SOC. 227: CRIMINOLOGY: Midterm 2 Review
Martinsville Satanic sex scandal: California
Biggest child molestation case in us history more than 200 convictions, based on children testimony, Longest and costly in
history. Conclusions made included: Children will embellish the truth the developmental psych guy learnt that the children could
by into the assault if the adults have provided them with the idea, Sexually abused forced to drink blood for satanic ceremonies,
ten years later he tours people in satanic and animal sacrifices
Topic: The Demonic Perspective on Crime and Deviance
e.g., the case of the Brookfield Demons Johnson was said not to be held on charges because he was found to be contempt by
demons ▯ Johnson’s account “the devil made me do it”, he was someone with a mental disorder and suffering from chicanery
▯ uote exotic cases Dantay’s inferno, told lady demons were going to fix her eye, and the woman’s son put his finger in her eye
which cased damage, crazy things happened after the little boy predicted it
e.g., Abigail Dartana patricide case ▯ 14 year old girl who killed her father, charged by police and prosecute chose to fashion the
prosecution against her on some position that she had also became possessed e ▯ .g., Marilyn Manson ▯ this inspired the idea that
because the young girl had listened to this music she had fallen into the devil influence, on this occasion the defense that that this
is b/c she likes the music and so what, the reason she killed father was because her father was a sexual offender towards her, the
judge believes that the girls behaviour was sensible and that the prosecutor argument was stupid and that she was found not guilty
for reason of self defence ▯places (Winnipeg) started banning performance by them because they need to be stop the seduced by
the devil
*e.g., Judas Priest ▯ 2 teens entered into a suicide pack after listening to this music, one died from self inflicted gun shot wounds,
the other blew his face off then lived for 3 more days, a battle broke out in civil court with the family’s suing the music people
because they had satanic messages ▯courts were in favour in the record producer
*e.g., Guy Lamphear (1921) The Modern Dance: “The average minister knows the moral lapses and spiritual death are traceable
too often to the ballroom and that modern dance is the prolific source of domestic dissatisfaction... [and] the nursery of the
divorce court, and that as a social influence it weakens and destroys the best safeguards of virtue and purity.” His book had a lot
of influence on policies – dance halls being built close to mothers and their unborn children; dance halls would possess them
*e.g., Frederick Wertham (1954) Seduction of the Innocent; U.S. Senate Committee (Estes Kefauver, chairman) ▯ book claiming
that there existence a strong link between juvenile delinquency and comic books and comic book lead to crime, cuz this was a
introduction towards satanic actions ▯crimination of crime in comic books is now in the criminal code because Canada was
moved by the argument
Breakthrough into secular/naturalistic explanations (15th19th centuries)▯(▯ i) forces of secularization (leaning away from
religion) (ii) spread of economic rationality under capitalism (iii) 18 century Enlightenment (privacy of reason, dawning belief
that humans were masters of their own destiny, notion that we can control our fates) (iv) modern sciences/technology
Demonic perspective? ▯no support anywhere for demonic crimes(the first cause in crime, that causes everything else to happen)
▯oldest of all known perspectives on crime/deviance▯(▯ i) cause/cure of crime realm of supernatural▯crime=sin, (ii) drawn into
crime through: (a) temptation ▯ humans are lured into doing stuff, seduced by the alluring temptations of evil, Adam and Eve is
the prototype of this idea, (b) possession ▯ the possess person was taken over by the devil the person is no longer accountable for
there own actions ▯ eg, Salem Massiteches people taken over by the devil is to be given spiritual assistance, (iii) cosmic
consequences ▯ entails everything that is on earth, (iv) implications for recognition of criminals
e.g., Raymond Verdier identifying demonic deviance among Kabre tribe of northern Togo
“Trial by ordeal” reading of supernatural signs, God saved him if her survives
“Trial by battle” justice of God mirrored in natural events, reserved for upper class
e.g., Diagnosing the Devil: Salem witch trials of 1692
the following where tried on witchcraft, animals of the devil
Tituba some tribal shit
Sara Good pipe smoker leather face
Sara Osborne a typical scandalized the community by living with a man without being married to him
5 Types of evidence were held at Salem as credible just ways to explain:
