Background
In our contemporary society, a system of criminal justice is an outcome of the various evolutionary transformations that the society has experienced since the beginning of the United States of America(Martinez, 2017). In the past years, the United States of America has established mechanisms that institute and enforce the laws of the society at the same time while giving out responsibilities and prosecuting the lawbreakers. In our societies today, the functions are carried out by the corrections, police and courts. This method of the criminal justice system was not there in the early beginning of the United States of America. Before the establishment of formal laws, rules and institutions were developed, in America. It relied on religion as a means of eradicating bad behaviours in society. Most of the crime codes were well identified in the bible, breaking of various offences, for instance, blasphemy, profanity, as well as the breaking of the Sabbath rules, were not tolerated in society (Kampmark, 2017). There were various ways in which people were punished like stoning, dunking, the humiliation of the lawbreakers as well as whipping and finally they were ultimately led towards asking for the repentance of their offences. It was these methods that were used to make the offenders apologetic for their criminal actions.
In the United States of America, the use of religion as a way of dealing with criminal justice became less used. The law was formed to sustain values of morality, which were a more common concern for the greater number of people in the United States of America at this time than religion. The transformation resulted in more laws and hence, led to more violations(Davies & Matteoni, 2017). The majority of the people believe that laws of morality are less adopted than the laws of religion thus making them become less operative in eradicating the required behaviour than using the new structure like corrections, courts and even police. It does not matter, whether is effective or ineffective, right or wrong the events are the major determinant for contemporary criminal justice in America. They range from small, religious like small towns to bigger cities where the religion and customs were practised, they will never transform the background of the criminal justice system, generating a need for dignified corrections, courts and police.
Justification of the topic
Like any topic, the reasons, why people commit crimes, has become an essential topic because it explains various phenomenon on why people commit crimes. Laws create a safe atmosphere for everyone and make an individual feel secure at all times. It also contributes to fairness in society by safeguarding the rights and responsivities of an individual to belong to a given country. Transgression of laws has brought a great concern in society raising questions about the reasons people to commit crimes.
Literature review
The criminal justice literature has been productively probing the causes of why people engage in crimes. According to the contribution of Richard J. Herrnstein and James Q. Wilson, they claimed that crimes occur as a result of external conditions to the lawbreakers or an act of psychological abnormality(Martinez, 2017). According to them, they argue that the offenders should either be responsible or get punishment for their criminal engagement. James and Wilson demonstrate that punishment is there to justify the crime committed despite the attack made by the social sciences on the concept of free action and personal accountability.
They further claim that the main reasons for the crime are not lawbreakers’ abnormal psychology or the surrounding. Rather, they assert crime is a result of those aspects that do not change the human nature that makes people accountable for their crimes. In other words, law-breaking is a manifestation of the same human nature that leads to actions of greatness(Kampmark, 2017). Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham are great philosophers who contributed to criminal justice they argued that people have free will in making decisions. Jeremy and Cesare understand and argue that punishment can be a deterrent for a crime so long as the kind of punishment an individual goes through is directly proportional to the crime that an individual committed.
The thinkers like Hobbes and Locke understands that the concept of crime was vague and obscure because they believed that human beings is known to be simple by nature and their (Martinez, 2017) deeds are managed by some superpower. According to their argument, they claim that man commits a crime due to the external influence of spirits called demos or evils. Thus a lawbreaker commits a wrongful deed not because of his own free will but due to the external influence of some superpower. This contribution goes hand in hand with the theory of demonological theory of criminality which acknowledges the omnipotence of the spirit which they regarded as a great power. In this theory, the criminal is considered as evidence of the fact that a person possesses demons is considered as the only cure for which testimony of the effectiveness of the spirit(Kampmark, 2017).
The lesson derived from this section is that criminal justice lies in the fact that it clearly contains concessions of free will. This implies that a person can break the law due to certain extenuating circumstances which should be taken into consideration at the time when getting a punishment, therefore, criminal actions like the personality of the offences as a whole for instance motives, general character ad antecedents should not be overlooked. It should note that the basis of the judging system on offences jurisprudence is essentially an outcome of the reaction towards the handling of the lawbreakers in society(Davies & Matteoni, 2017). Both articles and theories clearly come into agreement that criminality whether irresponsible or responsible is a threat to society and hence, needs to be eliminated.
