crime, lawlessness and disorder in the
  United States has been the breakdown of the
  family unit.
• Robert F Kennedy
• Violence and sexual permissiveness in the media

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Causes of crime

• Poverty
• Nothing incites to money-crimes like great
  poverty or great wealth. Mark Twain
• High unemployment rate
• Consumerist and materialistic culture
• Individualistic society
• Decaying morals and religious foundation with
  rising secularism

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Causes of crime

• Discrimination and oppression
• Inadequate social control
• Easy availability of drugs and weapons
• Peer influence

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Causes of crime

• Nature (Inborn traits)
• Weak-willed character
• Low level of self-discipline
• Susceptible to temptation
• Psychiatric disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Psychopathy

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Causes of crime

• Genetic Disposition
• Genetically predisposed to crimes

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Types of Crime
crimes that cause serious harm to people or
property

• Crime against a person
• - murder, rape, assault
• Crime against property
• - arson, vandalism

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The murder of James Bulger
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Types of Crime

• Prostitution
• illegal sexual acts among consenting adults
• drug abuse violations
• Illegal gambling

• acts viewed as criminal because the society as a
  whole regards them as morally repugnant

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Types of Crime
a self-perpetuating conspiracy that operates for
profit or power and that seeks to obtain immunity
from the law through fear and corruption
(Abadinsky, 1981)

• Providing illegal goods and services
• selling illegal drugs,
• loan sharking

• Providing legal goods and services by illegal
  means
• monopolise public services by bribing public
  officials threatening violence against
  potential competitors
• use legitimate companies to launder money
  earned through their illegal activities

the unlawful activities of the members of a
highly organized, disciplined association engaged
in supplying illegal goods and services
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Types of Crime
White-collar crime a crime committed by a person
of respectability and high status in the course
of his occupation (Sutherland, 1949)

• illegal stock trading
• embezzling
• padding expense accounts
• stealing from an employer
• evading personal income taxes
• unethical or unfair practices

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(No Transcript)
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Types of Crime

• the unlawful use of force or violence against
  persons or property to intimidate or coerce a
  government or civilian population, to achieve
  political or other objectives

• assassinations
• bombings
• arson
• hostage-taking
• hijacking
• seizure and occupation of a building
• ecological and high-tech terrorism

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Types of Crime

• Petty crimes
• Cyber crime
• Telecommunication crimes
• Illegal groups
• Genocide

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THE CONCEPT OF PUNISHMENT

• Definition
• Punishment under law is the authorized imposition
  of deprivations of freedom or privacy or other
  goods to which the person otherwise has a right,
  or the imposition of special burdens because
  the person has been found guilty of some criminal
  violation, typically (though not invariably)
  involving harm to the innocent.

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Key ideas

• Punishment is an authorized act, not an
  incidental or accidental harm. It is an act of
  the political authority having jurisdiction in
  the community where the harmful wrong occurred.
• 2. Specifying the deprivation as a deprivation of
  rights is a helpful reminder that a crime is
  (among other things) a violation of the victim's
  rights, and the harm thus done is akin to the
  kind of harm a punishment does.

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• 3. Punishment is a human institution, not a
  natural event outside human purposes, intentions,
  and acts.
• 4. Punishment is imposed on persons who are
  believed to have acted wrongly. Being found
  guilty by persons authorized to make such a
  finding, and based on their belief in the
  person's guilt, is a necessary condition of
  justified punishment. Actually being guilty is
  not.

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Purpose of Punishment

• Deterrence
• General punishing this ? deters others
• Specific punishing this ? to deter this ?

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Purpose of Punishment

• 2. Incapacitation/Protection
• Protect society by separating the criminal
  either by incarceration or stigmatization

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Purpose of Punishment

• 3. Rehabilitation
• Cure the ? to prevent future crimes

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Purpose of Punishment

• 4. Retribution
• Punish the ? because he deserves it
• eye for an eye
• Punish ? to pay his debt to society so that he
  can be reinstated to societys protection and
  benefits

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Types of Punishment

• Probation
• Fine
• Imprisonment
• Monetary compensation
• Exile
• Home detention (House arrest)

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Types of Punishment

• Corporal Punishment
• the legal imposition of physical pain on the
  convicted offender
• E.g. caning, castration
• Capital Punishment / Death Penalty

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

• Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of
  death as a punishment.

