Narrative
Introduction
Criminology is an area of sociology that focuses on the study of crimes and their causes, effects, and social impact. The study of criminology involves analyzing data to determine why crime was committed and to find ways to predict, deter, and prevent further criminal behavior. While some time may be spent at in the field at crime scenes, the majority of a research time will be spent in either a laboratory or office, collecting and logging data to be used in criminal investigations and policymaking. Changing boundaries of criminology to better society and provide a better understanding of crime . I have been working in the criminal and forensic fraud investigation area for the past sixteen years learning something new every day to add a better understanding of the aspects if of the criminal mind.
I learned the history of criminology and the various elements that have influenced crimes in the society being established, in order to define and identify the changes which have occurred.
Perspectives of crime for me were developed by the experiences that I had in criminal investigations that I participated in with analysis of the criminal schemesscenes. In essence, criminologists look at every conceivable aspect of deviant behavior. This includes the impacts of crime on individual victims and their families, society at large, and even criminals themselves. Some of the specific areas that criminology focuses on include: Frequency of crimes; Location of crimes; Causes of crimes; Types of crimes Social and individual consequences of crimes; Social reactions to crime; Individual reactions to crime and Governmental reactions to crime.
This course covers the basics of fraud examination by focusing on the major areas including Criminology and Ethics, Legal Elements of Fraud, Fraudulent Financial Transactions and Fraud Investigation.
In this section, we were able to analyze the different perspectives and theories utilized in explaining the concepts of crime in the society. These are important in dealing with various aspects of crime. In essence, criminologists look at every conceivable aspect of deviant behavior. This includes the impacts of crime on individual victims and their families, society at large, and even criminals themselves. Some of the specific areas that criminology focuses on include:
• Frequency of crimes
• Location of crimes
• Causes of crimes
• Types of crimes Social and individual consequences of crimes
• Social reactions to crime
• Individual reactions to crime and Governmental reactions to crime
LO1 Analyze and debate how gender, class and race relate to crime.
In the post-modern and multicultural worlds of criminology and criminal justice characterized by post-structuralism, post-Marxism, post-affirmative action, and post-feminism, the variables of class, race, and gender remain fundamental to both theory and practice. After all, the disciplines of criminology and the fields of criminal justice have always been about the real and imagined differences between “criminals” and “non-criminals.” Theoretically, explanations of crime and crime control, regardless of perspective or school of thought, have sought to make sense out of these differences. In the process of trying to sort out these differences, virtually every theoretical framework has addressed class and race overtly, and gender at least covertly. Up until recently, the problem with this line of inquiry was not only that there had been very little, if any, agreement on the effects of these three critical variables, but worse yet, folks were still debating whether or not these variables matter.
By the turn of the 21st century, however, a growing number of criminologists from several orientations, including but not limited to critical, feminist, Marxist, positivist, and integrative, had come to appreciate, in different yet related ways, that class, race, and gender matter. Today, many inquiries are interested in finding out just how exactly class, race, and gender matter in the production of crime and criminal justice. Some inquiries focus on class, race, and gender as autonomous variables. Some inquiries focus on these three variables as inter-related. Of course, key questions on the complexities of these relations and on the means of exploring them still remain. And even though the ways of seeing difference or of approaching class, race, and gender vary, there is certainly an emerging consensus on the importance of these three variables, and increasingly, on the intersections between them or on their interactive or reciprocal relationships .
LO2 – Identify biological and Psychological Perspectives of explaining crime.
Crimes and International criminology
In this section, my interaction with various types of crimes in the study will be discussed. This section will act to substantiate my knowledge of criminology. An insight into the various criminal activities which occur at the global level and identify the legal issues involved in dealing with these crimes, at an international level was also essential in the course and will be put into perspective. The international community has over the past decades clearly expressed the need to prevent and stop these international crimes from taking place and to prosecute the world’s most responsible perpetrators. Yet, effective action is often hampered by a lack of will or knowledge. Preventive strategies cannot be effectively set up without a thorough understanding of the root causes of these crimes. A call for action to stop crimes from taking place can only take place if effective monitoring systems are in place, while successful prosecution of orchestrators or organizers of these crimes can only take place if they can be clearly linked to atrocities that have taken place on the ground. Designing these strategies and executing these tasks can only be done by means of taking a multi- and interdisciplinary approach.
