Crime Prevention Issues: Murder, Organized Crime and Fraud

Crime Prevention Issues: Murder, Organized Crime and Fraud 1. Describe the various types of murder. Discuss the issues involved in trying to solve each type of murder. Which are most likely and least likely to be resolved? First Degree/Capital Murder – One of the serious charges it is often the one that requires premeditation, planning, and deliberate action to commit murder. Some states add additional attributes to first degree murder charge such as motive, the context of the murder, and in what manner the murder took place. An example would be someone plotting to kill someone, learning their daily routine and habits. Acquiring a weapon and stalking out the victim are all examples of premeditation and would result in a first degree murder charge. Issues in solving or defending first degree murder charges require understanding if the criminal admits to the killing and asserts self-defense or if the criminal indicates that they did not do the killing. Resolution could lie in justified homicide such as self-defense; mistaken identity, was the person accused at the scene of the crime; accidental death such as parental discipline or even insanity. The prosecution has to convince the jury without doubt that the defendant is the correct person placing them with evidence or they have to disprove insanity defense and/or self-defense defenses. This charge would be the hardest to resolve, the recent Hernandez trial proves that even though the defense may have put reasonable doubt as to the First Degree Murder charge (no murder weapon, no independent witnesses, circumstantial evidence by the prosecution), he still was convicted of First Degree murder. Second Degree Murder – This charge is seen as killing without malice; that there was no premeditation or deliberate planning. For example, if someone is in a heated argument and attacks the victim in anger resulting in that person’s death; the likely charge would be second degree murder as there was no pre-planning and it was done without premeditation. Issues in solving or defending second degree murder charges lay in the fact that most charged with this degree claim they did not commit the crime. There are also those that admit to the killing but indicate that the crime was justified. Resolution could lie in actual innocence; self-defense or insanity. Again, the prosecution has burden of proof that the defendant committed the crime. Felony Murder – The charge of felony murder is used when someone is killed during another felony. It usually isn’t planned out or intended but happens as a consequence of the other felony. If a robber shoots and kills a guard during the course of a bank robbery, felony murder charges would be brought against the criminal Involuntary Manslaughter – If negligence results in death, a person can be charged with involuntary manslaughter. An example could be when you drink and drive and get into an accident that results in a death. This is criminal negligence or involuntary manslaughter. Voluntary Manslaughter – Usually is applied when one person kills another without malice, in that they did not intend for that person to die. There are many times when higher murder charges (such as second degree murder) have been reduced to voluntary manslaughter, each state has its own definitions for manslaughter charges. Provocation is generally used here, meaning that voluntary manslaughter charges tend to occur when a victim is provoked into killing such as finding a spouse in bed with another person. Each degree charged brings with it, its own level of punishments each degree having gradual increase in severity. Murder versus manslaughter can be subtle in their differences, partly because an accidental killing (usually manslaughter) can be constituted as second degree murder. 2. Find three examples of how the internet has facilitated and expanded the variety and types of property crimes that are being perpetrated today. The internet is expanding its reach and making it easier for criminals to steal your identity.[1] One way is through phishing scams right into your email inbox. Phishing is when cybercriminals may send emails that look like they come from legitimate businesses such as a bank or credit card company. People that receive these emails are told there are problems with their account and in order to fix them, they need to enter their personal data into the linked website. Once entered, the hackers now have your personal data and can do a few different things, such as creating separate bank accounts in your name without your knowledge. They can gain access to your current accounts or create viruses that forwards their phishing emails to your contacts. Another way the internet has expanded property crimes is through the way we can easily download and obtain copyrighted material.[2] It is illegal for people to download music, movies, or books through the internet, they are all considered theft of property (piracy) and yet the internet has allowed the practice to flourish through websites and file hosting sites. Piracy costs the industry billions of dollars and the ease with which the internet allows the transfer of data is why it is so rampant. With internet usage increase comes the expansion of fraud online through the acquisition and resale of illegally obtained goods and merchandise. This is classified as etailing fraud and the internet has allowed the growth of merchandise sold online illegally. 3. Pick one of the white collar crimes and present a case for why it is or is not more harmful than a violent crime. I read about Adoption Scams[3] for this question and the emotional toll that is thrust upon the victims is hard to read about. In many adoption scam cases, couples seeking to adopt are contacted by the criminal indicating that they know of a baby from Russia up for adoption, or birth mothers promise their unborn child to multiple couples or even cases of bringing in and involving kidnapped children. The criminals provide just enough details to string the couples along, such as photographs and email trails. The criminal is simply doing this for the monetary gain, not taking into account and pain the couple may feel. Many couples get invested once they believe that a child is its way to them. These are couples who, perhaps, have spent years struggling with conception and may have invested time, money, and emotions into alternate ways to conceive. This journey has probably already been an emotional rollercoaster for the victims and the hope of having a child through adoption will set them up for another emotional ride. These victims are preparing for the arrival of a child into their lives, filled with hope. They may have started decorating a nursery, expanding on their homes or scheduled maternity leave at their jobs. Monetary investment aside, many of these victims will suffer when they realize they have been scammed and there is no child â€Å"For some victims, it’s like losing a child.†[4] Crime of any kind is harmful and its impact will resonant over a wide range. Someone commits a violent crime, those that are impacted are not solely the person attacked or killed. Family, friends, and loved ones are impacted by the attack and/or death of the victim so violent crimes don’t only affect one but many. White collar crime such as the adoption scam not only harms the victims but also the victim’s families. In the case of kidnapping, multiple families are involved. If we are comparing violent crimes to white collar crimes and weighing life or death, than yes, the adoption scam is less damaging but there are no victimless crimes (in my opinion) and we should consider the emotional and financial impact of this scam. 4. Discuss the different types of transnational organized crime. Present possible ways for combating these types of crimes. Transnational organized crime is when a crime has been committed in more than one state or nation and usually involves the coordination and planning of numerous people and groups. Much like organized crime before the internet, transnational organized crime is compromised in a hierarchical manner with a leader supported by close advisors. The main purpose is to engage in criminal activity at a global level such as money laundering and computer crime. They use electronic communications to communicate and push forward their illegal agenda. Social networks are used by members to communicate with each other and sometimes to spread their message. Some types of transnational organized crime include groups that are involved in money laundering, drug and arms trafficking, and human smuggling. They endorse and are involved with trading in narcotics, pornography, illegal weapons and prostitution. Combating these groups multinational organizations are difficult. There is always someone else to step in when a group or gang is eliminated. Drug money is a huge source of foreign revenue many of these groups and the corruption of police and military makes suppression hard to enforce on any scale. Federal agencies are charged with combating transnational crime, they do so through international working groups that share intelligence and plot out strategies and directives to take against these cartels. [1] http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html> [2] http://law.jrank.org/pages/11992/Cyber-Crime-Intellectual-property-theft.html> [3] http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/august/adoptscams_082806> [4] Ibid.

