Essay On Incarceration Rate

In the article “The Crime Bust” by Gordon Witkin, it is introduced that in 1994, after a 9 year soar in crime rates, they began falling (1). According to preliminary figures released by the FBI, all across the board, the amount of crime committals were declining at a drastic rate. (Witkin 1). To determine the source of this sudden decline, several factors were examined, such as the economy, dismissed as “Robbery and burglary fluctuate with economic conditions--but murders generally do not…” (Witkin, 1-2) Prevention and domestic abuse were also discredited since “Studies show that prevention programs don’t work, and others may or may not be effective…” and “...in 1996, there were only 447 fewer ‘domestics’ than in 1993, accounting for just 9 percent of the murder reduction.”

A position that Levitt and Dubner do agree on is that “yes indeed, additional police substantially lower the crime rate.” However, Levitt and Dubner have an alternate theory to answer their proposed question. Roe v wade lowered the crime rate in the 1990s. To support this theory Levitt and Dubner offer evidence-showing woman who were likely to get an abortion when it became legal to woman who would have to raise a child in a high-risk household. By focusing on the woman who “was unmarried or in her teens or poor, and sometimes all three” Levitt and Dubner show the reader how having the opportunity to terminate a pregnancy can lower the crime rate years down the road.

Staring in the 1900’s abortion in the US was outlawed. Levitt and Dubner state that less fortunate parents raising children were likely to raise children that have higher chances of becoming criminals. Abortion was legalized in the 1970’s, meaning that children more likely to grow into criminals were less likely to be born. This translates to the 1990’s when problem children would have been born in the 70’s should be prime age for criminal activity. By never being born, crime rated dropped.

In chapter four of Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner discuss the criminal activity occurring in the United states and what the possible causes are for the decrease of crime rate in the 1990’s. The authors bring up several theories as to why the crime rates have decreased such as policemen, stricter gun laws, drug market changes and even abortion laws. Levitt and Dubner do a really good job in explaining the different theories in the decrease of crimes. The authors also provide very interesting points that might make you think differently about something. Some factors may seem hard to believe but it can cause a great impact in society like abortion.

Texas Felons Seeking Rights Stripped of their voting rights. Not having the right to bear arms. No opportunities at specific job fields.

However, the author argues that the problem of having the “unwanted” children will cause problems in the future. One of the problem is many people from young to older ages are in jail because the crimes they do. Most of these people were born to poor families which usually trigger them

As Levitt (2004) stated “those over the age of 65 experience victimization rates for serious violent crime that are less than one-tenth of those of teenagers” (p. 171) and since the young population got older, the crime followed in trend. Disagreements One of Levitt’s main four causes of the 1990s crime was the legalization of abortion in the 1970s. Levitt argued that unwanted children were at higher risk for crime and the legalization of abortion reduced the number of unwanted children. His hypothesis was brought about because “the five states that allowed abortion in 1970… experienced declines in crime rates earlier than the rest of the country”

It is so easy for minorities to take on the stance of a victim, it is equally as easy for them to take on the stance of the aggressor. With everything going on in this Country, and in the World today, it isn't hard to understand the reasoning behind some of the situations that have been going on. Cops are getting away with Murder, Literally, and the war on poverty is seeming to turn into something like a war on the poor people themselves. Mass Incarceration is becoming so frequent that people seem to graze over the realities that are plaguing our very existence.

On my way back to Miami, waiting for my flight at La Guardia Airport in New York and was eager to board my plane, I decided to watch the nearby television to pass time. That’s when I learned about who Michael Brown was. He was an unarmed black teenager, shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. On the TV screen were countless vivid images of the scene of Brown’s death and almost instantly it became ground zero for local outrage. Devastated to hear that yet another another teenage boy was killed by law enforcement, it was clear to me that there was an urgent need for justice in the US.

Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.

At first, this argument makes relative sense, “violent crime rates have fluctuated over the years and bear little relationship to incarceration rates—which have soared during the past three decades regardless of whether violent crime was going up or down” (Alexander 101). Even while violent crime rates decline, incarceration rates climb; these two variables should have a dependent correlation, but it appears they do not. However, in response to violent crime, legislators placed longer sentences for less severe crimes to prevent more violent crime in the future (Forman 48). While it may be compelling to simply accept that the War on Drugs caused the prison population spike, it did not; violent crime contributed

The concept of ‘recidivism’ is central to understanding the criminal justice system. Recidivism occurs when a person commits a crime again despite having been punished before. One of the main goals of the criminal justice system is to reduce recidivism but in fact longer sentences may increase the probability of recidivism (Griffiths & Cunningham, 2000). One reason is that the climate within a prison is not helpful to the inmate in making personal changes that can lead to reduced recidivism. However, psychologists are trying to develop intervention programmes that in fact lead to such personal changes so as to reduce recidivism.

PROBATION MODEL LEX SPRINGER C.O.S.T.A.T.T   Parole Model Parole is defined as the provisional release of a prisoner who agrees to certain conditions prior to the completion of the maximum sentence period. The word parole originated from the French which meant "voice" or "spoken words". This has come to mean an offenders promise to act as a law abiding citizen according to rules and regulations in exchange for release. Essentially parole means that the offender is released from prison prior to the expiry of his or her entire sentence of imprisonment to serve the remainder of the sentence in the community under the supervision of the parole officer, subject to specific conditions that must be complied with.

1. In this chapter of "Where Have All the Criminals Gone?" it gives us multiple explanations as to what effects the number of crimes dropping. Some of those explanations were proven to make a difference in the number of crimes dropped and some of them didn't. In the beginning of the chapter is mentions abortion and further on the topic of abortion fades away and leads into different topics, being the crime dropping explanations, such as strong economy, increased reliance on prison, increased use of capital punishment, innovative police strategies, and etc. One believes that the purpose of the chapter was to find out if abortion had anything to do with the drop of crime a generation after it was legalized.

Treatment rather than Punishment Thesis Statement: Children, as innocents and infantile, are unconsciously doing unwanted acts that may violate our laws, therefore insufficient guidance from family, environmental factors syndicates, poverty and problem on education, which are the main rationales for their involvement on crimes should be given corresponding solution by the government. INTRODUCTION Juvenile delinquency means that a youth specifically those who are below 18 years old commits an act that is against the law. It can also be used as legal term for the criminal behavior carried out by minors. According to UNICEF, an average of 10, 500 minors are being arrested and detained every year – about 28 children every day, or more