Free «Possible Crimes» Essay Sample

A crime is considered to be an act of breaking rules or laws by an individual for whom some governing authority through mechanisms like legal systems ultimately prescribes a conviction. Different societies tend to define crime and crimes in different ways. Although almost every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law is counted as a crime. For instance, developed societies mainly take crimes as offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from the offenses against private parties which can lead to the rise of a civil cause of actions (Theoharis, 1999). When informal relationships and sanctions show signs of not being able to develop and maintain a required social order, a government or a state may reinforce more formalized or stricter systems of social controls. Furthermore, bearing in mind the fact that the agents of state or the government have the institutional and legal machinery at their disposal, they are in a position to force the populations to conform and follow the codes, and they can also opt to punish or attempt to reform those who do not conform.

In addition, authorities also try to employ different mechanisms to enable them regulate some particular individual behaviors in general through motivation or discouragement. For instance, governing or administering agencies may modify rules into laws, police the population and the immigrants to ensure that they follow the law .They also implement other policies and activities that legislators or that government have prescribed with the main purpose of discouraging or preventing committing of crimes. The government leaders’ offers remedies and sanctions hence constituting a criminal justice system. However, legal sanctions differ widely in their severity for instance; they may involve incarceration of temporary character with the purpose of changing and reforming the convict. Other jurisdictions involve penal codes written to inflict permanent and harsh punishments such as legal mutilation, capital punishment, or even life without parole (Theoharis, 1999).

Murder Crimes

Committing murder crime involves the unlawful killing of another human being with malice intentions. This kind of intentions differentiates murder from other forms of unlawful homicide such as manslaughter. Most of the societies consider murder as a most serious offense worthy of the harshest of punishments. For instance, a person charged with murder can be typically given a life sentence or death penalty. In this story, the woman was charged for committing murder and therefore was imprisoned after pleading guilty of her actions. The murder case was some kind of a revenge that was plotted for by the woman and her husband over a period of time and they decided to carry it out on a Christmas Eve when the neighbors were on a vacation.

As away of defense in murder crimes, it’s generally accepted as legal justification for killing a person in circumstances that would otherwise have been murder. This killing was considered to be manslaughter because the killer established control of the situation before the murder took place. There was the violation of the constitution where the crime was totally a consipiracy.The process of acquiring the gun by normal citizens is against the constitution because; no individual is permitted to possess harmful weapons. The woman and her husband had plotted for this crime for a long time and for it to be successful, they chose to acquire gun from their neighbor.

Public corruption crimes

Public corruption crimes involve the use of legislated capabilities by government officials for illegimate individual benefit. It includes inappropriate use of state power for other sorts of reasons such as repression of political enemies and general police brutality. The illegally operating functions by private individuals or organizations are neither indirectly associated with the United States nor government. In addition, an illegal behavior of an official person constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly associated with their official duties. There are various forms of public corruption crimes and these include; bribery, extortion, nepotism, and embezzlement. According to Hefferman (2004), public corruption may lead to criminal enterprises such as drugs and/or human trafficking, and money laundering among other offences. Public corruption crimes involve the violation or breaking of public trust or neglect of position by federal government, state or localized officials and their non-public market accomplices.

For instance, a government official whether elected, chosen, or hired is most likely to infringe government laws when he or she demands, requests, or confirms to get a single thing of value in substitution for being stimulated in the functionality of their official jobs. There are various negative threats involved with the public corruption crimes to the safety of the nation and its daily practices. For example, public corruption crimes pose serious threats to the development of the society through undermining democracy and good governance, especially in the political sector. It reduces accountability and distracts representation in policy making processes in elections and in legislative bodies. In overall, public corruption eliminate the government capacity because procedures are in most cases disregarded and public offices bought and sold.

Public corruption crimes also lead to decline in economic development through the generation of considerable distortions and ineffiencies.Corruption raises the cost of business in private sectors through the price illicit payments themselves, the management cost of making agreements with officials, and the risk of violated agreements or detections. It also generates economic distortions in the public sectors by making diversion of public investment into capital projects; where bribes and kickbacks are in plenty (Hefferman, 2004).The government officials are able to raise the technical complexity of public sector activities in order to cover up or even find away for such dealings, hence, further distorting the investment. Public corruption furthermore, increases budgetary pressures on government hence lowering the compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations.

