SA 322 Lecture Notes - The Blind, Geographic Profiling, Environmental Criminology
25 May 2018
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Crim 300W : Week 2 Reading
The Blind Men and Elephant: A Parable for Crime and Justice by Paul Cromwell
Introduction
- Many people in criminology and people in criminal justice seem to view the world the
way the blind men viewed elephant in ancient Chinese.
- Four blind men stand beside an elephant, none had ever seen an elephant yet they
wanted to understand it. Each blind man touched the elephant and experienced a
different feeling from the other, they argued.
Applying the Parable Perspective
- We can apply this story to the criminal justice system and criminals
- Since we have a narrow perspective and are entrenched in our biases of criminal justice
professionals.
- There is a bromicide about the criminal justice system, each element (police, courts,
corrections) they appear to operate in a vacuum, by themselves considering the issues
and problems facing others.
- Police agencies refuse to work against each other – ex. Local vs. state, federal vs. local
and state or country vs municipal police.
- MAIN THEME IN MEDIA – the tension between the FBI and Local authorities between
the police and the courts.
- Another is the CJS failure to move beyond the familiar dichotomy of treatment vs
punishment – or rehabilitation vs retribution
- Criminal behaviour like human behaviour is complex to understand, no one strategy will
be effective (RELATE TO SCHOOL TEACHING STYLES)
- For 30 years they focused on treatment and then another 30 was dedicated for
punishment.
- The sigle ided deotio is a ullet-poof id
- Working as a federal probation officer, he once got do not recommend any sentence in
a drug case beside the maximum penalty
- Othe’s say I do’t at to hea aythig aout ehailitatio these people ae aials
- Another judge gave 5 years for a 19 year old solider who bombed his commanding
offie’s house
- The whole parole board acted in terms of a pre-conceived bias (only seeing one part of
the elephant)
- Leanne Alarid and Cromwell edited a text CORRECTIONAL PERSPECTIVES, crime and
punishment has no reality only perspective.
o Chose 12 correctional issues and looked at the issues from 3 perspectives:
academic, practioner and inmate.
o In most instances, the realities of prison they perceived were not the realities
from the point of view of others.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The blind men and elephant: a parable for crime and justice by paul cromwell. Many people in criminology and people in criminal justice seem to view the world the way the blind men viewed elephant in ancient chinese. Four blind men stand beside an elephant, none had ever seen an elephant yet they wanted to understand it. Each blind man touched the elephant and experienced a different feeling from the other, they argued. We can apply this story to the criminal justice system and criminals. Since we have a narrow perspective and are entrenched in our biases of criminal justice professionals. There is a bromicide about the criminal justice system, each element (police, courts, corrections) they appear to operate in a vacuum, by themselves considering the issues and problems facing others. Police agencies refuse to work against each other ex. Local vs. state, federal vs. local and state or country vs municipal police.