As I started my career in the Health Care industry I never imagined that I would end up working in the criminal investigation part of my job. Investigating white collar crime and criminal activity was a major adjustment to what I had been used to in the work place. It was intriguing and I became extremely interested in learning more about how the criminal mind worked and how to understand it. I have worked many investigations that have had relationship to organized crimes, with increase in dealing with various foreign organized crime rings . You find that these organized crimes syndicates and their operations function similar to legitimate business as they adapt to the times and changes in society.
LO3 – Explain how social learning theory applies to delinquent behavior.
The Social Control Theory, originally known as The Social Bond Theory in 1969, was developed by Travis Hirschi. The central question of the theory asks why do people follow the law?law. The theory suggests that people engage in criminal activity when their bond to society has weakened. “social control theory refers to a perspective which predicts that when social constraints on antisocial behavior are weakened or absent, delinquent behavior emerges .” In other words, when an individual has experienced a lack of social connections or a lack of social network that would normally prohibit criminal activity, the likelihood that the individual will participate in criminal activity increases .”
In his essay, Hirschi describes the 4 elements of the bond to society as including the following elements: Attachment-The internalization of norms, conscience, and super ego is determined by an individual’s attachment to others. Hirschi says this is the sociological counterpart to the superego. Commitment-People obey rules for fear the consequences of breaking them. This is the counterpart to the ego. Involvement-a person’s personal involvement in conventional activity. Hirschi states that an individual involved heavily in conventional activity simply does not have time to engage in deviant behavior. Belief- a common value system within a culture. Belief plays a role in deviance in2 ways. The criminal either a) disregards the beliefs he/she has been taught entirely, or b) rationalizes their deviant behavior so that they can engage in criminal activity and still believes that it is wrong. This subset of the social control theory involves the strain theory in that it demonstrates an individual’s belief in common goals and morals of society, and it shows a lack of means for achieving those goals which in turn encourages deviant behavior as a means of achieving those goals.
In my experience I have witnessed individuals steal or commit crimes and be caught red handed only to try to justify the act as legitimate. The idea of the justification of the criminal acts made me develop a greater interest in understanding the behavior. When I interviewed a doctor after the FBI had suspected he was billing Medicare for services that never took place and then providing services that resulted in the death of several patients I saw something I felt was not right. Eventually after a long interview/conversation the doctor admitted that he had committed the crimes and identified exactly every crime that he was suspected of committing. He ended up pleading guilty and is now serving time in federal prison. This was one experience that taught me about the social learning theory as it applies to delinquent behavior.
LO4 – Analyze and debate middle-class delinquency and its relation to gangs.
From the time of the first civil communities, every society has declared certain modes of behavior to be unacceptable or criminal in nature. Early customs and laws mandated compliance and punishment for the greater good of the group, city, or nation. In the modern era, the codification of norms of behavior is universal, and within contemporary societies the designation of some behaviors as criminal is fairly uncomplicated by definition: Most people have an instinctive understanding that criminal deviance involves egregiously (outrageously bad) illegal acts for which perpetrators can be punished.
Practitioners and researchers have sought for generations to explain why juveniles engage in criminal deviance. Is such behavior a matter of individual choice? Can our understanding of biology and psychology explain delinquency? To what extent do environmental factors influence juvenile deviance? Are juvenile delinquents likely to become adult criminals? Historically, professionals have proposed a number of factors that theoretically explain delinquent behavior. Each theory represents the height of scientific understanding in each era. This is important, because policies derived from these theories have not only sought to isolate juvenile offenders but have also tried to manage the root causes of their behavior. Thus, punishments, rehabilitative techniques, detentions, and other controls have been designed to target the accepted explanatory factors .
LO5 – Identify the various theories that explain crime.
A learning of the theories deepened one’s understanding of criminology and criminal ideologies. These theories provided a deeper perspective towards understanding crime and criminology as they have been studied by different individuals. This entry focuses on the three major sociological theories of crime and delinquency: strain, social learning, and control theories. It then briefly describes several other important theories of crime, most of which represent elaborations of these three theories. Finally, efforts to develop integrated theories of crime are briefly discussed.
All of the theories that are described explain crime in terms of the social environment, including the family, school, peer group, workplace, community, and society. These theories, however, differ from one another in several ways: they focus on somewhat different features of the social environment, they offer different accounts of why the social environment causes crime, and some focus on explaining individual differences in crime while others attempt to explain group differences in crime (e.g., why some communities have higher crime rates than other communities ).
