Criminology : November 7

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Grissom greets each student as they arrive, and asks for them to pass in their midterm. He hands out Holiday Revelry and Legal Control of Fireworks: A Study of Neutralization in Two Normative Contexts by Timothy Buzzell for students to read and review in class.

Discussion: In the paper above, a study is done surrounding the use of fireworks to support the theory that that holidays create "circumstances" of "periodic anomie" in which adherence to the law may be suspended by otherwise conventional persons. Why do you believe this is so?


Homework: Read this chapter on the Psychatric Aspects of Rick Assessment in preparation for Thursday's discussion.

Comments

Class Discussion

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Please share your thoughts.

Re: Class Discussion

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John taps his pencil for a few moments. "Perhaps those in authority knows that these days are infrequent and therefore allow a stretching of the rules because of that fact?"

"With the example of fireworks specifically, in some places, they're legal and some they're not. Even in the places where they'e against the law, people still set off fireworks and they're rarely arrested or charged with any offense. I can see this happening because authorities would rather monitor to make sure nothing happens that causes injury rather then attempting to arrest a plethora of rule breakers."

Re: Class Discussion

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

"I think that is a valid thought, and is true in a lot of cases. Although, for more serious crimes like Drunk Driving, when police set up checkpoints, they are looking to arrest criminals as well as looking to prevent injury. Do you have any thoughts on where that line should be drawn? What crimes are harmless enough to ignore momentarily and which should be tracked down and arrested?"

Re: Class Discussion

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"See, sir, I don't see drunk driving as just a holiday activity. It happens all the time and, like you said, checkpoints are set up to catch and prevent."

John taps his pencil again. "I think things that only happen on holidays, for instance fireworks, certain Halloween tricks, that do not happen but once a year should be mostly ignored. If they escalate to the point of injuring themselves of someone around them, then the authorities should definitely become involved then."

Re: Class Discussion

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia raised her hand. "I agree with John, but maybe can we extend that to include damage to property as well? I mean people egg other peoples cars on Halloween and I dunno but I heard that can damage the paint. And I think that is a trick from Halloween and maybe it is something that should be addressed by the police if the property damage is significant enough..." Maia tilted her head "Or I can just keep my opinion to myself if it offendes someone." Maia said looking at her desk top unsure of herself in a class that she usually was very bold in.

Re: Class Discussion

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"I think it's out of knowledge that while something is illegal, it will happen anyway. Fireworks could potentially harm people, but they're normally not aimed to do harm. So like John suggested, it's better to have control over the act and prevent harm from happening, than letting it take place illegally with much more risk."