Critical analysis and evaluation of capital punishment as a method of crime control in the U.S.A Free Essay Example, 2000 words

CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AS A METHOD OF CRIME CONTROL IN THE U. S.A Abstract The effectiveness of capital punishment as another method of crime control in the United States. Capital punishment would clearly work as a special deterrent. But it may also lead to brutalisation effects in the society. Table of Contents I. Introduction A. The Definition of Capital Punishment†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. B. Contemporary purpose II. Body C. Minimum Age D. Deterrence E. Brutalisation Effect F. Controversy III. Conclusion G. Capital punishment and crime control References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I. Introduction A. Definition of Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a legal process where an individual is granted with a death sentence for a crime that he is found to be guilty. The judicial term used for this type of punishment is called the death sentence while the act of killing a criminal in this manner is called the execution. The crime that involves a capital punishment is called a capital crime. The term "Capital" originally means the head and it is used with the context of beheading someone. These types of practices have been prevalent for so many years and there are a number of countries who still practice it while it has been abolished in many other countries. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical analysis and evaluation of capital punishment as a method of crime control in the U.S.A or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Capital punishment would raise a lot of controversy and it has been used by many countries only in an exceptional circumstance. Some of the countries which have still been practising capital punishment would include USA, India, China, Indonesia etc. B. Contemporary purpose Capital punishments are mostly used for drug related offences. They are also used in cases of juvenile disorders and serial killers. Killing of a single serial killer or a psychopath would certainly deter various other crimes caused by them. Capital punishments have received much publicity and it has welcomed lots of criticisms. II. Body A. Deterrence Lots of studies by the economists would prove the links between the capital punishment and crime, without any exceptions. A death sentence granted to a criminal would certainly pave way to prevent subsequent crimes. 1Many political leaders also regard deterrence of crimes as the only reason for implementation of a capital punishment. 2Capital punishment is also considered to be constitutional by the law enforced by the Supreme Court in 1976.

Police Influence on Society - 822 Words

Police Influence on Society Police Influence on Society 1 The relationship between police and minority societies has always been a difficult one with many issues. Before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s African Americans were treated brutally by the police in the United States. African Americans along with other minority groups were often abused by police. Minorities were viewed to have no rights and this treatment was commonplace. This brutal treatment caused individuals of minority groups to distrust and fear the police. Minorities are viewed to be from poor crime ridden neighborhoods and therefore considered to be of the criminal type due to the high rate of crime in poor, minority†¦show more content†¦Decades of harsh and brutal treatment of minorities by the police has caused significant distrust and fear of police. Before the Civil Rights Movement police were allowed to treat Police Influence on Society 3 minorities with as much brutal force and they pleased without fear of reprimand. African Americans were often treated extremely brutally causing them to have the highest levels of distrust and fear of police. Minority neighborhoods have high crime rates, causing the minorities to be viewed as criminals and continuously treated harsher than those of higher social classes and wealthier neighborhoods, who are not considered to be the criminal type and treated with more respect. The relationship between police and minority societies has always been a difficult one with many issues and continues to be strained due to the harsh treatment that is received by police. References MacNamara, R. H., Burns, R. (2009). Multiculturalism in the criminal justice system. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Crenshaw, I. Police Brutality Towards African Americans During the Civil Rights Movement, Prezi, 2011, retrieved from http://prezi.com/4d6rj61s09xi/police-brutality-towards-african-americans-during-civil-rights-movement-in-1963/ Jefferson, B. Attitudes Toward Police, 2013, retrieved from http://yvpc.sph.umich.edu/2013/07/02/attitudes-police-cycle-distrust/ Savali, K. Petition to Fight Back Against PoliceShow MoreRelatedPolice Influence on Society744 Words   |  3 PagesPolice Influence on Society Stephanie Jennings CJA/344 February 11, 2013 Stephen Humphries Police Influence on Society There are different factors when it comes to the police influence on society. The factors can be both negative and positive on society. The police are in the community to protect and serve. The main purpose of law enforcement is to maintain order and to investigate criminal activity in the United States. The history of American policing was learned from Great BritainRead MorePolice Influence on Society Essay817 Words   |  4 PagesPolice Influence on Society Bruce Strong CJA/344 November 8, 2012 Albert J. Munoz-Flores, Psy. D. Police Influence on Society If you watch the nightly news you are bound to see a report of a clash between the police and a suspect or suspects. This often involves a high speed chase or the police taking a suspect down. These events are increasingly captured on video, especially with the advances in smart phones and portable video