LO6 – Describe the problems associated with defining and determining the frequency of corporate crime, as well as discuss and debate possible solutions to this problem.
Perception is everything. As long as people cling to the mistaken belief that they are immune from being scammed they will harbor the notion that victims must deserve their fate. Authorities, like us all, associate mental images to certain crimes. White collar crimes invoke non-threatening images of guys in suits, not thugs in balaclavas. And naturally we treat such individuals with respect and courtesy rather than fear and severity.
It appears at times that our justice system does not place adequate emphasis on fraud and other white collar crimes especially when it is considered a non-violent victimless crime. One disturbing fact is how the offense is perceived, not as a criminal offense at all, but as simple bad judgment on the part of victims, by both the general public and by the victims themselves.
This perception can lead to a tendency to blame the victims for their own losses. It affects how society sees the victims, and how the victims see themselves. This in turn can influence the way the offense is treated by law-enforcement and regulatory agencies, and when offenders are convicted, by the courts which sentence them.
Compared to the murderers, rapists and urban gangsters that get the headlines, white-collar criminals just don’t scare the public very much. They don’t leave a chalk outline on the sidewalk or blood spatter on the wall. So while violent crimes demand a high profile response from the police, the cost of white collar crime is significant but hard to measure in human costs.
While few laws are enforced 100%, white collar crime has a much lower margin of non-enforcement. Fraud and other white collar crime is not a priority for police departments. They are required to devote their resources to crimes of violence and, due to lack of trained personnel and financial resources, are not always able to investigate and prosecute suspected fraud and other white collar crime cases.
I was allowed to participate in many cases related to the health care fraud and assisted the Health Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). In May 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) created the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). With its creation, the fight against Medicare fraud became a Cabinet-level priority. HEAT’s work is directed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder .
HEAT’s mission
• To gather resources across the government to help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
• To crack down on the people and organizations who abuse the system and cost Americans billions of dollars each year.
• To reduce health care costs and improves quality of care by preventing fraudsters from preying on people with Medicare and Medicaid. Learn more about protecting yourself against Medicare fraud.
• To highlight best practices by providers and organizations dedicated to ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare.
• To build upon the existing partnerships between HHS and DOJ to reduce fraud and recover taxpayer dollars.
HEAT successes
• Between 2008 and 2011, HEAT actions led to a 75% increase in individuals charged with criminal health care fraud.
• Since 2007, HEAT’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a multi-agency group of investigators designed to fight Medicare fraud, has charged more than 1,400 defendants who collectively falsely billed the Medicare program more than $4.8 billion.
• In 2011, HEAT coordinated the largest-ever federal health care fraud takedown involving $530 million in fraudulent billing .
The knowledge and experience that I have gained through my work over the last sixteen years along with my extensive training on investigating and interviewing has helped me to gain an insight to criminology and understand how a criminal works.
LO7 – Identify some of the legal issues involved in dealing with pornography.
Christians may find pornographic materials morally and socially offensive, but not all pornography is legally prohibited in America. Individuals, groups, and companies advocating for the public availability of pornographic materials primarily cite the First Amendment’s freedom of expression clauses. However, obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment, though there has been considerable debate and evolution over what is considered obscene. Despite this debate, the legal restrictions prohibiting obscene materials have remained, because protecting society from obscenity is considered a public good. It is good for the welfare of society that obscenities not be available. Just as freedom of speech does not allow someone to yell “Fire!” in a theatre because it could cause a riot and human injury, freedom of expression cannot allow for expression that is obscene because it may harm those viewing and hearing the obscenities.
Many Supreme Court decisions have set forth guidelines for use in defining obscenity. In 1957 the Roth v. United States decision stated that the test for determining obscenity is “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest7.” However, this ruling did not decide who defines “contemporary community standards” and who determines when prurient interest or lustfulness is aroused.
The Supreme Court and Congress have also addressed use of pornography over the Internet. In the 1997 Reno v. ACLU decision, the Court held that “Transmitting obscenity and child pornography, whether via the Internet or other means, is . . . illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles.” Congress, likewise, has tackled online obscenity through the Communications Decency Act of 1996, as amended by the PROTECT Act of 2003, which prohibits knowingly using a computer service to display obscenity in a manner available to viewers under age 18. The Child Online Protection Act of 1998 bans making available obscenity in online commercial communication to minors under age 17. Further, federal law prohibits Internet domain names from using words often associated with cartoons that could mislead children into viewing indecent material. A more recent law, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, increases the maximum possible fines the Federal Communications Commission can levy for radio and television broadcast indecency violations from $32,500 to $325,000 per incident. Satellite and cable programming are not directly affected by this legislation.
