Friday, September 4, 2009

Assignment 1. What are the layers of the criminal justice "wedding cake"?

Level 1 Crime - Levi Johnston mother hit with drug charges, Sherry Johnston was arrested by Alaska state trooper at her home in Wasilla. Sherry has six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance; this incident was reported December 18, 2009.

Level 2 - A 24-year old Anchorage woman has been indicted for killing two people in a collision on the Seward Highway in July of 2008. Danielle Jannett was speeding and caused the fatal crash, according to the Anchorage District Attorney's Office. She is now charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Jannett pleaded not guilty to the charges. Bail was set at $20,000 in an unsecured bond. The driver of that car, Jeffrey McClure, and Jannett's passenger, Riley McVitty, were killed.

Level 3 - The Alaska Supreme Court has reversed the drunken driving conviction of a Fairbanks man, saying a state law prohibiting his particular defense is unconstitutional. The court ordered a new trial for Douglas Valentine, 47, who was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in 2005. Valentine had challenged a state law prohibiting a defense known informally as the Big Gulp defense, where a defendant tries to prove he was less intoxicated while behind the wheel than when taking a breath test afterward. Valentine filed a motion to dismiss his case and challenged the 2004 amendments to the state's DUI law. He was nevertheless convicted by a Fairbanks jury, and the Alaska Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in 2007 by a 2-1 vote.

Level 4 - Alaska wildlife officials have cited a Talkeetna-area man who shot a sow and three cubs this month at his home. Don Tanner, 59, faces misdemeanor charges of taking a brown bear sow accompanied by cubs, and taking a cub bear in connection with the July 6 shooting. Tanner disputes the charges and, in an interview Monday, called them "frivolous." Tanner said he shot the first bear out the bathroom window thinking it was a lone boar he had seen the day before. If the bear had been a boar, it would have been a legal kill. He then shot two 250-pound cubs as they tried to break into his house, and a final cub outside. Tanner is the second Valley man charged this summer by fish and wildlife officials with illegally taking a bear.

Mission Statements:

The website for the Department of Corrections is as follow: http://www.correct.state.ak.us/corrections/index.jsf

The website for the Department of Public safety is as follows: http://www.dps.state.ak.us .

Alaska Dept of Correction-The Alaska Dept of corrections enhances the safety of our community.We provide secure confinement,reformative programs,and process of supervised community reintegration.
The above mission statement best fits with the Crime control perspective on justice.The Crime Control Perspective focuses on controlling dangerous offenders through incarceration,which results in helping to maintain a safer community.
As you can see the above statement effectively utilizes secure confinement and programs that bring about change,to help offenders reintegrate back into communities.

Alaska Dept of Public and Safety-Prevent the loss of life and property due to fire explosion.

Again,the above statement best fits with the Crime Control perspective on justice.The goal of the dept of public and safety is to prevent the loss of lives or property due to fires.The department wants to protect the community and its citizens.No other obvious model of justice is displayed in the mission statement.CC

1 comment:

  1. Good job overall, it looks a little copy-paste-y, though. You might want to try going more in depth and explaining what the different layers of the Wedding Cake model actually mean instead of going straight into the crimes that happened. Look forward to reading more.

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