Tag: Law

Over the last 50 years or so, the United States has seen several, unique domestic terrorist organizations. In this group project assignment, you have the opportunity to dig into the background of one of these organizations and analyze what makes it unique. Different organizations have formed for different reasons. They have different methods for recruiting new members, different attack patterns, and have been dealt with differently by law enforcement agencies.

Your instructor has assigned you a Domestic Terrorist Organization from one of the following:

Aryan Nations
Animal Liberation Front
ANTIFA
Earth Liberation Front
Klu Klux Klan
Sovereign Citizens
Black Liberation Army

You are required to write a 5-7 page paper in APA format that answers the following questions:

1. Why/how did this organization come into existence?
2. Is this organization uniquely “American,” or does it have international analogs?
3. How does/did this organization recruit or gain members?
4. Why did they select the type of attacks and the targets they chose?
5. Provide an example of an attack by this organization.
6. What was the most effective tactic by law enforcement for combatting this organization?
7. Did the organization accomplish their goal/s, and what happened to the organization?

What characteristics distinguish the Positive School from the Classical School regarding criminal thought? Which of these schools do you lean toward in your own perceptive of crime, and why? Be specific.

If you had to give yourself a somatotype, what would it be? Explain your choice, and note whether this score would make you a likely criminal in Sheldon’s model.

What are the general findings in studies of identical twins separated at birth? What implications do these findings have for the importance of genetics or heritability regarding criminal behavior? Can you think of some criticisms for such findings?

How do brain wave patterns and the autonomic nervous systems differ between chronic, violent criminals and normal people? Does this make sense in biosocial models of criminality? Be specific.

What is assistance of counsel?

For example: Two college friends, Richard and Peter are arrested by the Capital City police. They are accused of murder for setting fire to the Capital City University administration building one night and causing the death of a janitor in the fire. Both Richard and Peter were members of a student organization that claimed that the administration of the University was corrupt, and at a rally they carried signs outside the building that read “Burn it to the ground.”

Richard’s father is very rich. He hires a team of the most expensive lawyers in the country, and after an eight-day trial, Richard is acquitted by a jury. Richard’s lawyers sought and received a separate trial for him.

Peter’s parents have no money, and Peter has massive student loans and works two jobs to pay for school. He is represented by a public defender who has 120 other cases. Though the public defender does his best with limited time and resources, Peter is convicted after a three-day jury trial.

Peter is now appealing his conviction, claiming that having a public defender with 120 cases effectively denied his right to counsel.

Was this a violation of Peter’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel? Fully explain your answer. Be sure to support your answer with scholarly sources and appellate court opinions. Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

Watch: All the Queen’s Horses

This week’s discussion is based on the documentary, All the Queen’s Horses.  The documentary is available on-demand at the following sites:

https://www.amazon.com/All-Queens-Horses-Gene-Bigg…

Read & Respond: All the Queen’s Horses

On February 14, 2013, Rita Crundwell, former comptroller for the city of Dixon, IL was sentenced to 19½ years in prison for stealing more than $53 million from Dixon. Crundwell’s crime went on record as the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Just as shocking as the amount stolen from this small Illinois town, was the fact that Crundwell engaged in her scheme to pillage Dixon for 20 years before being discovered. 

Crundwell’s fraud shines an unflattering spotlight on the accounting profession and the role of the audit. The relevance of the audit has been in question since the uncovering of massive corporate frauds dating back to Worldcom and Enron. Subsequent to Crundwell’s conviction, the city of Dixon sued its auditors, accountants, and bank, settling their claim against them for $40 million.

After viewing the video and reviewing the related resources, please submit a 3-4 paragraph initial post, addressing the following:

1. Describe the fraud scheme committed by Rita Crundwell, including how she concealed the fraud.
2. How did Rita Crundwell steal over $37,000 each day from a town with an annual budget of around $6 million? 
3. Discuss the application of the fraud triangle and other fraud theories we have covered as they apply to this case study.
4. How could this fraud have been prevented?  In your discussion, be sure to explain the controls that were missing at City Hall.
5. How could such embezzlement go undetected in annual audits by two independent accounting firms and in annual audit reviews by state regulators? How was this fraud continued for so many years?  What red flags did the auditors miss? 
6. How did residents not become suspicious of Crundwell’s extravagant wealth and frivolous spending? 
7. How was the fraud finally detected?  Explain the legal side of the case

Related resources:

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-people-rationalize-…

https://future.aicpa.org/cpe-learning

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-ronald-reagans-h…

https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Decemb… 

Throughout much of history, intelligence was focused in support of diplomatic and military efforts against nation-states. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, intelligence has also focused on the threat from non-state actors, particularly terrorist organizations.  What are the best strategies for collecting strategic and tactical intelligence against terrorist organizations?   What are the differences between collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence focused on terrorism versus state actors? What role does the intelligence cycle play in this process? Whose responsibility is it to develop intelligence focused on terrorism? Is terrorism as a priority of intelligence diminishing the Intelligence Community’s ability to develop intelligence on more traditional targets and uses?