La Belle Dame sans Merci By John Keats Essay

â€Å"La Belle Dame sans Merci† is a poem written by John Keats who was a romantic poet. The first three stanzas of this poem are spoken by the narrator who is talking to the poet, asking him why he’s wondering by himself and looks so sad. He addresses the poet as â€Å"wretched Wight† roaming outside, all alone. The narrator who’s out in the countryside talks about the night and the surroundings what it’s like presently. There are no sedges or birds in the trees. Everything seems to be complete as the harvests are done which marks the end of the year and the fact that there are no leaves tells us it is autumn too which is a time of the year when it seems as though all forms of life have come to an end. Out of curiosity he asks the poet what is wrong with him. The rest of the poem is the poet’s reply. The poet tells us that he saw an extremely beautiful lady somewhere as in the line â€Å"I met a lady in the meads, full beautiful, a fairy’s child†. The poet further describes the lady. He says that she was so beautiful and graceful that she couldn’t have been a human. With such long hair and the grace as she had, she had to be a fairy’s child though her eyes seemed to be wild† or â€Å"disturbed†. The poet makes her sit on his horse and in her presence, sees nothing else as in the line â€Å"I set her on my pacing steed and nothing else saw all day long†. She sings a song of such music and melody that’s it’s definitely not human. A place where there seemed to be no sound of birds is now enchanted by music. The music is not ordinary music or song but that of a fairies and the immortal as in the line â€Å"for sideways would she lean and sing a fairy’s song†. The fairy in this poem represents the poetic inspiration which inspires poets and artists to write and compose. Without this they feel that they are good as dead. The poetic inspiration casts poets into a delightful mood out of which they are able to compose their poetry. It changes a poet’s life when it enters it by brightening it up and leaves it in a nasty way. Just the way poetic inspiration can change the life of a poet when it enters the previous picture of dull and lifelessness also brightens up when the lady is mentioned. In the third to fifth stanza the poet describes the experience in the presence of the lady and the poetic inspiration which are alike. The poet under the â€Å"spell† composes poetry with â€Å"words† as though decorating the fairy that seems to enjoy him poetry [decoration] very much and urges him to continue. He seems to be enjoying all the sensual pleasures which are of taste, sight, music, fragrance and touch. In the lines â€Å"she found me roots of relish sweet and honey wild and manna dew†, the words â€Å"relish sweet†, â€Å"honey wild†, and â€Å"manna dew†, symbolize or express rather, the pleasures experienced by the poet while writing poetry. In the next stanza we find key words which tell us something about the lady. In the lines â€Å"and there she gazed and sighed deep and there I shut her wild sad eyes so kissed to sleep†, the words â€Å"sighed deep† and â€Å"wild sad eyes† tell us that the lady is not happy about something and that she too is troubled over something. The lady who happens to be a fairy, one that belongs to the world of the immortal cannot stay with a person for long. This is because she is from a different world and so after a period of time she must desert the person no matter what and this is what has caused her grief. Even the best of men this world can offer, kings and warriors are no math and she must leave them all. In the same way, the poetic inspiration cannot stay with one person for a long time. It must move on and go to other people and inspire them to compose as well. In the next stanza we see how the poet tries to enjoy his few moments of ecstasy at the most and dream even if it’s on the cold hill side. The poet knows that he too, like those before him will be deserted. In the next stanza he describes his dream, or rather nightmare in which he sees the people who have already been deserted by the lady and become severely ill their life to them was as good as death. Without the fairy that they loved, they had nothing to live for. In the same sense the poetic inspiration allows poets to do what they love to do i.e. write poetry but once that is taken away, so is their ability of composing and they loose interest in life. The men are left with starved lips and pale faces with nothing worth living for. And when the poet wakes up, he find himself in the same situation and all alone on the cold hill side. And so the poet tells the narrator that he had been deserted by the one he loved most and it didn’t really matter what time of the year it was because his life was as good as death.