devices. Very often what you see is a white police officerRead MorePolice Influence on Society Essay924 Words   |  4 PagesRunning Head: POLICE INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY Police Influence on Society CJA/344 Historically, this nation of the United States has proven many times over its dominance over those who are different to those in power. The United States has proven time and again that it can and will discriminate against others it considers less than equal. This is proven and demonstrated to all U. S citizens and those who are not, in our history books throughout school. Every year affording student’s new informationRead MorePolice Influence On Society : The United States943 Words   |  4 PagesPolice Influence on Society The United States is one of the most civilized and structured countries in the World. Since the early settlers came to the new country and established settlements there has been a need for law enforcement. As most of the settlers immigrated from English colonies it is no surprise that law enforcement in the new world was modeled from English culture however, no matter if its United States or England government is the foundation of law enforcement. As such, policingRead MoreEssay about Police Influence on Society981 Words   |  4 PagesPolice Influence on Society Policing has come along way the In the United States. Resources such has vehicles, radios, and computers have made policing much more efficient. Although policing has advanced, history of policing has had a huge impact on the current relationship between African Americans and police. Tension between African Americans and police existed throughout the history of policing and still exists within policing today. Policing history is divided into the political era, reformRead MoreEssay about Effects of Organizational Culture on Police Decision Making1056 Words   |  5 Pagesthe police organizational culture on a Police officer’s ability to make independent decisions. Every culture is composed of four elements: â€Å"values, norms, beliefs, and expressive symbols† (Peterson, 1979, p. 137). Each police officer is influenced by the police organizational culture during training. After graduation fro the police academy, the officer is influenced by the more experienced officers of the department. Research conducted by several authors has found that peer influence neverRead MoreCultural Consideration1138 Words   |  5 Pagesjustice system cultural concerns and influences in today’s societies have its positive and negative aspects. Cultural concerns and influences raises a lot of attention of the affect it has on justice and the security administration. In this paper it will first discuss how cultural concerns and influence affect the justice and security administration and its practices. Second, what contemporary methods are used in the societies of mixed cultures? Third, what influences and considerations that relatesRead MoreOutlin e and assess the role of the police in the social construction of crime (50 marks)1735 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Outline and assess the role of the police in the social construction of crime (50 marks) Social construction refers to the way in which crime and deviance in society might be created and shaped by society and social institutions. This can occur in a number of different ways. For example, they can influence public perception and definitions of what establishes crime and deviance, deviants or non-deviants. They can also influence the amount of crime in society by amplifying it therefore clampingRead MoreMorality Inside Of The Field Of Criminal Equity848 Words   |  4 Pagesutilizing cases. Second I will talk about Theories in regards to open defilement and how police debasement creates has turned into an issue as the years progressed. There are three noteworthy speculations with respect to open defilement: society-everywhere theory, basic or association speculation, and spoiled apple speculation. Each of these hypotheses gives an alternate look as to police defilement. The theories are Society-at-Large Hypothesis, Structural or Affiliation Hypothesis and The Rotten Ap ple HypothesisRead MoreThe Media s Influence On Society s Attitude Toward Pointing Out An Apparent Ongoing Struggle Between Whites And Blacks1668 Words   |  7 Pagesit because society is only interested in hearing about what is going wrong in the world, or is the media trying to create controversy and increase racial tensions to garner larger television audiences and sell more newspapers? Many stories in the news relate to racism: police brutality, education, crime; the media has a way of portraying these matters or specific incidents to suggest that a vast majority of Americans are racist. What might happen if the media, specifically, and society in general

Literature Review on Hybrid Security in Virtual Private Networks

Question: Discuss about the Literature Review on Hybrid Security in Virtual Private Networks. Answer: Introduction VPN is the technology by which information is protected from getting transmitted over the Internet. The unique recognition approaches include finger print recognition, retinal patterns, palm vein technology, voice recognition and face recognition (Mahto Yadav, 2013). These several metrics are related to the characteristics of human beings. This is a type of authentication used needed for the organization for access control and identification. Elliptical curve cryptography is a sub part of public key cryptography that is done on the basis of the structure of algebra of the elliptic curves over the finite fields. It needs various smaller keys in comparison to all the non-ECC for providing security. In this literature review, the discussion is made on the topic that why biometric and ECC are better than other VPN security. They help to mitigate the security issues by using the unique technologies. This paper will provide good methods to secure the confidential data and maintain the confidentiality