For your “Question/Comment”, answer any question I pose to your initial post, ask a question of comment on the other student’s post on your discussion team. For your “Response Posts” respond to and questions or comments on your initial post from the other students.

Discussion Board Analysis: Chapter 7 – Who Said That? (Pages 117-148)

Discussion Board Activity (20 Points)

Please read Chapter 7 carefully. Part III from the textbook which contains Chapter 7 (Pages 117-148). I have also included instructions, grading rubric and pdf copy of the chapter for your convenience.

Please remember that your RESPONSE should be thoughtful and between 250-300 words. (10 points).

Post TWO thoughtful comments on your classmates’ posts (10 points). Your comments should move the discussion forward.

Write a response to ONE of the following questions:

“We make mistakes identifying voices even under the best of circumstances” (p. 127). Explain the above statement. Provide one specific example that supports the statement.

OR

What is a voice lineup? Discuss the importance of having more than 5 voices in a voice lineup for a criminal case.

Review the Morley Unit Hostage Situation document (See Attached).

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word analysis of the Arizona Department of Corrections’ Morey Unit hostage situation.

Make recommendations for how the situation could have been avoided and mitigated, based on an analysis of the situation and the response.

• Identify and assess the function of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan framework
• Contrast a sampling of public-private partnerships for infrastructure security.
• Analyze and identify the basic steps of a vulnerability assessment

Scenario

You are a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) senior special agent assigned to the National Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF) based in Washington, D.C. The State Department recently requested your assistance at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary, where the facility is hosting a training course on mitigating violent crimes. The ILEA training director has requested that you provide a lecture on either a notable serial killer or a recent act of terrorism and discuss what types of factors may have influenced the perpetrator’s deviant behavior that manifested in this significant criminal activity. The director advised that the goal is not only to provide a case study, but also to discuss the relevance and impact of various criminological theories when assessing criminal behavior as an ethical criminal justice professional. In support of this assessment, an analysis should focus on the role of cultural views and norms, as well as the correlation between criminological theory and practice. The focus of the lecture should be to mitigate future criminal activity through deterrence and intervention.

Directions

Using the scenario above, create a written draft of your lecture that focuses on the application of theory when analyzing an incident of criminal behavior. Choose one of the following incidences of criminal behavior as the focus of your lecture:

• Jeffrey Dahmer profile
• Ted Bundy profile
• Terrorism in the U.S. (Beltway Snipers)

Resources that support each of these incidences are included in the “Supporting Materials” section below.

The following required elements should be included:

1. Describe the incident of criminal behavior chosen (100–150 words). Include the following in your description:
   1. What crimes took place?
   2. Who committed the crimes?
   3. Where and when did the crimes take place?
2. Explain how cultural views and values drive the criminal behavior (150–200 words). Include the following in your explanation:
   1. What is the correlation between culture and the criminal behavior?
   2. How do certain cultures view the criminal behavior differently?
   3. Are there differences in culture and geographic location regarding the legality of the criminal behavior?
   4. Do you feel that the criminal behavior is influenced more by nature or one’s environment?
3. Explain the importance of applying theory versus making broad generalizations to explain the criminal behaviors (150–200 words). Include the following in your explanation:
   1. What are the advantages of applying theory to explain the criminal behavior?
   2. What are the disadvantages of making broad generalizations?
4. Explain the role of ethics when applying theory to the criminal behavior (100–150 words). Include the following in your explanation:
   1. Why is ethics an important facet of criminology and the criminal justice profession?
   2. How does ethics play a pivotal role in the application of criminological theory to the crime chosen?
5. Explain the correlation between criminal behavior theory and criminal justice practices (150–200 words). Include the following in your explanation:
   1. What theory is best applicable to the criminal behavior chosen?
   2. How did that theory affect policies related to the criminal behavior?

I’m working on a criminal justice practice test / quiz and need guidance to help me learn.

When a young child dies, it has to be determined if the death was the result of an accident, natural causes, or non-accidental trauma. For this cause to be determined, there must be an investigation followed by an autopsy where the medical examiner will determine cause and manner of death. Provide one scenario from the following: accident, natural, or homicide. Describe the circumstances surrounding the death and how the investigation would be conducted concentrating on developing evidence that can be physical or testimonial from interviews of witnesses or possible perpetrators. Finally, describe what findings developed during autopsy would result in the cause and manner of death.