Introduction
In our contemporary society, the system of criminal justice is an outcome of the various evolutionary transformations that society has experienced since the beginning of the United States of America (Martinez, 2017). The study of criminal justice has experienced a tremendous rise over the years. The widespread popularity and rise in enrolment in criminology and criminal justice departments across the international community and the United States of America have brought an evolutionary paradigmatic shift that goes hand in hand with the issue of criminal justice, for example, pragmatic terms and the issue of discipline. Criminal justice has been identified as a major sociological specialty area (Matteoni, F., 2017). It has emerged as a stand-alone discipline in its own right. Criminal justice continues to rise and grow surprisingly. Currently, criminal justice is inherently hypothetical but is being used as a focus and, hence, is more associated with educational and specialist concerns of criminal justice and related fields. In contemporary society, criminal justice is interdisciplinary and has become more prominent, hence putting the lives of people at risk in the United States of America. To overcome the situation, strict measures are in place to curb crime and ensure that those people who engage in criminal acts are dealt with accordingly. This can be done through various punishments like fines, imprisonment, and even the death penalty.
Justification Of The Topic
Like any other topic, the reasons why people commit crimes have become an essential topic because they explain various phenomena concerning why people commit crimes. Laws create a safe atmosphere for everyone and make an individual feel secure at all times (Matteoni, F., 2017). They also contribute to fairness in society by safeguarding the rights and responsibilities of an individual belonging to a given country. Transgression of laws has brought great concern in society, raising questions about the reasons people commit crimes. When people go against these laws, there are various penalties that depend on the kind of crime that an individual commits.
Literature Review
The criminal justice literature has been productively probing the causes of why people engage in crimes. According to the contributions of Richard J. Herrnstein and James Q. Wilson, they claimed that crimes occur as a result of external conditions affecting lawbreakers or acts of psychological abnormality (Martinez, 2017). According to them, offenders should either be held responsible or receive punishment for their criminal engagement. James and Wilson demonstrate that punishment is there to address 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 crime are not lawbreakers’ abnormal psychology or their surroundings. Rather, they assert that crime is a result of those aspects of human nature that make 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 argue that punishment can be a deterrent to crime so long as the kind of punishment an individual goes through is directly proportional to the crime that the individual committed.
Thinkers like Hobbes and Locke understood that the concept of crime was vague and obscure because they believed that human beings are known to be simple by nature and their deeds are managed by some superpower (Martinez, 2017). According to their argument, they claim that man commits crimes due to the external influence of spirits called demons 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 demonological theory of criminality, which acknowledges the omnipotence of the spirit, regarded as a great power. In this theory, the presence of demons in a person is considered evidence of criminality, and treatment is considered the only cure, demonstrating the perceived effectiveness of the spirit (Kampmark, 2017).
The lesson derived from this section is that criminal justice lies in the fact that it apparently 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 of punishment. Therefore, aspects of criminal actions, such as the personality of the offenders as a whole, for instance, motives, general character, and antecedents, should not be overlooked. It should be noted that the basis of the judging system in offense jurisprudence is essentially an outcome of the reaction toward the handling of lawbreakers in society (Davies & Matteoni, 2017). Both articles and theories agree that criminality, whether irresponsible or responsible, is a threat to society and, hence, needs to be eliminated.
Theoretical Framework
Great thinkers like Hobbes and Locke define demonological theory as a study of beliefs and demons, especially how they summon and control people. The demonological theory of criminality states that crime does not come from one major source (Kampmark, 2017). Instead, there are many different reasons behind a person’s criminal behavior. In the theory of demonology, there is a belief that evil spirits can penetrate the human body and, hence, make people commit offenses. It uses different terms like witches, wendigo, and demons that were used to refer to people who had turned into criminals in society (Martinez, 2017). Various societies thought that criminals existed due to the influence of evil spirits. Society believed that supernatural powers were considered the best explanation for breaking the law and committing sin at the same time. Hence, there was a belief that a person never sinned voluntarily of his own free will but due to external influence, that is, the influence of the evil spirit.
The theory will be used in the study to investigate whether criminality is caused by external forces like evil spirits. People of different categories will be interviewed. Adults aged 50-80 years of both genders will be asked questions to explain what they believe causes crime in society.
According to the theory of demonology, external forces such as demons and evil spirits are the major cause of criminal offenses in society (Kampmark, B. 2017). Once they enter a person’s life, they alter the normal functioning of an individual, hence making the person lose consciousness. This leads to committing the crime without the individual being aware of it. The demonological theory is important in this study as it can reveal what causes an individual to engage in criminal actions in society.
Hypothesis
People possessed by external influences, such as demons and evil spirits, commit more crimes than people guided by religious beliefs.
Variables
The independent variable is committing the crime, while demons, evil spirits, and religious beliefs are the dependent variables.
Research Subject
This study is aimed at people aged 50 to 80 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 represent the large population to be studied. The best sampling criteria have to be sought, relying on the reliability and suitability of the study. The simple random sampling method to be used should be suitable enough to reduce the chances of inconveniences and errors occurring.
Data Measure
To research the reasons why people commit crimes in the United States of America, a quantitative research design should be used. This means the empirical investigation of both physical and tangible phenomena through the use of statistical, computational, and mathematical means to obtain 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 are several means by which data can be obtained for any research question. Among the data sources to be used are interviews, observations, focus groups, questionnaires, and secondary means such as ethnographies, documents, and records; these are to be utilized for our study depending on their advantages and disadvantages, which in turn depend on the suitability and reliability of the method to be used.
Interviews
The interview is a method of gathering information through oral means, which involves the researcher asking the respondent questions while recording the answers right there and then. It has some advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
In the interview, there is speech modification. It becomes easy to clarify information because both the interviewer and interviewee come together and, therefore, easily move step by step with maximum simplicity.
During the process of the interview, there is an interaction between the interviewer and the respondent, which may increase collaboration and mutual understanding between those who are involved, hence making it easier to obtain accurate and honest answers.
Disadvantages:
Information gathered may not be collected correctly because the examiner may take the examinee out of context.
Inadequate attentiveness by the parties may lead to the proposed data being received inaccurately.
It is extremely expensive and time-consuming when involving a large population.
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is simply a set of questions prepared by a researcher and made accessible to a respondent with the aim of gathering information on a given topic of study.
Advantages Of A Questionnaire:
A lot of 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 information from other methods of data collection.
Disadvantages:
A questionnaire contrasts with interviews in its inadequate consideration of some other factors, such as emotional changes and performances, among other things, that may easily alter the respondents’ responses.
It is very difficult to verify whether or not the respondent was honest in 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 (Ph.D. Thesis). Eastern Kentucky University.
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