a. trial by clever test ▯ say lords pray in the public, logic was that witches would say the prayer backwards, any slip of the tongue
or stuttering meant that they were found in Satan
b. testimony of those who attributed their bad fortunes to demonic activities of accused
c. physical marks of the devil▯ warts moles scars and bodily infection were seen as sources
d. confessions of guilt ▯ quite rare in Salem, those who confessed where spirit of the gowns and were able to repent and seek
forgiveness
***e. spectral evidence ▯ most common in Salem, and most credible, reports and witnesses that the accused had been seen as
looking spectral and ghostly form the accompanied belief that he devil could not inform the soul of a innocent person ▯ once a
person was found guilty under the demonic perspective, society didn’t care is you were basorme, adultery murdered or thief
Strategy of control: religious administered ritual of public punishment▯purge body of sinner of traces of the devil, restore body of
community as a whole to its proper relationship to God, ritualistic function
Ritual: A highly patterned action which connects people to a mythic sense of what things are/ought to be
1 Rituals of punishment: remind participants of: supreme reality of God’s will and restore humans to their proper relationship as
servants of the Divine
Reign of medieval Christianity obedience to God =obedience to Church/priests
Preventative measures:▯Papal Index of Prohibited Books ▯ rituals that developed in an attempt to avoid to the polluted sprit of an
uncontrived criminal/sinner who is executed from the community after his death, what do we do with a sinner who hasn’t
repented? He is going to be buried and infect the earth, so we need to have his hanging suspected until his polluted sprit was
gone, “ashes to ashes dust to dust” or burning people at the stake, or apotropaic rituals
Reactive measures: e.g., Medieval Europe “heretics” feed on pork, e.g., American colonies “scold’s bridle” ▯ something that
stabs back of throat if you attempt to talk or move it is placed on your head it is for lippy wives who need to shut up, e.g., 18 th
century “cleft stick”/ ”whispering stick”▯ used by teacher in order to beat the crap out of the student
Selfimposed: e.g., hair shirts; selfflagellation ▯ you are suppose to inflict pain on yourself if you do these things
Rites of public humiliation voluntary v. involuntary:
e.g., burning
e.g., breaking on the wheel tied to a huge wheel and sent rolling down a hill, public entertainment and designed to make sure no
other people did so and all bones would be crushed and the devil would be gone, if it didn’t work you would take a club and
break all their bones
e.g., ritual of a thousand deaths (sulphur; steel pincers; boiling potion/iron spoon; dismemberment) ▯ so bad she couldn’t tell us all
about it, the process of torture method our in stages with each stage to produce the max amount of pain, crushed bones, followed
by heated pinchers to rip away limbs, poured heated iron in gapping wounds, tie limbs to horses so they run off in different
directions
Foucault: “The truth was that I saw the man move, his lower jaw moving from side to side as if he were talking.”
Discourse: a body of ideas, concepts and beliefs which become established as knowledge or as an accepted worldview.
*powerful framework for understanding/action
Secularization Argument: As societies become more advanced, religion relegated to history
e.g., August Comte: 3 stages of civilization: ▯ soc, 1. Theological religious accounts seek 2. Metaphysical 3. Positive
e.g., James Frazer: human intellectual development ▯ anthro▯magicreligionscience
e.g., Sigmund Freud, religion gradually replace with science ▯psych
e.g., Karl Marx, religion “opiate of the people” ▯ psych
Secularization: institutional and personal components▯Institutional level: specialization of advanced societies lead to a reduction
in the areas of life over which religion has authority
Personal level: “secularization of consciousness”: change in way people interpret their worlds
Table 1: The Importance of God and Church Attendance in 12 Postindustrial Societies (WorldVision Survey)
God Is Important in My Life I Attend Religious Services Once a Week or
More
United States 70 44
Ireland 65 81
Northern Ireland 63 50
Italy 53 38
Canada 51 27
Spain 36 29
Belgium 30 27
West Germany 30 18
Britain 28 14
Netherlands 27 20
France 20 10
Denmark 13 3
Canada:
*identification with religion traditions remains high
*allegiance to specific religions seems generally stable over time although % reporting no religious affiliation growing steadily
since 1961
2 * deep interest in both supernatural/spiritual matters
Table 2: “I....”
