For your Final Project, you will select three case studies from the given set. Each case scenario represents a different type of offender (e.g., mentally disordered offender, sex offender, violent offender, family violence offender, female offender, white-collar criminal, cybercriminal, or terrorist).
For each case:
Apply a specific theoretical approach to the criminal behaviors displayed in each case.
Determine if the crime or crimes presented would be categorized as expressive or instrumental. Explain your rationale.
Explain and evaluate whether developmental risk factors and correlates of criminal behavior influence criminal behavior. Evaluate whether the offender in each case scenario is a criminal.
Note: Although assessment is an integral step in the tasks you complete in this Final Project, for the purposes of this course and Final Project, you will not assess the offenders in the case scenarios you select.
Your Final Project may be presented via one of the following options:
A 10- to 12-page (not including references, title page, or abstract), double-spaced, APA-formatted paper.
This paper needs to be 12 pages NOT including title page or reference page. Below is the selected case studies that I have chosen.
1) A devout Christian, married
woman living in Florida had 6 children. She suffered from depression for many
years. Each pregnancy and the addition of another child added to her stress and
depression. Over time her conditioned worsened and her family insisted that she
seek therapy. She was prescribed anti-psychotic medications and regular visits
with a therapist. Over time her doses of medications doubled but her depression
pulled her down into states of psychosis. There were moments of clarity. She
admitted to her therapist that she was having thoughts of harming her children.
That admission resulted in someone being with her at all times to supervise.
Her husband was not
convinced that there was anything really wrong with her other than that she
could use a “good swift kick in the pants” to get her back on track. Besides,
they both wanted children. They even decided that she would go off her
anti-psychotic medication so she could get pregnant again. Besides, he argued,
it was God’s will for them that they have lots of children. In truth the woman had actually reported to
her therapist that it was her husband who wanted more children and that he
convinced her it was the right thing to do and that all would be well according
to God’s plan.
The husband soon decided
that his wife really did not need constant supervision and, without notifying
the therapist, he went off to work leaving her alone with the 6 children. He
believed she needed some independence. The wife waited until she knew he was
gone and placed the family dog in a secure space so he would not interfere with
what she was about to do. She knew that she could never raise her children
properly and believed what she was about to do was in their best interests even
though she would be damned to hell for eternity. She filled the bathtub and one
by one brought in the children and drowned them. The eldest boy who was 11 was
difficult because he resisted and tried to escape, but she was stronger and
faster. When she was done killing them all she called her husband at work and
calmly announced that she had done something very bad to the children.
Prosecutors believed that
she had intentionally killed the children. Yet in her defense, her sanity
became a key issue. Was she responsible
or criminally.
2) Luke, age 12, appeared on the surface to be a
normal child who seemed reasonably happy and respectful of others. But there
were differences in his appearance that made him a target for his schoolmates. His
ears were a bit deformed; he had a noticeable speech impediment, wore thick
glasses, and had a hearing impairment. Luke also was struggling in school due
to his ADHD, and as a result he was 2 years behind his classmates. Luke
struggled to fit in with kids younger than him. He greatly resented the taunting and had no
real friends. He was very sad and angry at the recent loss of his grandfather,
with whom he had been living since his parent’s divorce. His new stepfather had a violent temper and
was very controlling. The tension was so severe that his 17-year-old sister
announced one day that the stepfather had molested her and promptly moved out. Luke
had also learned accidentally from another student at school that Luke’s real
father lived just 30 miles away and that he had met him before. Luke had never
seen his biological father. All of these factors deeply affected Luke’s
self-esteem and his growing anger toward others.
One day while walking alone in a local park
Luke noticed a young, cute little boy by himself. Luke called to the boy and
offered to show him some kittens he had just found in the woods nearby. Once
inside the wooded area Luke attacked and strangled the boy. He then smashed in
the boy’s skull with a large rock and sodomized him with a stick. After making
up several misleading stories, Eric eventually confessed that he alone had killed
the boy but could not explain his actions, nor did he appear particularly
concerned about the killing. What was it that made Luke kill? Was Luke
biologically predisposed to violence? Was it lack of parental nurturing? Could
there have been other environmental factors influencing Luke? Luke was
sentenced to several years in prison.
3) A well-respected college football assistant
coach founded a charity organization to help underprivileged youth. Many dozens
of youth were assisted over several years, especially young boys. Everyone,
including his family, was very proud of the efforts he made to help youth.
However, the coach was also grooming these boys for sexual encounters. For 30
years he molested boys at their schools, in his basement, his car, on the
college campus, at his favorite golf resort, in locker rooms, and in hotel
rooms. Others suspected things were amiss but reports never seemed to go very
far. The public scandal would be devastating to any university, and the
financial costs would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Eventually,
however, a report by one of the football staff became public. Part of the
reason the coach’s behavior could be overlooked or dismissed for so many years was
because he was a married man with children. True pedophiles are not interested
in sex with adults. However, the coach’s children were all adopted. During the
trial, one of the adopted boys came forward and admitted that he too was one of
the coach’s victims.
In some cases, true pedophiles marry to access
children, and they are very good at manipulating members of the family,
including their spouses. After many years of grooming, the coach had a system
worked out where nobody in his family was willing to report him even if there
were suspicions. Besides, he loved these children, or at least that was the
public impression. If you were
prosecuting this case, how might you explain the coach’s attraction to young
boys in order for the jury to understand why it occurred? Was he a child molester, or a true pedophile?
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