While the Court has consistently upheld the right to ban obscene materials and child pornography, what many would consider obscene is still highly prevalent within society. Sexual morality, except for rare forms of obscene sexual images and child pornography, has been removed from the understanding of public morality. The rights of individuals to consume and sell materials as they see fit has triumphed in recent years over the right of the government to protect society from public evils. In 1970 the President’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography stated, “The government interest in regulating pornography has always related primarily to the prevention of moral corruption and not to . . . the protection of persons from being shocked and/or offended.” However, this view has been eroded in the public and in the law by those proclaiming free speech rights and those influenced by the sexual revolution.
Despite the arguments for sexual freedom, numerous studies have found that consuming pornography has negative results for youth and adults. Pornography use increases violence and sexual violence. It degrades women, damages the family, and produces a highly sensual society .
LO8 – Discuss the six areas in which police departments have been found to be defective or deficient and debate possible solutions to these problems.
Areas that there are problems start with constitutional due process, civil rights, use of deadly force and police brutality, abuse of discretion, corruption and police-community relations. In doing so, generalize about any possible solutions to these problems. There is no doubt that terrorism is providing an impulsion for the various law enforcement agencies (Terry and Grant, 2012). These terrorism activities have made the organization restructure and increase their cross-agency information globally. The police deliver their services to the public using organizations (Walker and Katz, 2011). The quality and efficiency of the policing depend on the organization and management of the departments. Various critics argue and affirm that the form of various organizations of the police has the fundamental problem in policing (Terry and Grant, 2012). The police departments are distinct and secluded from the public, do not make the best use of their work and they resist change. This paper discusses the principal duty and various functions of the organization of the police and their role as stipulated in the law. Next, it describes the types of agencies in the police, al local, federal, and state level, and it will include the roles and functions of each, and explain the duty of the patrol work. Department of police Functions and Functions
The police are the ubiquitous organizations in the society (Walker and Katz, 2011). The police officers are the most government representatives. Hours of crisis, need, and difficulty, when we do not know to do, whom to approach in times of need, and what actions to take, the police officer and the police station are the most approachable and appropriate person and unit (Terry and Grant, 2012). Many people expect the police to be accessible, dynamic, and an interactive unit. Their duties, functions, and roles in the society are always varied natural, and they are multifarious too (Walker and Katz, 2011). Their roles are complex, knotty and complicated. However, the police department has twin roles (Walker and Katz, 2011). The police department is expected to maintain order and maintain law (Terry and Grant, 2012). The ramifications of the police department duties are numerous that leads to making substantial inventories of powers, functions, duties, responsibilities, and roles (Terry and Grant, 2012). The general police functions are to protect human life, their rights, their property, the dignity of the public; they uphold and enforce the law (Terry and Grant, 2012). The police officers are involved in promoting and preserving public order, control and prevent terrorist activities, and maintaining the internal security of the country (Walker & Katz, 2011). Principal roles and functions of police organizations and their roles according to the law The services provided by the police are delivered through organizations (Terry and Grant, 2012). The quality and efficiency of the various policing will depend on how well different departments are managed and organized (Walker and Katz, 2011). All police departments, despite their locations and size, have established set of policing (Terry and Grant, 2012). This policing reflects the underlying assumptions and values of the departments. The organization of the police will enable the police department to be informed on the developing strategies and plans for the unit (Terry and Grant, 2012). The organization helps in the allocation of the units resources, and ensures that the police department upholddepartment upholds the paramount discretion in the unit (Walker and Katz, 2011). Many agencies that enforce laws in America are organized according to the quasi military method (Terry and Grant, 2012). The organization is such that the departments in the police unit resemble the military in some aspects. This style of police organization was founded by Robert Peel (Terry and Grant, 2012). He used this organization for the advantage of the organization of the London Metropolitan Police, 1829, which American police departments adopted the organization (Walker and Katz, 2011). The police organization is such that the departments are responsible for 1. Traffic Control (Walker and Katz, 2011)
2. Protecting and preventing people from crime (Terry and Grant, 2012) 3. Combating the fear of the public on crime
4. They uphold and enforce governing laws (Walker and Katz, 2011) 5. They promote the safety of the community
6. Encouraging the public on respecting the law
7. Protecting the liberties and civil rights of individuals