THE DEATH PENALTY
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THE DEATH PENALTY

• History / Background
• Methods
• Arguments For and Against
• The Death Penalty in Singapore

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BACKGROUND

• Since ancient times (18th 5th Century B.C), the
  death penalty has been used for a variety of
  offences
• Common methods then Crucifixion, stoning,
  drowning, beating to death and burning alive
• By 1500 in England, many people put to death for
  felonies like treason, rape, burglary, murder and
  arson

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BACKGROUND

• Britain influenced America's use of the death
  penalty more than any other country did.
• Major reforms of the death penalty began in
  Europe by the 1750s
• Many nations began to abolish the death penalty.
  E.g Venezuela (1853), Portugal (1867) and in the
  US, Michigan (1847)

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Overview of the death penalty during 2003

• Amnesty International recorded that at least
• 1,146 prisoners were executed in 28 countries
• 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63
  countries.
• 84 per cent of all known executions took place in
  China, Iran, the USA and Vietnam

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Overview of the death penalty during 2003

• Amnesty International recorded that
• a total of 117 countries have abolished the death
  penalty in law or practice.
• 78 other countries retain and use the death
  penalty
• Over 35 countries and territories have abolished
  the death penalty for all crimes since 1990. (E.g
  S Africa, Mauritius, HK, Poland, Canada)

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METHODS
Electrocution
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METHODS
Lethal Injection
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METHODS
Shooting
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METHODS
BEHEADING
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METHODS
Hanging
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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• The death penalty is a necessary tool to fight
  and deter crime. Capital punishment deters crime
  by causing would-be murderers to fear arrest and
  conviction and by preventing convicted murderers
  from killing again. In recent years, violent
  crime in New York has dropped dramatically, due
  in part to the reinstitution of the death
  penalty.
  George E. Pataki,
  Republican governor of NY
• 
  

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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• Obviously people fear death more than life
  imprisonment. Only death is final. Where there
  is life there is hope. Actual murderers feel
  that way 99.9 per cent prefer life imprisonment
  to death. So will prospective murderers. What
  is feared most deters most. Ernest van
  den Haag, Retired Professor at Fordham University

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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• The death penalty is a necessary tool to fight
  and deter crime. Capital punishment deters crime
  by causing would-be murderers to fear arrest and
  conviction and by preventing convicted murderers
  from killing again. In recent years, violent
  crime in New York has dropped dramatically, due
  in part to the reinstitution of the death
  penalty.
  George E. Pataki,
  Republican governor of NY
• 
  

• Obviously people fear death more than life
  imprisonment. Only death is final. Where there
  is life there is hope. Actual murderers feel
  that way 99.9 per cent prefer life imprisonment
  to death. So will prospective murderers. What
  is feared most deters most. Ernest van
  den Haag, Retired Professor at Fordham University

Incapacitation
deterrence
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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• But even if an execution has only a small
  chance of deterring future murders, the murderer
  should be executed because he has, through his
  crime, forfeited his life. Capital punishment
  satisfies justice, and the fact that it may also
  save lives is enough to favour the execution of
  convicted murderers. Ernest van den
  Haag, Retired Professor at Fordham University

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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• For beyond deterrence there is justice. The
  thought that the man who cruelly and deliberately
  slaughtered your child for fun or profit is
  entitled peacefully to live out his days at
  taxpayers expense, playing tennis or baseball or
  enjoying the prison library, is hard to stomach.