Adults Teens
Group Involvement
Identity with a group 86% 76
Am committed to Christianity or another faith 55 48
Attend weekly 21 22
Receive high level of enjoyment from group 22 21
Am open to possibility of greater involvement 57 43
Spirituality
Have spiritual needs 73 48
Have close friends interested in spirituality 42 38
Find spirituality very important 34 30
Pray privately weekly or more often 47 33
- both Canadians males and females are likely to report having religious in their wedding, funeral, their wedding and
their child
Project Canada (teens)
Table 3: In the future do you anticipate having any of the following carried out for you by a minister, priest, rabbi, or
some other religion figure?
Nationally Males Females
A wedding ceremony 89% 87 90
A funeral 86 84 88
A birthrelated ceremony 70 67 73
Project Canada (adults): God, divinity of Jesus and life after death (81%), miraculous healings (74%), angels (61%), hell (49%),
neardeath experience (70%), ESP (60%), personal experience with precognitions (50%), contact with spirit world attainable
(40%), astrology credible (33%), can communicate with dead (25%), expect to be reincarnated (25%)
Pope John Paul: “Devil’s force in today’s world comes through the widespread acceptance of lies and deceit, the idolatry of
money and the idolatry of sex....The presence of the devil...explains the dramatic conditions of he world, which languishes under
the power of the malignant one.”
Thomas Szasz: parallels between the untestable belief systems found within the demonic perspective and psychiatry▯a
psychologists who suggests we be more humble, and acknowledge even though we might they we are more sophisticated of
people of older times, but in relation to those that believe the psychiatry holds the answer to why people commit crime, who
demanded that we take a leap of faith and demand we believe in the ability of psychologists
*”Faith” in experts to identify/”cure” “criminals”
*Infanticide ▯ 1948: Canada introduced legislation whereby a murder charge might be reduced to infanticide if it could be
demonstrated that the defendant had at the time of the act, been suffering from a form of temporary insanity induced by
childbirth/lactation▯only sections of the CC that is sex specific, by definition only women can be charged with this offense and
only women who are the biological mother of the child they killed can be charged with this and woman on period, could lead
them in engaging in this horrific act. Canada not unique in this regard: England and the U.S. both enacted similar legislation
Women could be morally hinged to the after the birth of a child and cause them to have insanity and engage in a horrific act▯S.
233: “A female person commits infanticide when, by wilful act or omission, she causes the death of her newlyborn child, if at
the time of the act or omission she is not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the child and, by reason thereof or of
the effects of lactation consequent on the birth of her child her mind is disturbed.”
“Newlyborn” ▯ under the age of one▯S. 223(1): “A child becomes a human being...when it has completely proceeded, in a living
state, from the body of its mother whether or not a. it has breathed, b. it has an independent circulation, or c. the navel string is
severed
3 S. 287(1) + S. 287(2) “procuring a miscarriage” ▯ attempt to case death of a child in the womb or early induce labour when its
way to early
R. v. Marchello (1951) elements of the offence that the Crown has to prove: accused must be a woman, must have caused the
death of a child, child must have been “newly born”, child must have been the child of the accused, the death must have been
caused by a wilful act or omission of the accused▯*at the time of the wilful act or omission, the accused must not have fully
recovered from the effect of giving birth▯must have a disturb mind that would result in this▯by reason of giving birth to the child,
the accused’s balance of mind must have been disturbed
Problematic: woman charged with infanticide could claim, by way of defence
1. At the time of murdering her child she had fully recovered from the effects of giving birth
2. Had never suffered from a “disturbed mind”
if either defence accepted it could be acquitted of infanticide and, under the rule of “double jeopardy” never been charged for the
killing of her child
To forestall the eventuality of the Crown being able to prove part of the offence (i.e., that a child was killed) but not the other
(i.e., that the mother’s state of mind had been disturbed s. 663 added to the Code: S. 663. Where a female person is charged
with infanticide and the evidence establishes that she caused the death of her child but does not establish that, at the time of the
act or omission by which she caused the death of the child, (a) she was not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to the
child or from the effect of lactation consequent on the birth of the child, and (b) the balance of her mind was, at that time,
disturbed by reason of the effect of giving birth to the child or of the effect of lactation consequence on the birth of the child, she
may be convicted unless the evidence established that the act or omission was not wilful.