Various agencies of the police at local, state, and federal levels explaining their functions and roles Policing comprises of several different agencies (Terry and Grant, 2012). Each agency has a role that is allocated to an organizational unit or an area. Each of the policing organization has the objective of enforcing the required law and order in their levels of policing (Walker and Katz, 2011). They enforce the laws in their federal, local, and state. Policing is a complex world. Policing is not easy or straightforward as many people in the society might think. Policing has several ideas (Walker and Katz, 2011). Each of the policing is unique and is defined to the functions and their roles. There are three levels of policing, federal, state, and local (Terry and Grant, 2012). Under local policing, agencies include county police, municipal police, tribal police, Sheriff departments, and medical or coroner examiner (Terry and Grant, 2012). Municipal police plays the most complicated functions than the two units. The municipal police isare responsible for maintaining order and performing various services pertaining to emergencies (Walker and Katz, 2011). City police units have the responsibility of dealing with the heavy and serious crimes that are concentrated within the cities (Walker and Katz, 2011). The county has similar functions as the municipal department, however; they operate on the county basis (Terry and Grant, 2012). The county Sheriffs have an exceptional status because they hold a constitutional office, and the state constitution defines their roles and duties (Terry and Grant, 2012). The sheriff position is that of an elected position, in that sheriffs are elected to office. The Sheriffs conduct regular patrols they serve in the courts and corrections, and they enforce the law and order in their jurisdiction (Walker and Katz, 2011)…”
Enforcing the law
This section will review how the laws are enforced within the society with the aim of dealing with perpetrators of crimes. A deep venture into this section will be brought out as it is an area that underpins the whole course. Law enforcement broadly refers to any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating or punishing persons who violate the rules and norms governing that society. Although the term may encompass entities such as courts and prisons, it is most frequently applied to those who directly engage in patrols or surveillance to dissuade and discover criminal activity, and those who investigate crimes and apprehend offenders. Furthermore, although law enforcement may be most concerned with the prevention and punishment of crimes, organizations exist to discourage a wide variety of non-criminal violations of rules and norms, affected through the imposition of less severe consequences. There are three levels of law enforcement federal, state, and local. The federal aspect of enforcing the law includes the FBI, DEA, OIG, DOJ etc. The state level included the state police and attorney general’s office for the state. The local levels are the city police and county sheriff along with the supporting courts .
Conclusion
In looking back over the last sixteen years and consider the various investigations that I have participated in and learning how to conduct analysis and indentify how to look at class, race and gender along with the psychological and biological aspects of crimes. I have learned through my cases hoe social theories apply, such as greed and deceit as they apply to delinquent behaviourbehavior. I have gained a great understanding of the theories through my experience investigating criminal activities as it relates to all types of crimes. I have been deemed an expert witness in my field by several federal courts and have testified in over 75 federal trials with the charges ranging from organized crime, conspiracy to commit fraud, false claim, and obstruction of justice. In my dealings with several of these investigations they occasionally ended unresolved and multiple subjects were subsequently investigated a second time, which allowed for the charge of intent. I have studied with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and have been designated a Certified Fraud Examiner. That training consisted of Fraud Prevention and deterrence, financial transactions and fraud schemes, investigation and law. The Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential denotes proven expertise in fraud and crime prevention, detection and deterrence. CFEs are trained to identify the warning signs and red flags that indicate evidence of fraud and fraud risk. CFEs around the world help protect the global economy by uncovering fraud and implementing processes to prevent fraud from occurring in the first place.
Additionally, I have obtained specialize training as an Accredited Healthcare Fraud Investigator. Established in 2002, “Accredited Health Care Fraud Investigator” is a unique professional designation granted by the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association to individuals who meet certain qualifications related to professional experience, specialized training, formal education and demonstrated knowledge in the detection, investigation and/or prosecution of health care fraud.
The AHFI® designation is available to qualified individuals who are NHCAA Individual Members or employees of NHCAA Member Organization, Affiliate Member, or Premier and Supporting Member or employees of an NHCAA Law Enforcement Liaison, or other federal, state or local law enforcement agency.
These designations have given me specialized skill to investigation white collar and healthcare fraud type crimes along with being able to identified organized crime connections to white collar crimes.
U.S. Department of Justice, Citizen’s Guide to United States Federal Exploitation and Obscenity Laws.
“The President’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography” (1970), qtd. in The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis, by Robert P. George (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2005), 114.
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