Follow-up to where we left off & Reminder

The final point I made before we wrapped up on Thursday had to do with the complexity of human behavior and the corresponding complexity of trying to explain criminal behavior. In that regard I was going to quote something from a recent commentary on an interesting documentary (which is in our library)on a case of child molestation. It is entitled, "What 'Capturing the Friedmans' Says About Getting Tough on Crime." On the general trend of getting tougher, the author comments:

"The result of these 'throw away the key' trends is a bad case of what legal experts call 'overincarceration.' After a three-decade surge, which has continued even as crime rates have dropped, the United States has 702 inmates per 100,000 people, the highest incarceration rate in the world. The growing number of death row exonerations -- more than 100 since 1976 -- are proof that at least some of these inmates do not belong in prison at all. Many more inmates are behind bars longer than they should be."
"The title 'Capturing the Friedmans" is a wordplay on the difference between law and art: it was far easier for the police to 'capture' the Friedmans than it was for the filmmakers. But if the justice system is to live up to its name, it must be as concerned about reaching a full understanding of people and their actions as documentarians are. The law is not free, as artists are, to become so caught up in indeterminacy that it renounces the whole idea of guilt. But it has a moral obligation -- one it has abandoned in recent years -- to try to see crime and criminals in all their complexity."

The way I see it, "to try to see crime and criminals in all their complexity" is precisely what we are going to do in this course. So, in that sense, I believe the sociologist or criminologist can be of value to our criminal justice system, even if they don't have all the answers.
Next Tuesday, I'll comment briefly on "The Lost Distinction Between 'Explain' and 'Justify'", and then we'll get into our first major theory, so-called Deterrence theory.

Reminder: Again, don't forget to post your comment on the first blog exercise by next Monday.