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CRIMINAL JUSTICE 2221 Introduction to Criminology Spring Semester 2007 Dr. Anthony Simones 254 Liberal Arts Building Office Phone: (706) 272-2693 Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday, 1:30pm-2:30pm Tuesday & Thursday, 1:00pm-2:00pm or by appointment-if these hours are not conducive to your schedule, I am happy to arrange a time that is mutually acceptable Email Address: tsimones@daltonstate.edu Required Texts: Larry Siegel, Criminology: The Core, Second Edition and Holmes & Holmes, Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, Third Edition. Since the subject matter of this course is frequently in the news, I may assign additional readings throughout the semester. Course Description: Criminology has been defined as the scientific study of the nature, extent, cause and control of criminal behavior. I think this is a good starting point for offering a description of this course. Our focus will be twofold. First we will examine a number of schools of thought on why people commit crimes. Your textbook reflects the view of many in the field of criminal justice, that sociology is at the core of the study of crime. Numerous sociological theories will be examined. While sociology is significant, it is by no means the exclusive perspective through which crime should be examined. With this in mind I have decided to devote the second half of the course to the concept of criminal profiling, a technique that employs a multitude of psychological and behavioral concepts. Institutional Mission Statement: Dalton State College shares with other state colleges of the University System of Georgia in providing a high quality general education program that supports a variety of well-chosen programs and prepares students for transfer to baccalaureate programs. Divisional Goal Statement: The Division of Social Science assists students in developing an ability to acquire data, understand relationships, process information, draw conclusions and critically evaluate issues related to the society and culture of the United States. Intended Student Learning Outcomes From the Division of Social Sciences: 1. Students will organize and communicate knowledge and ideas in a logical and purposeful way. 2. Students will articulate understandings of course materials. 3. Students will comprehend major forces and events, influences and ideas that shaped history, society. 4. Students will articulate and analyze issues from different perspectives and be opened to viewpoints other than their own. 5. Students will demonstrate knowledge and skills necessary for active citizenship. Attendance: Attendance is an essential component of success in this course. What we do in the classroom will not be a simple repetition of the material in the text. In fact we will frequently cover material in the classroom that is not covered in the textbook and I will expect you to know this information on the exams. If you are not in class, it is unlikely that you will get this information. The deficiency will be obvious on the exam and will have a substantial impact on your grade. Preparation for the examinations is only the starting point of why you need to be in class. What you do in this classroom matters. You will be graded on the role you take within these walls. First, you will receive a grade for the extent and quality of your participation in class. Obviously if you are not present, you are not participating. Second, you will be asked to engage in a number of writings. These writings will occur after an issue has been explored and debated during the course of the class session. At the end of the class you will be given the opportunity to explain your position on this issue. It doesn’t matter what position you take, whether it is liberal, conservative or moderate. The key is to explain your position in a compelling and convincing manner. If you are not present to engage and turn in a writing assignment then a grade of zero will be recorded. Finally, we will be watching a number of movies that illustrate the concepts covered in this course and you will be writing analytical papers about these films. If you are not present to watch these movies or to submit your papers, a grade of zero will be recorded. Even a few of these zeroes will have a substantial and devastating impact on your grade. My decision to make the classroom component of your grade equal to the weight attached to any single test is not an arbitrary one. First, I believe that a student’s grade should be composed of more than the performance on a series of tests. This gives you the opportunity to control a significant part of your grade. Second, my decision is based on a belief that students learn most effectively when we shatter the