Criminology: Essay
Question One
Corruption has affected the U.S. police department for a long time. Normally, corrupt police officers take money or negotiate for favors in their careers in order to corrupt deals. In some cases, police officers accept bribes in order to carry out shoddy investigations against criminal gangs (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). In other cases, police officers accept to free criminals after such officers receives a bribe from such criminals.
Generally, police officers usually accept bribes from drug traffickers and illegal gangs. In exchange, such officers are often expected to facilitate the activities of such criminal groups by providing such groups with sensitive information about government operations or informing them about planned government operations against the gangs.
Most urban towns in the United States have special groups that investigate police officers who are implicated in corruption. Unfortunately, such groups have not been able to reduce the rate of corruption in U.S. cities. One of the challenges associated with police corruption is the fact that most corrupt transactions are often carried out in secret (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). In other words, it is usually hard to establish the total number of corrupt deals in the country. There are several levels of corruption in the U.S. army. Corruption of authority is one of the most common types of corruption (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). Normally, corruption of authority occurs in the form of free banquets or drinks. Police corruption may also take the form of kick backs. Still, police officers may make opportunistic thefts from suspects or crime victims. Finally, some police officers usually engage in criminal activities by
Police corruption has negatively affected the effectiveness of government security agencies. Consequently, widespread corruption in the police force has made the public to lose confidence in the policed force. Therefore, the U.S. government must devise effective ways of reducing corruption in the police. For instance, the government could put more stringent measures against police officers who engage in corruption (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). In addition, the government should engage the public in the fight against corruption. Finally, the government should adopt equip the law enforcement officers with modern equipments in order to enhance the ability of such agencies to detect and deal with corruption cases more effectively.
Question Two
Corporate crime is a category of criminal activity where the people who commit a given corporate crime have a different legal identity from the organization which they represent. In general, it is difficult to define corporate crime precisely. According to Adler, Mueller & Laufer (2013), corporate crimes usually involve business organizations, nonprofit organizations, and other corporate agencies. However, business organizations have a different legal identity from their owners. This implies that some corporate criminal activities may not be linked with individuals directly.
Interestingly, business organizations must have personal representatives in order to enable such organizations to enter into formal deals with other organizations. Overall, there is a considerable overlap between the definition of corporate crime and that of white collar crime. White collar crimes refer to criminal activities which are committed by professionals by using their professional expertise (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). On the other hand, most corporate crimes are often committed by learned people. As such, it is often difficult to differentiate the two concepts. Organized crime and corporate crime are related. Some corporations are often formed in order to facilitate predefined criminal activities such as money laundering. However, some people may also engage in corporate criminal activities unintentionally.
Moreover, it is often difficult to find out the person who is responsible for a given criminal activity especially in a situation where state agencies are also involved in a given crime. Generally, it is believed that most corporate criminal activities are often attributed to the opportunities provided by state agencies. For instance, corruption in the police force may facilitate and encourage corporate organizations to engage in corruption (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). Therefore, it becomes difficult to quantify the frequency and magnitude of corrupt deals. Sometimes, police officers usually conceal the identity or details of a corruption case; thereby making it difficult to find out how frequent a given organization engages in corruption. The concept of “noble cause corruption” further makes it difficult to quantify the frequency of criminal activities. Noble cause corruption refers to a situation where police officer uses erroneous figures and lies to fix a case.
Question Three
Delinquency refers to behaviors and activities that against the general principles of the law. According to Adler, Mueller, & Laufer (2013), juvenile delinquency is often uncommon among children from middle class families because of the intellectual abilities of their parents. Although the level of education of the parent may affect children’s behaviors directly, there are several other factors that make children from middle class families to be less vulnerable to juvenile delinquency compared to those from poor neighborhoods.
Overall, middle class neighborhoods usually have more criminal gangs because most residents of poor neighborhoods are usually unemployment. As such, they often turn to crime as an alternative source of income. Moreover, most poor neighborhoods tend to be insecure. This is because such areas are often supplied with less effective security facilities such as poor street lightening and less police camps (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). Consequently, residents usually form informal gangs to secure them from being attacked by gangs from other areas. On the other hand, areas dominated by middle class families are usually supplied with better security facilities; thereby contributing to the low number of criminal gangs in such areas (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). In addition, middle class families usually take their children to good schools; thereby reducing the tendency of such kids to join juvenile gangs. In the long run, children from middle class families usually tend to acquire lucrative professional career; thereby reducing the overall level of juvenile delinquency in middle class neighborhoods.
Question Four
Illegal prostitution, illegal drug use, and money laundering are some common criminal activities in the United States. Essentially prostitution is illegal in the United States. In the United States, prostitution is categorized as a public order crime because it disrupts the general moral ethics and order in the society (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). There are three main categories of prostitution in the United States. They include escort, street, and brothel prostitution. Generally, prostitution is usually associated with human slavery and tracking.
Drug trafficking is another widespread criminal activity in the United States. Some of the illegal drugs which are consumed in the United States include cocaine, heroin and bhang. Normally, people who use such drugs tend to engage in other criminal activities such as homicides, theft, robbery, and sexual assault. Moreover, those who consume illegal drugs usually influence teenagers to use such drugs; thereby contributing to continuous use of drugs. Overall, the US government has found it hard to fight the illegal use and consumption of drugs because of corruption in the police force.
Normally, police officers usually receive bribes in order to help criminals to distribute and consume illegal drugs. Unfortunately, the use of illegal drugs contributes directly to high cases of juvenile delinquency. Money laundering refers to a criminal activity where criminals transfer the revenues generated from illegal business deals such as prostitution and drug trafficking to business accounts in foreign countries (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer, 2013). In most cases, money laundering crimes are difficult to identify and control because different financial institutions have different policies regarding the methods and amount of bank deposits that they accept. However, the United States has been able to identify and investigate a number of money laundering cases through international coordination.
References
Adler, F., Mueller, O.W. & Laufer, W.S. (2013). Criminology. New York: McGraw- Hill.
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