of an organization. This literature review will also discuss about the innovative ways to utilize this system. The literature review does not provide any innovative recommendation about biometric system and elliptical curve cryptography. Rather, the review describes the existing best technologies of biometric and elliptical curve cryptography (Ramalho, Correia Soares, 2012). Most of the sources provided in the following paper states about the advantages of biometric, ECC, and disadvantages of the other VPN securities. Review: Field of Research The main aim of this literature review is to understand the basic concept of hybrid security in virtual private network. Virtual private networks do have some problems in their security. Biometric system and elliptical curve cryptography together constitute the best possible security methods that are useful to any organization. The security breaches or attacks occur only when a hacker or intruder tries to hack into the information system or the organization. According to Yadav, (2015), a VPN or virtual private network is an extension of a public network, which allows the users to receive and send the data in the public and the shared networks just like their devices were connected to the private network. The benefit of this VPN is the security, functionality and management policies of the private network. There are three major components of VPN. They are the authentication header, the encapsulating security payload and the internet key exchange. Rahimi Zargham, (2012) state that a virtual tunnel is a link between two locations in the Internet. When a sender sends a message or a data to a receiver in another location, the VPN tunnel comes into account. VPN tunnel is extremely safe and secured for transferring a sensitive data. This is mainly used for encryption of a TCP/IP connection to a server from an application. Most applications are based on the server and client protocol and they have to connect to the data for accessing the data. The VPN tunnel makes the connection easier and makes the communication secure. According to Funk, (2015), there are several types of VPN protocols. The protocols are IPSec, L2TP, point to point tunneling protocol, secure sockets layer and transport layer security, open VPN and secure shell or SSH. The IPSec is used to secure the communication of Internet across an IP network. The L2TP is combined with other VPN security protocol to generate a secured connection. The PPTP creates a VPN tunnel and the data packet in encapsulated. Main function of this protocol is the encryption of data. The SSL and TLS create a connection in VPN where the client is the browser. These protocols are mostly used in online shopping sites. Open VPN is used for generating the site-to-site and point-to-point connections. It is utilized as the custom security protocol. SSH generates a VPN tunnel, from which the data is transferred and the tunnel is protected. There are two types of VPN authentication methods that are used to secure the IPSec VPN tunnel. According to Mahto Yadav, (2013), VPN security provides good security system to any system. However, the problem in VPN is that the Point to point protocol is prone to brute force attack. This is dangerous to the information system. This problem can be solved with the help of biometric and cryptography. The famous RSA asymmetric cryptography is completely based on software and hardware. This type of algorithm requires to store the secret keys. Weak passwords protect these keys. There is a high chance of brute force attacks in this type of cryptographic algorithm. This is the main disadvantage of this cryptography. The elliptical curve cryptography solves this particular problem. The contactless palm vein biometric system greater security with less key length and there is no requirement for storing any private key anywhere. This combination of biometric system with elliptical curve cryptography aims to generate and share a secret key without the transmission of any private key so tha t nobody is able to access the key except the users. The elliptical curve cryptosystem describes the biometric system using the vein of the palm of an individual. Kahate, (2013) states that Internet Key Exchange or IKE is a protocol that is utilized to set a security association in VPN. For authentication purpose, IKE utilizes X.509 certificates either distributed or pre shared utilizing DNS or to set a shared session secret by the Diffie Hellman key exchange. Yoon Yoo, (2013) states that the conventional single server authentication of VPN approaches undergo a major drawback. When a user wishes to utilize several services of network,, the user has to register himself in those servers. For this particular problem, many multi server authentication approaches are proposed. However, these approaches are not secured from cryptographic attacks. This paper proposes the very efficient and secured the multi server authentication. This biometric authentication is done with smart cards on ECC to mitigate the hash operation complexities within the users. It will provide an extremely strong authentication function of a user. According to Yeh et al., (2013), the remote access virtual private network secures the network from remote locations. However, there is a high chance that this network can be breached. Biometric and ECC can stop the network from being breached. There are three factors that are used for user authentication by providing the privacy of biometric data with the help of robust elliptical curve cryptography. The three factors for this particular authentication are the passwords, smart cards and biometrics. However, it is observed that this authentication scheme is often vulnerable to any type of insider attack. The passwords can be hacked and intruders can steal the smart cards. According to Ramalho, Correia Soares, (2012), the main disadvantage of VPN is that it is extremely cost effective. Biometric and ECC are simple solution to this problem. They