Difference between Eastern and Western Philosophy Essay

The history of philosophy is full of dichotomies.   Concepts such as empiricism vs. rationalism, permanence vs. change, appearance vs. reality, monism vs. dualism, and the problem of the One vs. the Many, all have become part of the history of philosophy.   The same is true for Eastern and Western Philosophy.   While at certain points these two philosophies converge, the dichotomy between the two philosophies is not merely geographical but substantial as well. Eastern Philosophy is the philosophy found in the Asian continent which includes Indian Philosophy such as Hinduism, Chinese Philosophy such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, Japanese Philosophy, such as Zen Buddhism and Iranian Philosophy such as Zoroastrianism.   On the other hand, Western Philosophy is the philosophy found in the Western countries which is classified according to era beginning with Greek Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Renaissance Philosophy and Modern Philosophy. Both philosophies also differ in their concept of Religion.   In Eastern Philosophy, their religion is integrated with their philosophy and is considered as their way of life.   For instance, Buddhism is not only a school of philosophic thought but is also a religion for Chinese.   On the other hand, in Western philosophy religion is either opposed or considered separate from their philosophy.   For instance, doing the right thing is a desired end not because of religion but because it is considered as the ultimate good for man. Both philosophies also differ in how they see the relationship between God and the physical universe.   Eastern philosophy considers God as one with the physical reality. (Tony Page 1)   For instance, Buddhism sees God as present everywhere and can be found in trees, soil, or even water.   On the other hand, God is either disavowed by atheist philosophers or considered distinct and separate from the universe.   Cited Works Page, Tony.   â€Å"God in Buddhism: Is there One?†Ã‚   Hollisticshop.co.uk.   2005.   January 2, 2009.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Mgec61 Note - Chapter 13 Essay - 1022 Words

MGEC61 – International Economics: Finance Introduction ï‚ · International finance is a study of problems and policies of an open economy. ï‚ · International finance studies the issues like unemployment, savings, trade imbalances, money and price levels (include exchange rates). Organization of the course 1) Introduction – chapter 13 2) Interest rate parity (how exchange rate is determined by the flows of capital) and exchange rate overshooting – chapters 14 15 3) Purchasing power parity and the exchange rate in the long run (how exchange rate is determined by the flows of goods and the determinants of exchange rate in the long run) – chapter 16 4) The DD-AA model (the model that explains how exchange rate and output are determined in†¦show more content†¦MGEC61 – Chapter 13  © Iris Au 2 ï‚ · Example: Suppose the country runs a CA surplus, CA 0: ïÆ'ž Exports of goods and services Imports of goods and services. ïÆ'ž Export revenues earned Import payments made. The Balance of Payments Accounts (BOP Accounts) ï‚ · The balance of payments (BOP) accounts record a country’s international transactions with the rest of the world in a given time period. ïÆ'ž The BOP accounts record a country’s payments to and its receipts from foreigners. ïÆ'ž The BOP accounts also show the sources of demand and supply of a country’s currency in the foreign exchange market. ï‚ · The BOP accounting uses the system of double-entry bookkeeping: every international transaction automatically enters the BOP accounts twice, once as a credit and once as a debit. It is because if we buy something from a foreigner, we must pay him/her in some way, and the foreigner must then spend or store our payment, and vice versa. ï‚ · Credit entry: any transaction resulting in a receipt from foreigners. ïÆ'ž Examples include exports of goods, services, or assets. ï‚ · Debit entry: any transaction resulting in a payment to foreigners ïÆ'ž Examples include imports of goods, services, or assets. MGEC61 – Chapter 13  © Iris Au 3 Components of BOP Accounts BOP accounts Current Account (CA) Financial Account Capital Account (KA) Non-Reserve portion of KA,