Theoretical framework.
The proposed research project will be grounded in the demonological theory of criminality. The demonological theory of criminality focuses on demonology which states that crime does not come from one major source(Kampmark, 2017). There are many different ways behind a person’s criminal behaviour. In the theory of demonology, people believed the existence of evil spirits that penetrated in through the human body hence he became vulnerable to committing offences. By they used to use different terms like witches, wendigo and demons that were used to refer to people who had turned into criminals the society(Martinez, 2017). According to various societies thought that criminals existed due to the influence of the evil spirit. Society believed that supernatural powers were considered the best explanation behind breaking the laws and committing sin at the same time. Hence there was a belief that a person never committed sin voluntarily of his own free will but due to external influence is influenced of the evil spirit.
Hypothesis.
External influences such as demons and evil spirits are the major reasons why people commit crimes in the society
Variables
The Independent variable is demons and evil spirits while crimes is a dependent variable.
Research subject
This study is aimed at people of age15-35 years in the United States of America who have committed various crimes and those who have not committed crimes. In conducting research a sample should be taken to stand for the large population to be studied. The best sampling criteria have to be sought relying on the reliability ad suitability of the study. The simple random sampling method to be used should be suitable enough order to reduce the chances of inconveniences ad errors occurring.
Data measure
In order to obtain the research on the reason why people commit crimes in the United States of America the quantitative research design should be used. This means that the empirical investigation of both physical and tangible phenomena by the use of statistical, computation and mathematical means to obtain the results. Quantitative research aims at using calculations models hypotheses and theories which are related to the topic under study. On the other hand, qualitative research investigates much more specific circumstances and skills with the objective of explaining the meaning of things.
Data sources
There exist a number of means by which data should be obtained for whatever the question of the research. Among data sources are as follows interviews, observations, focus groups, questionnaires and secondary means such as ethnographies documents and records, and all these are to be utilized for our study depending on their advantages and disadvantages, which in turn depends on the suitability ad the reliability of the method to be used.
Interviews
The interview is a method of gathering information by use of oral means which involves the researcher interrogating the respondent’s questions while recording the answers right there and then. It has a number of advantages and disadvantages
Advantages:
In an interview, there is speech modification. It gets easy to simplify an individual because both the interviewer and interviewee come together and therefore easily move step after step with maximum simplicity.
During the process of the interview, there is an interaction between the interviewer and the respondent, which may upsurge collaboration and common acceptance among those who are involved hence, easy to obtain accurate answers full of honesty of those who are involved.
Disadvantages
Information gathered may not be correctly collected, because the examiner may get the examinee out of context.
Inadequate attentiveness by parties may lead to the proposed data receiving inaccurate.
It is extremely expensive and time-consuming when involving a large population.
Questionnaires
A questionnaire simply prepared questions by a researcher and accessible to a respondent with the aim of gathering some information on a given topic of study.
Advantages of a questionnaire:
A lot of the information can be collected from many people within a very short period, unlike other means of data collection.
It is easy to analyze information acquired by a questionnaire more logically than other methods of data collection.
Disadvantages
Questionnaire contrasting to interviews is inadequate in thoughtful of some other factors such as emotional changes, performances among other things that may easily alter the respondents’ responses.
It is very difficult to verify whether or not the respondent was honest o the process of filling out the questionnaire.
References
Davies, O., & Matteoni, F. (2017). Executing Magic in the Modern Era: Criminal Bodies and the Gallows in Popular Medicine. Springer.
Kampmark, B. (2017). Releasing the “Terror Genie”: Man Haron Monis and the “Sydney Siege.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 37(4), 496–510.
Martinez, K. (2017). The Devil in the Details: Popular Demonology, Addiction and Criminology (PhD Thesis). Eastern Kentucky University.