Public corruption also has negative effect on the environment and social status of the country. The reason is that it facilitates the destruction of the environment. For instance, countries that are corrupt may have legislations to offer protection to the enviromment, but this is impossible if the officials can be easily bribed. This may also apply to the social rights workers protection, child labor, and prevention of unionizations. Breaking or the violation of the laws concerning the human rights provides opportunity for corrupt countries to get illegimate economic benefits in the international markets. The government stands at a great position in helping prevent the severity of droughts and other naturally occurring events in the country. However, most government officials are fond of stealing state property, and most often rob at gunpoint the food aid supplied in the country and then sell them for a profit.

Cases which apply to the public corruption crimes

Governor John Rowland`s administration in Connecticut was threatened with the worst public corruption scandal in the United States history. The mayor of Connecticut and some three treasurers from the state were sent to prison, while the governor`s former deputy chief of staff had pled guilty for accepting gold coins in return for government contracts. He reported that he had buried the gold coins in his back yard. Governor Rowland also confessed that he had permitted private corporations to renovate his cottage in Litchfield. The governor first lied to the citizens that he had paid for the hot tub and the cathedral ceilings yet it was the state contractors who had paid for them. To confirm the truth of the story, the state legislature organized to carry out investigation on the governor for any possible impeachment.Therefore, Connecticut was later termed to be most corrupt state in the nation by Bill Curry, the democratic gubernatorial nominee who lost to Rowland in 1998 and 2002.

Defenses of public corruption crimes

The major vital defense to a behavior of public corruption is the truth, which is most acceptable act towards the offended (Hefferman, 2004). In addition to this is the privilege where the statements made in the court by the witnesses, arguments from the lawyers, statements by the legislators on the floor of the legislature, or by the judges as they are seated on the benches, are ordinarily privileged, but are not in position to give support to a cause of action for corruption no matter what may come. Opinion is the most vital defenses recognized in most jurisdictions. For instance, incase a person makes a statement of opinion that is opposed to the fact, the made statement may not necessarily support the cause for the action of public corruption.

The federal bureau of investigation demonstrates that, almost all of its public corruption events are involved in any one of the following catagories; judicial, regulatory, police force or legislative. The legislative and judicial corruption is taken to refer to the packages that determine legislators and judges actions respectively. On the other hand, regulating corruption deals with government investigators together with those who are involved in the corporate scandals of the past couple of years. And the police force corruption is the concept for any illegal purpose to change authorities of the law. The federal government has the responsibility to pursue public corruption crimes in federal courts all over the country. However, the scope of such investigations is most likely to be very extensive since public corruption can cover a bigger variety of offenses. Public corruption crimes are considered among the top investigation priorities of the federal bureau of investigations due to its dangerous effects on democracy and national security (Hefferman, 2004).

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It is always important to ensure that there is better representation incase one of our loved one or ourselves are put under interrogation or charged with the public corruption crime, because the federal government is dedicated to carry out persecutions of the public corruption crimes. Matlock firm has over the years emerged the most unique and qualified firm in carrying out investigations, and defend all actions of public corruption crimes committed. Either the local or the city public authorities charged with public corruption crimes need to keep in mind that all complaints of bribery may occur even though there was no funds received, but only expensive gifts were offered towards the public officials. Therefore, receiving of such gifts by a public officer can be taken to be another infringement of federal legislations. It should be noted that, public corruption crime accusations can highly ruin an individuals` public image or his /her occupation. Due to the sensitive nature of such issues and circumstances, it is very vital to have a criminal defense lawyer with exceptionally good records for the achievement with high profile criminal cases.

Possible constitutional violations

Constitutional violations include issues such as bribery, which is the payment made personally to an official in exchange of his or her use of official powers. This practice involves two people where there is the giver and the receiver of the bribe. For example an official working at the customs may demand for a bribe in order to allow the smuggler of drugs into a particular country. Bribes, therefore, may be requested for in order to bypass the laws and regulations or even to intentionally cause malicious harm to another person.