are not at all expensive. The best three biometric identifications are with hand. They are the hand geometry, palm print and finger surfaces. These three biometric identifications help to secure the system with cryptographic curves. Hand geometry is one of the fastest and safest technologies for securing and unique identification of individuals. Palm print is another common and simple way of identification using cryptography. Rao, Rao Rao, (2012), states that finger print is the best solution for biometric with elliptical curve cryptography. It is not possible to take any other persons finger print and thus is extremely safe and secured technology. Finger print is a unique biometric parameter, which when is combined with cryptography forms the safest and the secured hybrid virtual private network. Other Reviews According to Yoon Yoo (2014), a user generated a VPN connection with corporate server of VPN. When the encryption is done in the VPN connection, dial up networking connection is not required between the server and the client. However, this current system is not at all safe and secure as there is a chance that the hacker will get the details of the network. Recently several schemes are proposed for safe and secure networks and communication with the help of WSNs or wireless sensor networks. This is the new biometric based authenticated key agreement scheme. This wireless sensor network provides a secured network to the user. Salas, (2013) states that the problems of virtual private network security can be solved with the help of smart card. This smart card is created using ECC encryption and biometrics. A smart card is a simple card made of plastic that has a in built microprocessor and are utilized to perform several transactions. When the transactions were previously done using the virtual private network, the security was not up to the mark. Many breaching cases were registered worldwide as the network in virtual private network is open. Biometric and elliptical curve cryptography has brought the solution of smart card. Smart card secures the transaction and there is no chance that the intruder can hack into the systems. Althobaiti Aboalsamh, (2012) state thatElliptic Curve Cryptography or ECC usage is with smaller key to give high security and high speed in a low bandwidth. ECC is considered as the best method for upcoming applications. This review presents the idea of biometric signature, which is a new method to combine biometrics with public key infrastructure or PKI; the security can be increased using the ECC in biometric signature creation, because the private and public keys are produced without sending and saving any of the secret information anywhere. According to Mahalakshmi Sriram, (2013) a Virtual Private Network has several disadvantages as if it enables IP spoofing. The other disadvantage is the IP address of the user is blacklisted often due to the action of any other user of VPN. An ECC based multi biometric system stops this type of attack. This particular security system stops the spoofing of IP and the IP address is not blacklisted. Moreover, any other user cannot access the VPN when it is in use. The pictorial representation of the combination of biometric and ECC algorithm is given below: Fig 1: Combination of Biometric System and ECC The above diagram describes the basic algorithm of the biometric and ECC where A is the sender and B is the receiver. There are nine steps in this algorithm. They are as follows: i) At first the connection from A to B is requested. ii) In the second step, B acknowledges back. iii) Next, A sends an authentication request. iv) After this step, B shares the ECC key with A. v) In this step, A acknowledges back that the key is received. If the response is, negative there will be a disconnection. vi) If the response is positive, A will send a bio authentication request. vii) In this step, B will send the acknowledgement and the shared key to access. viii) In the eighth step, A will send an acknowledgement. ix) Finally, in the last step, the connection will be accessed. Once the connection is done, it is sent to the VPN tunnel. Current Best Solution According to Li et al., (2012), the best solution for the combination of biometric system and elliptical curve cryptography is the fingerprint recognition. The user has to scan his fingerprints in the biometric machine and thus the identification and verification is done. The main advantages of this type of biometric and ECC combination is that there is no chance of false and fake recognition. No finger prints are similar and the hacker cannot fake an users finger print. This type of combination is extremely secured and can be easily installed in any organization. The other advantage of this type of recognition is that it records time. There is a micro controller present in the system that records and authenticates the system. Fig 2: Block Diagram of the Finger Print Model The above diagram clearly defines the block diagram of a finger print model which is controlled by a micro controller. There is a module that takes the fingerprint and if wrong person gets into the system, a security alarm notifies. However, this system does have some drawbacks. The main drawback is the constant supply of electricity. Without electricity, the fingerprint model cannot work. Another major limitation of this system is that it accepts absolute accuracy. If the hands are sweaty or has any kind of injury, the fingerprint machine does not accept it. In spite of these limitations, fingerprint is accepted by all users and is considered as the safest technology. Conclusion Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, virtual private network is one of the safest technology for securing the network. However, it has some disadvantages like cost and complexity. The combination of biometric and elliptical curve cryptography is the answer for this problem. VPN is the technology by which information is protected from getting transmitted over the Internet. It