Criminal Justice

Without any doubt, nowadays crime is a serious issue. Today there are so many cases of kidnapping, murders, rapes, and robberies. Thus, criminals have become a part of human ordinary life. Does this mean that people are allowed to commit crimes? Is it immoral to take necessary measures in order to stop these offenders? Do humans have rights to apply death penalty to merciless killers? The answer is distinctly apprehended, it is a ‘yes’. Indisputably, eliminating offences is human duty, and humanistic approaches cannot disregard human natural desire to get protection against serious criminals. It is generally true that modern American legal system has faced a big problem, commonly known as a constant drift from the correctness of felons, since the level of crime is considerably increased. In this case, it is highly recommended to find and to apply the right accusation to the person who has committed a merciless crime. For instance, some felons can commit a crime due to their difficult life conditions; however, some of them can do it just for fun. A considerable deterioration of a legal system can be seen in case of punishment of Jeffery Dahmer (a Wisconsin serial killer). In this case, death penalty can be evaluated as the most effective method of punishment for the serial killers comparing to life imprisonment. Unfortunately, human stark reality shows ineffectiveness of life imprisonment due to the increased rate of offenders. For instance, in 1990 there were 42,733 offenders in Alaska; however, until 1999 this rate increased up to 69,000. Additionally, some murders can reflect that there is a slight possibility to be caught, thus, they continue committing serious crimes. The perfect example for this could be serial killers. For these felons, capital punishment should be highly applied in order to frighten the others of committing such kind of crimes. This lesson will prove that even “elusive” killers are finally caught.

In the framework of identifying better and more appropriate punishment for Jeffrey Dahmer, it is advisable to analyze his life and what influenced him to commit such crimes. According to his bibliography, he was born on May 21, 1960 in West Allis, Wisconsin in the family of an analytical chemist, Herbert Dahmer and Joyce Annette. It is known that his mother had serious difficulties during pregnancy, anxiety and dysphoria. These disorders significantly influenced her son’s future Jeffrey Dahmer, since he had considerable issues with motionlessness of his mouth and uncontrollable facial expressions. Some of his relatives described him as the “zombie-like” individual who reminded a programmed machine with no feelings. Moreover, his behavior was terrific, while he liked to dissect dead animals. At school, he had no friends, since everybody thought that he suffered from cerebral palsy that considerably deteriorated his way of thinking. By age 15 years, Dahmer was seen as emotionally disconnected in his interactions with others. Furthermore, he had serious problems with alcohol drinking. Dahmer’s alcoholism influenced his exclusion from the Ohio State University. In 1980, Dahmer was joined to the U.S. Army; however, he was discharged due to his alcohol addiction and emotional disorder. Additionally, it is known that at the age of adolescence, Dahmer was suffering from compulsive masturbation. Moreover, he masturbated in public, thus it influenced his first problems with a legal system. Some scholars postulate that he was suffering from necrophilia. Furthermore, Dahmer was suffering from sexual fetishism. This disorder can be amplified by the fact that Dahmer had sexual relationships with his dead victims. Additionally, Dahmer constantly had pervasive sexualized fantasies that considerably affected his mind and made him as a serial killer. For example, from an early age, Dahmer had a keen interest in human bodies and their structure

Dahmer’s first killing is unknown, since it is difficult to investigate his first victims due to the lack of evidence. In 1988, Dahmer killed 19-year-old Steven Hicks during sexual act. After this mortal criminal homicide, Dahmer dismembered the body of his victim and put it into garbage bags. A couple of years later, he explained that he killed Hicks in order to clean the earth from people like he.

Since 1986, Dahmer lived with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. At that time, he was heavily drinking alcohol. In 1982, he was firstly arrested for a state fair. Later in 1986, he was accused of masturbation in public and then arrested. He was sentenced to ten months in prison. However, he was sentenced again after the disclosure of his a 13-year-old boy victim. For this murder, Dahmer got five-years probation, since he was diagnosed as mentally sick. In 1987, he relentlessly killed 26-year-old Steven Toumi. Moreover, he realized his necrophilia desires to the victim and then put him into the suitcase. In 1988, Dahmer mercilessly killed Richard Guerrero, a young man of Mexican origin. By that time, he had killed four other men; however, the number of his victims could be increased due to the lack of evidence. On September 25, 1988, he drugged a 13-year-old Laotian boy. After that, he was arrested for second-degree sexual assault and sexual exploitation of child. The list of his victims is not over, since it is known that he killed 17 people, most of them were black Americans and Asians

It is generally true that Dahmer’s killing scene was mostly the same. He met his victims at a gay bar and drunk alcohol with them. After the spree, he offered his victims professional photos and money if they agreed to pose for him. Then he tortured and dismembered the victims. After the killing, he had sex with the corpse.

It is known that there were two cases attempting on Dahmer’s life. The first attack was in July 1994, performed by a criminal who wanted to cut Dahmer’s throat with a razor blade. The second attack was on November 28, 1994, Dahmer and another criminal, Jesse Anderson, were terribly beaten with a broomstick handle by a murder Christopher Scarver.

Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. He was accused of killing of 15 victims. However, he killed 17 innocent people. According to the court’s decision, he was sentenced to 957 years in prison. However, he was allowed to eat in communal areas. Moreover, he convinced the prison authorities to allow him to perform janitorial work with other inmates and contact to them. Thus, one can see that the most violent serious killer had some indulgences at prison; nevertheless, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Indisputably, some people might think that corporal punishment is a barbarous way of punishing people, while the human right to live is not taken into consideration. Though the opponents to the death penalty take advantage of the book Summa Theologica, written by the medieval theologist Thomas Aquinas, where it is stated that nobody has a right to kill a person if he/she does not want to turn into the evil (Roberts, 2000). Moreover, the Bible indicates that there is no excuse for killing. Instead of applying the death penalty, the person should forgive the offender as God always forgives human sins. It is generally true that humans have the right to life; however, it does not mean that the murder that killed other people should not be accused of his/her guilt. In this case, if a death penalty is a barbarous way then the opponents should ask those people who suffered from this barbarous murder or lost their beloved, because of felon’s inhuman behavior. It is clearly seen that when a felon takes a life of innocent, the balance of justice is broken. Therefore, the use of retribution is highly recommended, since society should apply the same measures of punishment against the offenders in order to restore the balance and to show authority that every criminal will be punished according to the degree of crime seriousness. Moreover, the victim’s family cannot be restored again, since they lost their family member or beloved partner. In this case, the justice system at least should provide an equal punishment to those who committed this murder in order to ensure social security. Undoubtedly, the most serious felons deserve the most serious punishment that is the death penalty. Any lesser punishment will cast doubt on reliability and validity of legislation. According to Robert Macy, an American prosecutor, “In 1991 a mother was forced to watch how her child was executed. Then the mother was mercilessly killed. In this particular case, the murder should not lie in a prison where he is provided with basic needs of life and enjoy. Our justice system should adopt the most fully-fledged method of punishment that is applied to those who committed the most horrible crimes. Thus, death penalty is the most effective means of struggling against severe criminals” (Beadau, 2003).

All in all, the 21^th century indicates the new level of social development in which the justice system should highly provide the most effective ways of spreading the law and reducing crime rates. Unfortunately, the justice system was considerably deteriorated during the last 30 years. In this case, legal system should develop a fully-fledged law system in order to serve main purpose of death penalty and to make sure that the rightly accused felon is condemned to accurate punishment. Indisputably, corporal punishment ensures the safety to the society, brings justice to those who have terribly suffered, and considerably reduces crime rates.

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