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ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

• But even if an execution has only a small
  chance of deterring future murders, the murderer
  should be executed because he has, through his
  crime, forfeited his life. Capital punishment
  satisfies justice, and the fact that it may also
  save lives is enough to favour the execution of
  convicted murderers. Ernest van den
  Haag, Retired Professor at Fordham University

• For beyond deterrence there is justice. The
  thought that the man who cruelly and deliberately
  slaughtered your child for fun or profit is
  entitled peacefully to live out his days at
  taxpayers expense, playing tennis or baseball or
  enjoying the prison library, is hard to stomach.

RETRIBUTION
COST
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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• I think that the only purpose of the death
  penalty, as I see it, is vengeance-pure and
  simple vengeance. But I think vengeance is a very
  personal feeling and I dont think it is
  something that civilized government should engage
  in. Janet Reno, Attorney General of the
  US

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• Capital punishment fails as a deterrent
  because murderers who premeditate about a killing
  do not expect to get caught, and spontaneous,
  emotional murderers are incapable of thinking
  rationally about the consequences of their act.
  Retribution also fails as a reason to
  execute criminals because capital punishment
  violates a societys self-respect and humanity,
  and it is not always possible in a court of law
  to fairly and unemotionally make the decision to
  execute someone. Michael Ross, A
  View from Death Row (Inmate convicted of
  murder in the deaths of 5 girls and a woman in
  1987)

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• I think that the only purpose of the death
  penalty, as I see it, is vengeance-pure and
  simple vengeance. But I think vengeance is a very
  personal feeling and I dont think it is
  something that civilized government should engage
  in. Janet Reno, Attorney General of the
  US

• Capital punishment fails as a deterrent
  because murderers who premeditate about a killing
  do not expect to get caught, and spontaneous,
  emotional murderers are incapable of thinking
  rationally about the consequences of their act.
  Retribution also fails as a reason to
  execute criminals because capital punishment
  violates a societys self-respect and humanity,
  and it is not always possible in a court of law
  to fairly and unemotionally make the decision to
  execute someone. Michael Ross, A View
  from Death Row (Inmate convicted of murder in
  the deaths of 5 girls and a woman in 1987)

barbaric
Does not deter crime
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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• capital punishment actually makes the fight
  against crime more difficult. Executions waste
  valuable resources that could be applied to more
  promising efforts to protect the public.
  Additionally, innocent people are sometimes
  executed and the brutalizing effect executions
  have on society may result in more murders. For
  these reasons, the death penalty should be
  opposed. Robert M. Morgenthau,
  District Attorney Manhattan

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• Capital cases are a nightmare for the entire
  justice system. Police chiefs recognize that
  death penalty cases are particularly burdensome
  in the early stages. Two-thirds of the police
  chiefs polled said that death penalty cases are
  hard to close and take up a lot of police
  time. Richard C Dieter, Death Penalty
  Information Centre

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• capital punishment actually makes the
  fight against crime more difficult. Executions
  waste valuable resources that could be applied to
  more promising efforts to protect the public.
  Additionally, innocent people are sometimes
  executed and the brutalizing effect executions
  have on society may result in more murders. For
  these reasons, the death penalty should be
  opposed. Robert M. Morgenthau,
  District Attorney Manhattan

• Capital cases are a nightmare for the entire
  justice system. Police chiefs recognize that
  death penalty cases are particularly burdensome
  in the early stages. Two-thirds of the police
  chiefs polled said that death penalty cases are
  hard to close and take up a lot of police
  time. Richard C Dieter, Death Penalty
  Information Centre

Innocent lives taken
COST
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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• Additionally, innocent people are sometimes
  executed and the brutalizing effect executions
  have on society may result in more murders. For
  these reasons, the death penalty should be
  opposed.

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• Brutalizing effect
• the death penalty tends to devalue human life
  and sends a message that tells citizens that
  killing people under some circumstances is
  appropriate.
• state-sanctioned executions brutalize the
  sensibilities of society, making potential
  murderers less inhibited.