allows the users to establish a private and virtual tunnel to enter a network safely, by accessing data, resources and communications by an insecure network. This sometimes becomes a huge problem for security. Biometric system helps to resolve the problems related to security in an organization. This is a type of verification of an individual through which that person is uniquely recognized by the evaluation of few identifying biological traits. Cryptography will transform the data in a confidential way so that there is no chance that the data will be in the hands of the hacker or intrud er. Moreover, this paper also describes about biometric system and elliptical curve cryptography in such a form that there exists no loophole in the system of security. The main advantage of these technologies is that the system will be unavailable to any individual, who does not have that particular biological trait. The above literature review discusses about the innovative ways to utilize this system. The best solution for this combination is the finger print system. The review provides a simple model of finger print system with proper justifications. The major limitations of this system include its constant supply of electricity and any kind of injury and roughness is not accepted by this system. References Althobaiti, O. S., Aboalsamh, H. A. (2012, December). An enhanced elliptic curve cryptography for Biometric. InComputing and Convergence Technology (ICCCT), 2012 7th International Conference on(pp. 1048-1055). IEEE. Funk, A. Virtual Private Network. Kahate, A. (2013).Cryptography and network security. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Li, P., Yang, X., Qiao, H., Cao, K., Liu, E., Tian, J. (2012). An effective biometric cryptosystem combining fingerprints with error correction codes.Expert Systems with Applications,39(7), 6562-6574. Mahalakshmi, U., Sriram, V. S. (2013). An ECC based multibiometric system for enhancing security.Indian Journal of Science and Technology,6(4), 4299-4305. Mahto, D., Yadav, D. K. (2013, January). Network security using ECC with Biometric. InInternational Conference on Heterogeneous Networking for Quality, Reliability, Security and Robustness(pp. 842-853). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Rahimi, S., Zargham, M. (2012). Analysis of the security of VPN configurations in industrial control environments.International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection,5(1), 3-13. Ramalho, M. B., Correia, P. L., Soares, L. D. (2012). Hand-based multimodal identification system with secure biometric template storage.IET computer vision,6(3), 165-173. Rao, B. R., Rao, E. K., Rao, S. R. (2012). Finger Print Parameter Based Cryptographic Key Generation.International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN, 2248-9622. Salas, M. (2013). A secure framework for OTA smart device ecosystems using ECC encryption and biometrics. InAdvances in Security of Information and Communication Networks(pp. 204-218). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Yadav, S. (2015). Virtual Private Network. Yeh, H. L., Chen, T. H., Hu, K. J., Shih, W. K. (2013). Robust elliptic curve cryptography-based three factor user authentication providing privacy of biometric data.IET Information Security,7(3), 247-252. Yoon, E. J., Yoo, K. Y. (2013). Robust biometrics-based multi-server authentication with key agreement scheme for smart cards on elliptic curve cryptosystem.The Journal of supercomputing,63(1), 235-255. Yoon, E. J., Yoo, K. Y. (2014, March). A biometric-based authenticated key agreement scheme using ECC for wireless sensor networks. InProceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing(pp. 699-705). ACM.

Sexual Assault an Example of the Topic Government and Law Essays by

Sexual Assault The idea that sexual assault is treated with less severity than other violent crimes has been drawing attention sense the 1960s. This study addresses the question of whether sexual assault offenders were treated differently than other violent offenders. The authors were also trying to discover what affect race had on the decisions made by the criminal justice system. Overall they found that minorities are generally treated less harshly for sexual assault than whites, but they also found that for other violent crimes such as murder, robbery and assault minorities faced more stringent penalties. Need essay sample on "Sexual Assault" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed The authors chose to do this research because they were concerned with the idea that sexual assault was not treated with the appropriate level of severity. Previous research had been pided into two schools of thought; the consensus theorist and the conflict theorists. The consensus theorists assumed that the law was a neutral body and that it applies to all equally. Hunt (1980) says that most people in society agree with what is and what is not a crime and further they believe that crime occurs regardless of offenders social, economic, or racial background. One of the other studies represented in this article was that of the conflict theorist R. Quinney (1970). He believed that crime is defined by the upper classes and is not agreed upon by the general population. He presented the idea that the criminal justice system protects and maintains distinctions between the class and races. His research though, found enough contradictions that it cast doubt on the validity of his study. Lotz and Hewitt (1997) attempted to break away from the two classical fields of thought. They developed five models which he used to analyze how legal and extra legal information affects the decisions of the criminal justice system. His models represented different schools of thought like the consensus and conflict theories as well as a mix of both. His models showed that there are some factors like race and age that affected how people were treated. Polk (1985) wanted to know if it was only in cases of sexual assault that