Usurpation is the practice of powers by an agent that have not been delegated to him or her by the management. In a constitutional republic such as the United States of America, the leaders actions are legitimate only if they are consistent with and based on a constitution, a body of laws that are higher to all subsequent statutes and other acts of leaders that embodies all delegations of power and which may notice particular rights to further explain the limits on the powers delegated (Hefferman, 2004). The main fundamental principle is that all behaviors of the leaders that are not derived from the delegated powers of the constitution are assumed to be null and void from the start, and not just from the point at which a court might render them unconstitutional. Every individual who has experienced the acts of a non-corrupt official has the responsibility not only to obey legitimate officials behaviors, but also to assist them to reinforce them. However, incase there is a conflict among the acts of leaders, to enforce law when an act of an official is in conflict with the constitution; it becomes an act of corruption in the public eye.

However, it is assumed that judges and other citizens have no power to make decisions constitutionally, but discover it, and all people who are involved with any act by an official has a non delegatable duty to make a determination of the constitutionality of that act. This determination is what is known to be the constitutional review. Due to the ratification of the United States constitution and its amendemends,there have been numerous acts by leaders that involve statutes, regulations, executives orders, court rulings and ordinary decisions and actions taken while on duty, and under color of law that have been unconstitutional. In many cases, these actions are violation of civil rights of people and constitutional laws.

Another possible constitutional violation includes abuse of constitutional laws, which involves corruption and violations of constitutional statutes. It becomes a matter of great concern to all citizens when leaders try to conspire with one another in order to enforce the law against such corruptions. They also go ahead and use the government resources and the power of their leadership to cover up for such public corruption behaviors as well as protect the perpetrators whether such acts are performed by leaders themselves or by powerful people among the privileged class. Thus, it is advisable that incase the officials fail to correct and reinforce the law, then citizens should take the responsibility and act toward the reinforcement of the law and replace all the corrupt officials with others who will perform their constitutional tasks responsibly with no such acts like embezzlements.

Nepotism also leads to the violation of constitutional law because it involves favoring of relatives or even personal friends as a form of illegitimate personal benefits. It may also include bribery. For instance, a person demanding that a business needs to employ a relative of an official into the management whether the person is qualified or not is liable for corruption. Nepotism, in most cases becomes public corruption when relatives become the centre of power in a certain business organization from generation to generation. Embezzlement of government funds for personal benefits such as an official taking government resources to develop his or her own private company (Hefferman, 2004).

A kickback is another act committed in the violation of the constitution. It generally involves an officials taking part in the misappropriated government funds that are assigned from his or her organization to an organization that is involved in corrupt bidding. For instance, in case a politician in charge of making a decision on how to spend some of the public money, he decides to give a contract to a less qualified bidder after receiving a kickback, or even undeservedly allocate more resources to them. In this process, the company ends up benefitting more than they bargained for after the officials receives a kickback payment, which is usually included in the payment the company received. Kickbacks are not only limited to government officials but are also committed by other people from other institutions such as pharmaceutical industry where many healthcare providers and physicians get paid in return for the added promotions of the drugs marketed by these industries.

Conclusion

A crime is an act of violating rules, policies, or laws by a person where some governing authorities through mechanisms like legal systems ultimately prescribe a conviction. The possible crimes discussed include public corruption crimes. Public corruption crimes involve the use of legislated capabilities by government officials or any other person who holds a senior position in any organization or a company for illegimate individual benefit. It includes inappropriate use of state power for other sorts of reasons such as repression of political enemies and general police brutality. The illegally operating functions by private individuals or organizations are neither indirectly associated with the United States nor government. Public corruption crimes impacts negatively on the country`s development to a greater extent.

For instance, it leads to reduction in economic development through the generation of considerable distortions and ineffiencies, has a negative effect on the environment and social status of the country as it facilitates the destruction of the environment, and it also leads to a decline in the accountability and distracts representation in policy making processes in elections as well as legislative bodies. Generally, public corruption eliminates the government capacity because procedures are in most cases disregarded, and public offices bought and sold out for personal benefits. The possible constitutional violations include bribery, kickbacks, trading in influence, patronage and unholy alliance, abuse of constitutional statutes, nepotism, electoral frauds especially during election processes, and embezzlement of public funds or resources.