The Beltway Snipers were responsible for a string of synchronized shootings that occurred over the course of three weeks in the month of October 2002 in the states of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It was first thought that these shootings were connected to a white van or truck. Later on, it was found out that a man named John Allen Muhammad and his juvenile accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo were driving around in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan and carrying out the shootings. Initially, a harmless shot was fired through the window of a Michaels Craft Store in Aspen Hill. James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst was shot and murdered in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store located in Glenmont at approximately 6:30 p.m., roughly an hour after the initial incident (Reichenbaugh, 2018). In multiple sites around the metropolitan area of Washington, District of Columbia, as well as along Interstate 95 in the state of Virginia, eleven people were murdered, including three victims who were in serious condition (Reichenbaugh, 2018). The murders sent shockwaves across the nation’s capital as well as the country as a whole.
A person’s culture plays a part in defining whether or not an action is considered criminal, how the people who commit the crime are dealt with, and the kind of sanctions that can be imposed. Culture plays a role in determining who will be arrested, accused, and convicted, as well as the sentence that will be handed down to them. In point of fact, the process of criminalization is driven by the invisible hand of culture, which also helps define which behaviors will be sanctioned through the use of criminal statutes. There is a more significant influence on the propensity of individuals in different nations to engage in criminal behavior is exerted by other factors. The crime rate of a city can be impacted by variables such as the population size and the existence of deterrents such as security cameras; however, these factors might vary depending on the area. The environment one finds themselves in has the potential to impact their decision to participate in criminal behavior (Gucwa-Porębska, 2019). This is as a consequence of witnessing the good and poor precedents set by those around them.
Theories give insight on the ways in which individuals respond to and make contributions to the system of criminal justice. The concepts can also be utilized to predict criminal behavior and to provide a concise summary of the anticipated result in judicial rulings. Certain theories direct lawmakers on how to handle various challenges. Some of these challenges are left to community justice, and there is no room for criminal justice system to use their authority in a way that mistreats lawbreakers because of these theories (Gershenson & Tekin, 2018). This is done so that cultural concepts and morality can be preserved, such as during special events. The difficulty with making broad generalizations is that they can lead to attacks on individuals who are behaving in ways that are considered to be culturally acceptable. As a result, one ought to use extreme caution in order to avoid this outcome. In addition, the stereotype may have a detrimental impact on people’s day-to-day lives by lessening the sense of community that they have.
By taking this method, community members have the opportunity to both inflict harm and recover from the effects of their mistakes. Ethical issues should be considered during the design, execution, and presentation of cases, as well as the foundation upon which any inferences are constructed (Bayandina, 2018). Ethical considerations come into play while defending the law since law enforcement officers are limited in the amount of force and violence they can use to get evidence. Because the shooters on the Beltway were aware of their actions and the potential consequences, they were able to make informed choices about how to deal with the aftermath of their actions. This demonstrates what ethical behavior looks like.
Because both crime theories and criminal justice policies aim at legitimizing each other and attaining the essential meaning in reference to experienced gained, there is an obvious relationship between the two within a social framework. Strain theory can explain the criminal behavior as it relates how strains in a person’s life can lead to crime. The person who has a criminal personality believes that, because of who he is and how he was raised, he is entitled to accomplish anything he sets his mind to doing. According to this theory, society has let these individuals down by providing them with empty assurances, preventing them from achieving success in lawful endeavors, and ultimately leading to their involvement in criminal activity (Robert, 2018). The applications of strain theory have resulted in the creation of programs that aim to improve the probability that young people can accomplish positively valued goals, decrease the likelihood that young people will lose valued possessions such as friends, and decrease the extent to which individuals are subjected to noxious stimuli such as verbal and physical abuse (Robert, 2018). Family-based programs, school-based programs, and peer and individual programs are among the program types.
In conclusion, theories can be applied to explain criminal behavior and the factors leading to crime. There are various factors in a person’s life that lead them to crime including the environment they grow up in. The purpose of criminological theory is to assist individuals in achieving a better understanding of criminal behavior and the legal system. Theories examine not just the formation of laws but also their violations, as well as trends of criminal activity, deviant and illegal behavior, and social dysfunction.
References
Bayandina, M. O. (2018). Questions of professional ethics in the work a law enforcement officer. Bulletin of KazNU. Series Legal, 78(2), 332-334.
Gershenson, S., & Tekin, E. (2018). The effect of community traumatic events on student achievement: Evidence from the beltway sniper attacks. Education Finance and Policy, 13(4), 513-544.
Gucwa-Porębska, K. (2019). Dysfunctionality of the family environment as one of the reason for recidivism. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Sociologica, (71), 41-50.
Reichenbaugh, D. (2018). In Pursuit: The Hunt for the Beltway Snipers. University Press of New England.
Robert, A. (2018). Stability and change in crime over the life course: A strain theory explanation. In Developmental theories of crime and delinquency (pp. 101-132). Routledge.