1984: report of the Law Reform Commission recommendation: that the criminal offense of infanticide be repealed: “A mother
who has not recovered from giving birth could also kill their other children, not just her newlyborn child”, “it was doubtful that
mental disturbance due to childbirth was ever the real cause of infanticide”
Refurbishment of three essentialist stereotypes:
1. Women are passive▯essential stereotype: if woman commit a violent act, then the defence is against their nature
2. Women possess a “maternal instinct”: long for motherhood & are “naturally” nurturing, they have selfless love for their
children
3. All women potentially mad at certain times in their lives: e.g., case of Lindy Chamberlain ▯Australian mother who child when
to tangos▯ “Ladies and gentlemen, women do not usually murder their babies, because to do so would be contrary to nature. One
of the most fundamental facts in nature is the love of a mother for her child...A mother will make all manner of sacrifices for her
baby. A mother will die for her baby.” AND e.g., case of Andrea Yates (5 children; ages 6 months 5 years)▯ another example of
us believing in this stereotype, half decade after the event pregnant or giving birth who killed al 5 of her children, media cry,
known to be religious, case of defence brought into the client to plea insanity and embrace the medicalized way of the events that
would have happened if she post modern depression would have caused her insane, then brings an expert witness in Elliot Deets,
nope it wasn’t post modem depression it was a manipulator who borrowed the idea for law and order
Classical School: one of the first to develop an organized perspective of crime’s nature ▯ THE FIRST CRIMINAL LAW
THEORY, as in the first outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment, emphasis on rationality: “the light of pure reason”
Cesare Beccaria: Founding Father of Criminology ▯1761: “The Academy of Fists”, 1764: “On Crime and Punishment” (with
assistance of Allesandro and Pietro Verri) condemned by Catholic church in 1766 praised by Catherine the Great, William
Blackstone, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams
Basic Principles:
1. Human nature: All human beings “rational hedonists”; act wilfully and freely ▯ we seek to maximize our pleasure and minimize
our pain
2. Crime related to inequities in criminal justice system, at times judges unbridled autonomy; no consistency/uniformity in
sentencing
3. The contractual society and the need for punishment Thomas Hobbes: “social contract theory”Beccaria: “despotic spirit” ▯
IT’S THE BEST INTEREST FOR PEPLE TO ACT IN THE WAY THAT IS NOT THEMSELVES necessary to devise a system
of punishment aimed at “defending the public liberty from the usurpation of individuals”
4. Function of legislatures and judges▯ legislatures: to determine punishments, judges: to impose set punishment
NO BIASES ITS JUST NEEDS TO KNOW DID THIS PERSON COMMIT THE ACT OR NOT!!
5. Seriousness of crime: harm done to society focus on acts not actors no exemptions ▯ age doesn’t matter whether it’s a 16 y/o
or a 50 y/o
6. Proportionate punishment and the utilitarian calculus punishment proportionate and only as severe as necessary to deter if
rape is 5 bricks of paint hen discipline them with 7 bricks of pain, its it’s the best interest and it will teacher then that this was not
in the victim/offenders best interest▯“The countries and times most notorious for severity of penalties have always been those in
which the bloodiest and most inhumane of deeds were committed, for the same spirit of ferocity that guided the hand of the
legislators also ruled that of the parricide and assassin.” Who made these laws? Rich and powerful men who have never deigned
to visit the squalid huts of the poor, who have never had to share a crust of mouldy bread amid the innocent cries of hungry
children and the tears of a wife...Let us break these bonds, fatal to the majority and useful to a few indolent tyrants, let us attack
4 the injustice at its source. I shall, at least for a little time, live free and happy with the fruits of my courage and my industry...and
for a single day of suffering I shall have many years of liberty and pleasure.”