traditional lecture format. I believe that students should not simply listen and copy notes. Listening and taking notes are undoubtedly important, but they are only a first step. Learning occurs as students are required to examine the material and formulate their own ideas about it, as they present their viewpoints and listen to the perspectives of others, and then ultimately reach a conclusion about their beliefs. Examinations: There will be a mid-term and a final exam, which will in all likelihood be a combination of formats: multiple choice and essay, in-class and take home, open-book and closed-book. Your answers on my examinations will be a reflection of material from the textbook, matters discussed in class, and knowledge gained from movies and guest speakers presented during class. My expectation is that you will demonstrate a mastery of the material as well as a capacity to think critically and analytically about that material. I will give makeup examinations in the most exigent of circumstances. Should such dire situations arise, I expect you to notify me in an exceptionally timely fashion. Course Schedule: Part One: Criminological Theories I. The Basics of Criminology: Siegel, Chapter One II. Victims and Victimization: Siegel, Chapter Three III. Choice Theory: Siegel, Chapter Four IV. Social Structure Theory: Siegel, Chapter Six V. Social Process Theory: Siegel, Chapter Seven VI. Social Conflict Theory: Siegel, Chapter Eight VII. Trait Theory: Siegel, Chapter Five Midterm Examination Part Two: Criminal Profiling I. The Basics of Profiling: Holmes, Chapters One, Two and Three II. Criminal Theories and Psychological Profiling: Holmes, Chapter Four III. Analyzing the Crime Scene: Holmes, Chapter Five IV. Profiling Serial Murderers: Holmes, Chapter Seven V. Profiling and Rape: Holmes, Chapter Eight VI. Victimology-Profiling the Victim: Holmes, Chapter Fifteen Final Examination, Wednesday May 2 I reserve the right to make changes in this schedule and I will identify the specific date of the midterm examination as we make our way through the semester. Research Paper: Your research paper will examine the killings perpetrated by a specific murderer/murderers. Examine the following list for the options available: Robert Hansen Albert Fish Paul Bernhard/Karla Homolka Jerry Brudos Dennis Rader Ted Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer John Wayne Gacy Edmund Kemper Charles Manson Richard Ramirez Charles Albright Lawrence Bittaker Angelo Buono/Kenneth Bianchi Eddie Cole Joel Rifkin Westley Allan Dodd Joseph Edward Duncan Ian Brady/Myra Hindley Andrea Yates Aileen Wuornos David Brown Harvey Louis Carigan Randall Woodfield Danny Rolling Carl Panzram James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben II Paul Charles Denyer Richard Trenton Chase Haddon Clark Arthur Shawcross Richard Speck Before you make your choice I would advise you to learn more about the individuals on this list. The Court TV website www.crimelibary.com provides a nice background on all of these subjects. Your paper will not only describe the murders committed by your chosen killer, but more importantly analyze the explanations that have been offered for why your killer committed these murders. You will conclude by presenting your own theory of why your subject became a murderer. Your paper must make use of at least ten sources (which must be approved by me before you turn in your final draft) and will be twelve to fifteen typewritten pages in length. In order to ensure the highest quality paper you can possibly produce, we will have a series of deadlines throughout the semester well before the final version of your paper is due. You will submit a preliminary list of sources, an extended outline, a rough draft of your paper, and a final version of your paper. To ensure your full attention to each phase of this endeavor, the grade you receive for your research project will be based upon your performance on each component of the process: Outline: 15% of your final research paper grade Rough Draft: 25% of your final research paper grade Final Draft: 60% of your final research paper grade As you can see, there will be no papers hurriedly and haphazardly assembled the night before the due date at the end of the semester. Assignments turned in after deadlines will be subject to severe penalties. Grades: Your final grade will be determined in the following manner: Midterm Exam: 25% of your final grade Final Exam: 25% of your final grade Research Project: 25% of your final grade Classroom Performance (Participation/Analytical Writings): 25% of your final grade I will employ the standard grading scale: A: 100-90, B: 89-80, C: 79-70, D: 69-60, F: 59 or lower Cheating: Cheating is categorically unacceptable and will be punished to the fullest extent