minorities were treated differently or if it was that all crimes were treated harsher if the offender was black. He found that sexual assault was treated with more severity than robbery and assault but less than murder. Bullock (1961) had also found that African Americans received shorter sentences for sexual assaults than Whites, but longer sentences for murder and assault. LaFrees (1980) study showed that African Americans who attacked white people served longer sentences then those whose victims were white. When the authors set about this project they noted the lack of comparison between sexual assault cases and other violent crimes. They also were aware that the sample size used was usually too small. Many of the studies only examined one jurisdiction. Many of the other studies also only looked at sentencing outcomes as the measure of the criminal justice system. The authors decided to instead look at five different stages of the criminal processing system. They looked at 56,781 felony offenders from some of the most populated urban areas in the United States. From those felons they chose males whose race was known and who had been charged with murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, robbery and assault. This study had five dependent variables; was there pre-trial release, was the arrest charge maintained, what was the case outcome, what was the type of sentence they were given and how long they were incarcerated for. They used the National Pre-Trial Reporting Program (NPRP) to obtain the data for the felons they used. The independent variables they controlled for were the year of the arrest, the type of crime committed, how many crimes the felon had been part of in the past, whether the offender was on a pre-trial release at the time he committed the offense and what was the ethnicity and ages of the offender. They ran their data through a logistical regression to measure the outcome. Their results showed that there were biases in the criminal justice system. The results agreed with the research done by Lotzs and Hewitts (1997). One of the models presented by Lotz and Hewitt that said that class and racial status does come into the criminal justice system on multiple levels this was confirmed by the data presented here. This study found that sexual assault offenders were more likely to be White than African American and Whites were treated harsher than other minority groups. Sexual assault offenders also had a 74 percent chance of not obtaining a pre-trial release. The criminal history was also less for sexual offenders compared to murders, robbers and regular assault offenders. The age of sexual culprits was much higher than for perpetrators of other violent crimes. They found that murderers were given the longest sentences, followed by sexual offenders and robbers. Most sexual offenders were sentenced to around 7.9 years compared to 187 months for murder. Sexual offenders did serve more time than either robbers or people charged with regular assault. In terms of race Hispanics and Asians were less likely to be thrown in jail than Whites and African Americans for violent crimes. They found that African Americans and Hispanics were less likely than Whites to be found guilty for sexual assaults. Conversely Hispanics and African Americans, the minority groups, were more likely to be convicted of the other violent crimes. They found that race also played a role in whether people were granted pre-trial release. Asians and Hispanics were less likely to be detained than Whites and African Americans who had similar chances of being detained. They also noticed that those people who were convicted for sexual assault victimized people of their own race more than others. Out of the African American rapists who were incarcerated, they discovered that most had hurt white women. These results suggested to the authors that minority women are less valued than White women. Because of this they feel that changes need to take place within the system. Desensitization to ethnicity should come to the fore front of training programs within the criminal justice system. It appears that not enough care is given to making sure that victims are treated equally when it comes to punishing their offenders. Without a change in the system a message is being sent that minority victims are not worth as much as their White counterparts; this cannot continue. More research seems needed before the hypothesis that the criminal justice system is devaluing minority victims can be verified, but this study does bring to light many interesting ideas. There also should be a standard set of guidelines for what type of crimes allow pre-trial release because this study showed that many of the offenders were out on pre-trial release for similar crimes. Overall this paper presented the data necessary to give conflict theories validity and shows that investigation is needed to determine the causes of the discrepancies between the races in regards to sexual assault. References Reviewed Article: Maxwell, Christopher, Post, Lori, Robinson, Amanda, 2003. The impact of race on the adjudication of sexual assault and other violent crimes. Journal of Criminal Justice 31: 523-538. Available at Science Direct. Com. Retrieved on April 3, 2006 from www.sciencedirect.com Bullock, l. M., 1961. Significance of the racial factor in the length of prison sentence. Journal of Criminal Law Criminology, and Police Science, 52: 411-417. Hunt, A., 1980. The radical critique of law: An assessment. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 8: 33-46. LaFree, G.D., 1980. The effect of sexual stratification by race on official reactions to rape. Social Problems, 28: 582-594. Lotz, R. and Hewitt, J.D., 1997. The influence of legally irrelevant factors on felony sentencing. Sociological Inquiry, 47: 39-48. Polk, K., 1985. Rape reform and criminal justice processing. Crime and Delinquency, 31: 191-205. Quinney, R., 1970. The social reality of crime. Boston: Little and Brown.