7. Promptness of punishment: spare accused “the useless and cruel torments of uncertainty”
8. Certainty of punishment ▯ e.g., Waldo and Chiricos: undergrad beliefs about certainty of punishment re: petty theft, marijuana
use
9. Preventing crime: ultimate end of all good legislation
Proposed:
i. Laws should be clear and simple
ii. Laws should have the consent of the society
iii. Laws should be published so people will know what they are
iv. Torture and secret accusations should be abolished
v. capital punishment should be abolished and replaced with imprisonment
vi. Jails be made more humane institutions
vii. Law should not distinguish between wealthy/poor, noble/commoners
viii. Person should be tried by a jury of his/her peers
ix. Where class differences exist between offender/victim, onehalf jury: from the class of the offender; onehalf from the class of
the victim
x. no person treated as an exemption
Beccaria’s ideas: provided basis for French Penal Code of 1791
Adopted suggestion that: crime be arranged in a scale, for every crime, the law should affix a penalty, legislators should make
law; judges apply it, in court only to judge guilt/innocence, extenuating circumstances not considered, particular heinousness of a
crime not to result in additional penalty
How well would our present system fulfil Beccaria’s proposals?
1. “Crime funnel”/ “crime net”
e.g., “criminal harassment”▯1993: repeatedly following communicating (via cards, letters, telephone, faxes, emails, etc.),
watching a person’s home/workplace, and/or uttering direct/indirect threats or promises of violence or forcible intimacy
▯ aximum penalty: 5 years/10 years
First 5 years of operation▯Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics: N=1,110 charges laid, 39% dropped, 10% acquittals, 36%
guilty verdict. Of those convicted: extraordinary less severe than others 6/10 – probation, 3/10 jail term less than 6 months
Table 1: Accusedvictim relationship in criminal harassment incidents
Male victim Male Victim Female victim Female victim
number % number %
Accused
current spouse 3 0.3 115 3.7
exspouse 98 10.9 1,134 36.3
current or exdating 49 5.5 482 15.4
relationship
other family 59 6.6 111 3.6
casual acquaintance 396 44.1 782 25.1
business relationship 107 11.9 146 4.7
other known relationship 44 4.9 24 0.8
stranger 104 11.6 225 7.2
unknown 37 4.1 101 3.2
Total 897 100.0 3,120 100.00
1998/99 4,000+ cases involving criminal harassment heard in adult provincial/territorial courts
~50% led to a conviction (higher than for common assault [29%] but lower than for all other violent offences [55%] Median
length of prison sentences in criminal harassment cases up from 1994/1995 [30 days] to 90 days
e.g., Family Violence: demonstration study of sentencing outcomes (analysis of police and court records from 1997/98 to
2001/2002) Family members convicted of most forms of violent crimes against spouses/children/seniors were less likely to get a
prison term
Comparison of sentences in violent cases involving family members v. cases that did not involve a family member
5 focus: 18 urban areas in 4 provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador; Ontario; Saskatchewan; Alberta
Judges handed down prison terms: 19% of convicted cases of spousal violence and 29% were offenders convicted of other
violent offences
*Spouses less likely to receive prison terms for almost all types of violent crimes ▯ spousal abuse is not in the CC but its is
classified under assault▯Exception criminal harassment (1/3 spouses v. 1/4 other)
Table 2: Sentencing in singleconviction cases of spousal violence and nonspousal violence
Prison term Conditional sentence Probation Other
% of total cases % of total cases % of total cases % of total cases
Spousal violence
Sexual assault 28 24 48 0
Major assault 32 5 61 3
Common assault 17 1 74 8
Uttering threats 18 2 76 4
Criminal harassment 32 8 56 3
Other violent offences 46 10 41 2
Total 19 2 72 7
NonSpousal violence
Sexual assault 36 15 43 6
Major assault 36 5 47 12
Common assault
More
Less