allowed under the Dalton State College student handbook. This includes plagiarism. Withdrawal From the Course: Students wishing to withdraw from the course may do so without penalty prior to March 21 and a grade of W will be assigned. After that point, withdrawal without penalty is permitted only in cases of extreme hardship as determined by the Academic Dean. Otherwise, a grade of F will be issued. Students who simply disappear, completing neither the official withdrawal procedure nor the course work, will receive the grade of F. I am not allowed to withdraw students from the class. Withdrawal from class is a student responsibility. Go to the Enrollment Services Office in Westcott Hall and turn in a Schedule Adjustment Form in order to withdraw. Workforce Development Withdrawal: If a student receiving aid administered by the DSC Workforce Development Department drops this class or completely from the College, the schedule adjustment form must be taken to the Workforce Development Office first. The office is located in the Technical Education Building, Room 140. Its hours are 9:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and 8:30 a.m.-12:00 noon on Fridays. The office phone number is 272-2635. Disability Support Services/ADA Accommodations: Students with disabilities are invited to contact the Academic and Career Enhancement (ACE) Center of Dalton State College to request reasonable accommodations for academic programs and other activities of Dalton State College. Students are encouraged to contact the ACE Center as soon as possible and to make an appointment with Disability Support Services (DSS) staff to begin the process of qualifying for accommodations. Professional documentation must be provided that explains and verifies the disability and resulting limitations before DSS Services and accommodations can be utilized. Once documentation is provided, students must allow adequate time for assessment of documentation and implementation of approved accommodations. For additional information, please contact: Mary Andrews ACE Center - Disability Support Services Lower Level, Pope Student Center 650 College Drive, Dalton, GA 30720, 706-272-4429 Students who are unable to come to the ACE Center, to request accommodations for a disability, should call 706-272-4429. Students who are unable to come to the instructor’s office or access any facility utilized by this course, should call the instructor at 706-272-2693 for assistance. Background on research subjects (as provided by Court TV’s Crime Library): Robert Hansen: Alaskan serial killer lured women to his cabin, brutalized them and then released them in the wilderness to attempt their escapes. But then, he sadistically went after them and hunted them down like wild animals. Albert Fish: This gentle-looking, benevolent grandfather cleverly lured children to their death, then devised recipes to eat them. This cannibal model for Hannibal Lector is a study in criminal psychology and a true enigma. His wife thought him to be a wonderful husband and his children believed him to be a model father. What inner torments caused him to drive many spikes into his pelvis and tell people that he looked forward to his execution? Paul Bernhard and Karla Homolka: Known as the Ken and Barbie of Murder and Mayhem, Karla is now free because of her deal with the government. Jerry Brudos: Brudos is one of the most shocking serial killers ever and the subject of Ann Rule's book The Lust Killer. He abducted, tortured & mutilated young women in his garage, right under the noses of his wife and children. Dennis Rader: For three decades, the terrifying serial killer who called himself BTK ("Bind, Torture, Kill") was uncaught. First he would cut the phone lines, and then he would get into the house somehow, waiting for his victim to come home. The killings drove Wichita's women into a frenzy, but then the murders unexplicably stopped. Ted Bundy: The most frightening of serial killers: a handsome, educated psychopathic law student who stalked and murdered dozens of young college women who looked very much like a young woman who broke off her relationship with him. Bundy was a very adept and glib con artist who faked a broken arm in a sling to convince young women to help him carry his textbooks to his car. Once there, he battered them with a baseball bat and carried them off for ghoulish rituals. Jeffrey Dahmer: A young man from a good family deviated into necrophilia and cannibalism, then lured boys to his apartment to be murdered and maimed. John Wayne Gacy: One of the most notorious serial killers, "respectable" Chicago-area businessman hires young men to work in his contracting company, then rapes and murders scores of them, burying their bodies on his properties. In prison, he became the