STATE-SANCTIONED MURDER?
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THE DEATH PENALTY IN SINGAPORE

• Method - Hanging
• Who?
• Murderers
• Drug traffickers (gt15g heroine, gt30g
  morphine/cocaine, gt500g cannabis)
• Tough drug laws enacted in 1975 made the death
  sentence mandatory for trafficking
• Kidnappers
• 70 of hangings are for drug offences

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THE DEATH PENALTY IN SINGAPORE

• In a rare comment about the death penalty, Prime
  Minister Goh Chok Tong mentioned in an interview
  on BBC HARDtalk program in 2003
  "I think probably it will be
  in the region of about 70 to 80 (first 9 months
  of 2003). I do not know the precise number, I
  stand to be corrected,"
• The government confirmed later that 28 people had
  been executed in 2002, 27 in 2001 and 21 in 2000,
  without giving confirmed figures for 2003.
• When asked why he did not know exactly how many
  people had been executed this year, PM Goh
  replied "I have got more important issues to
  worry about.

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THE DEATH PENALTY IN SINGAPORE

• Amnesty - Singapore has one of the highest
  execution rates in the world relative to its
  population
• Western critics point to the "right to life" as a
  fundamental reason to abolish the death penalty

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THE DEATH PENALTY IN SINGAPORE

• Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew
• "The basic difference in our approach springs
  from our traditional Asian value system which
  places the interests of the community over and
  above that of the individual," Singapore's Senior
  Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in a speech.
• "In criminal law legislation, our priority is
  the security and well being of law-abiding
  citizens rather than the rights of the criminal
  to be protected from incriminating evidence."

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Criminal Justice in Singapore
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Court of Appeal
Supreme Court
High Court
District Courts
Magistrates' Courts
Commercial Criminal Courts and Special Trial
Courts
Subordinate Courts
Coroners' Court Family Court Juvenile Court Small
Claims Tribunal
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Supreme Court Chief Justice and Judges of of the
High Court
Court of Appeal
High Court
Civil claims more than 100,000 Probate cases
of more than 3 million Criminal cases where the
punishment is death or life imprisonment
Hears appeals against judgment from High
Court and other lower courts
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Criminal and Civil Cases

• Criminal cases are those initiated by the state
  against and individual or group.
• Civil cases are those initiated by individuals
  who have been aggrieved by another individual or
  group. divorce

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Mandatory Sentences

• For certain crimes the judges have to give a
  punishment stipulated by law. No variation or
  discretion is allowed.
• Death 15g of heroin    30g of cocaine  - 30g of
  morphine       500g of cannabis      - 1.2kg of
  opium    200g of cannabis resin
• Caning illegal immigration, vandalism, rape,
• It is a cardinal principle of morality, justice
  and democratic government that an offender guilty
  of a crime should be sentenced by the court to
  such penalty as his crime merits taking account
  of all the circumstances including the nature of
  the crime, the circumstances of the offender, the
  effect of the crime on the victim and the
  victims family, the need to prevent the offender
  from re offending and deter others from offending
  in the same way and the need to protect the
  public.

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Chief Justice and Judges of of the High Court
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Subordinate Courts
12 strokes of the cane imprisonment lt10
years fine lt100,000
District Courts
Magistrates' Courts
6 strokes of the cane imprisonment lt3 years a
fine lt 30,000
Determination of cause of death
Coroners' Court
Child below 14 Young Person below 16
Juvenile Court
Divorce, Maintenance, Custody
Family Court

Claims not exceeding 10,000
Small Claims Tribunal
Commercial Criminal Courts and Special Trial
Courts
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Procedures in Juvenile Cases
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Rationale for Punishment in Juvenile Cases

• rehabilitation and reformation of the
  offender
• removal of him/her from undesirable
  surroundings
• promoting his/her education and welfare
• compensation of victim(s) involved
• protection of public
• minimizing the risk of further offending by the
  offender and
• punishment of offender

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Options Available in Juvenile Cases

• Commit the offender to the care of a relative or
  other fit person
• Offender's Parent or Guardian to execute a bond
  to exercise proper care and Guardianship
• Community service order
• Probation order
• Detention at a Place of Detention
• Weekend Detention at a Place of Detention or
  Approved Institution
• Approved School Order
• Reformative Training Centre
• Payment of a fine, damages or costs

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