For ten years I taught criminal justice courses for undergraduate and graduate students. We explored various issues with a non-exclusive emphasis on the U.S. Courses included Courts and Criminal Law, Crime and Punishment, Alternatives to Incarceration, Capital Punishment, and Criminology.
My favorite was criminology. What causes criminal behavior? Biopsychosocial explanations examine the interactions between numerous factors.
Biological: genetic and epigenetic influences, brain injuries, hormonal imbalances, ADHD, abuse of alcohol and other drugs, developmental disorders, personality disorders, inadequate nutrition, environmental toxins, neurotansmitter unavailability, limbic psychotic trigger reactions, and much more.
Psychological: abusive families of origin, schools and churches that shame, lack of self-esteem, underdeveloped superego, learning disabilities, and much more.
Social factors include differential association (with crime oriented peers), lack of positive role models, bullying peers, inadequate income, lack of an effective social net, the effects of incarceration, criminogenic media, availability of guns, racial injustice, restrictive gender roles, toxic masculinity culture, and much more
I stopped teaching twenty years ago but I’m still very interested in criminology and popular understandings of crime and punishment. And I value case studies. So a while back I started watching shows on the ID (Investigation Discovery) cable network. The array is dazzling.
Fear Thy Neighbor: community? Keep away from neighbors - they're crazy Evil Lives Here: then again, the worst monsters may be in your own family! Fatal Affairs: don’t do it, didn’t you see Fatal Attraction? Fatal Vows: then again your spouse may kill you (more likely if you're affairing?) American Monster: oooo!, the worst of the worst. Snapped: when women flip out and kill Bride Killas: (like Bridezillas - get it?) brides kill or get killed Primal Instinct: that instinct would be sex. "dangerous duality of attraction ...take turns that make it hard to trust anyone" Scorned/Love Kills: "take a voyeuristic peek into the lust and obsession that have fueled some of the more brutal acts of violence" and more!! Regional DEI: Southern Fried Homicide: we do it our own way down heah Murders in the Heartland: think you're safe here? Nah, you can't escape this shit and my favorites: Signs of a Psychopath: experts examine cases to see if psychopathy was involved. spoiler: yes, in each and every case. Deadly Women - profiler comments on women who kill. They're sociopaths.
These shows have led me to question all the work I put into my criminology courses. Maybe I was overcomplicating things. As one police chief put it at the conclusion of an episode on a typically heinous ID homicide case:
“It’s very hard to explain why some people do the things they do, and I’m convinced that some people are just evil.”
This old-school, common sense approach to crime may sound simplistic but it has the same effect as the clinical diagnosis: “they’re psychopaths/sociopaths”
This reduction of the causes of crime to something essential in the criminal, just evil or psychopathy, affirms in several ways the current social order and culture of the U.S. and is therefore beneficial to ruling class interests.1
Society is off the hook
If people aren’t driven to crime by economic inequality and other societal factors, then one less reason for guaranteed basic income, or increased taxes on the wealthy to fund social programs like free school lunches, job programs, mental health programs, drug rehabilitation, prenatal health, etc.
People of color are overrepresented in prisons. Well, if ….
people go to prison because they commit crimes; and people commit crimes because they’re evil; and people of color are more likely to be in prison than white people then; people of color are more likely to be evil.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Murderers everywhere, in the neighborhood, in the community. No one is safe. So we need more protection - more police, more guns for self-defense, long prison sentences to keep the crazies away from us. Bail reform, hell no. Parole? Not on my life, literally!
You are safe only at home. Maybe. Live in a gated community if you can. Support politicians who are tough on crime, who will support your right to own any type of gun because you need one! These happen to be the same politicians who refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy and blame immigrants and “the blacks” for crime —and support a malignant narcissist for president because they’re afraid of losing a Republican primary to another Republican who will run as an even more extreme MAGA.
Bring back (or keep) the death penalty!
The threat of the death penalty forces many defendants to plead guilty to homicide. Plead guilty and we’ll give you a life sentence, maybe even with the possibility of parole. Take your case to a jury of your peers and if convicted, execution it is! Tell me, punk, do you feel lucky?!
Since 1973 more than 200 people on death row in the U.S. have been exonerated. Not “conviction reversed on appeal” because of judicial error. Exonerated, found to be innocent. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence
The crime rate, the murder rate is out of control!
Well, the homicide rate is high in the U.S. because of gun availability. It also decreased 40% from 2020 to 2023.
The more people watch the more they fear, the more they fear, the more right-wing their votes. 2
Police and prosecutors are relentless heroes.
On ID there are, occasionally, examples of wrongful convictions but the emphasis is on the criminal justice system, from police to prosectors to judges as the protectors of the people, healers of victims’ families, and executors of righteous retribution.
On ID there is no evidence of police badgering arrestees, coercing false confessions, and “testilying”;
no prosecutorial misconduct, such as hiding exculpatory evidence - which is widespread and for which prosecutors are basically held harmless; coaching witnesses to testify untruthfully (suborning perjury);
no judges who give pro-guilty jury instructions or who otherwise favor the prosecution in cases where there is loud community demands for “justice.”
“Real crime” ain’t real. Proceed with caution!
The fundamental attribution error is what social psychologists call the tendency to attribute an individual’s actions to their character and personality, ignoring external factors and the circumstances of the relevant situation. See Patrick Healy, The Fundamental Attribution Error: What It Is And How To Avoid It. Harvard Business School Online. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/the-fundamental-attribution-error
Dolliver, M. J., Kenney, J. L., Reid, L. W., & Prohaska, A. (2018). Examining the Relationship Between Media Consumption, Fear of Crime, and Support for Controversial Criminal Justice Policies Using a Nationally Representative Sample. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 34(4), 399-420. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986218787734
Hey Jim,
Have you listened to the podcast, "Running From Cops"? I think you might like it. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/headlong-running-from-cops/id1459118695