focus of researching the psychopathic mind. Edmund Kemper: At age 15, this genius-level serial killer killed his grandparents. Then he killed pretty hitchhikers and ended up decapitating his mother. Charles Manson: Many hardened criminals blame their crimes on their parents, but few have as clear a case as Charles Manson. His mother was an alcoholic prostitute who sold him for a pitcher of beer. In and out of reform school as a youngster, he had an IQ of 109 and became a kind of institutional politician and manipulator by age 19. From then on his continuous scrapes with the law landed him in prison. His record there described Charlie as having "a tremendous drive to call attention to himself. On March 21, 1967, Charlie was released from prison in California. He was 32 years old and more than half of his life had been spent in institutions. Charlie started to attract a group of followers, many of whom were very young women with troubled emotional lives who were rebelling against their parents and society in general. This was the core of the Manson Family execution team who he ordered to kill pregnant actress Sharon Tate, her wealthy house guests, and the well-to-do LaBiancas. Charlie was trying to start a race war and vet himself as a prophet of doom. Richard Ramirez: Known as the Night Stalker, he worships Satan and longs to sit next to him in Hell. His series of horrifying crimes in the suburbs of Los Angeles and San Francisco were meant to show Satan that he is just as evil as Jack the Ripper. Charles Albright: Charles Albright surgically removed the eyeballs of his prostitute victims. Dr. Ramsland examines the bizarre psychology of this former science teacher and Cub Scout leader. Lawrence Bittaker: He signs his prison fan mail "Pliers." His psychiatrist saw what he was: "a highly dangerous man, with no internal controls over his impulses, a man who could kill without hesitation or remorse." When he was released from prison, Bittaker told a cellmate that someday he planned to be "bigger than Manson." Along with prison-buddy psychopath Roy Norris, Bittaker constructed a van called the Murder Mack and collected pretty teenage girls to rape, torture and kill in the San Gabriel Mountains. In the isolated mountain areas, they went to work on their young victims with vice-grip pliers, urging them to scream into their tape recorder before they snuffed out their voices forever. Angelo Buono/Kenneth Bianchi: It takes more than a few homicides to get the attention of the people in a city the size of Los Angeles. Murders are a daily occurrence. So when three women living hi-risk lifestyles were found strangled and naked on hillsides very few people lost sleep over it. Only a couple sharp homicide detectives became nervous that this was just the beginning. Everything changed when five "nice girls" were abducted from their middle-class neighborhoods. Two psychopathic cousins made torture into an unspeakable art form as they experimented on their young victims, giving new meaning to the concept of "Evil." Carroll Edward “Eddie” Cole: A terrible mother turns a boy with genius IQ into a woman-hating serial killer. Joel Rifkin: People thought this mild-mannered, socially-backward guy was harmless, but 17 women died by his hand before he was caught red-handed with a decomposing body in his truck. Westley Allan Dodd: A parent's worst nightmare, this monster carefully planned the execution of little boys, stalked and abducted them and then tortured and murdered them. How do we know? He videotaped it all and kept a detailed journal. Dont miss "Driven to Kill", our excerpt from top-selling author Gary C. King's book that tells this grisly story. Dodd began sexually abusing children when he was only 13 years old. As grade schoolers passed by his house, he stood in the upstairs bedroom window, naked, hiding his face behind the curtain. He never claimed to have been sexually abused himself, and later blamed his unhappiness as a child on his parents constant fighting and their lack of emotional support. Joseph Edward Duncan III: Convicted child molester with a history of assaults on children going back to his teenage years, he is nonetheless released on bond when he again molests a youngster. This time, Duncan goes big time. He steals a car, goes to Idaho where stalks an entire family. Then he breaks in, brutally murders the adults and an older child and abducts the two younger children. When Duncan tires of molesting the abducted boy, he kills him and throws him away. By sheer luck, the abducted girl gets the attention of people in a restaurant who recognize her from Amber Alerts and capture this serial killer and rescue the terrified child. Ian Brady/Myra Hindley: Saddleworth Moor, its long stretches of rugged earth, punctuated by steep valleys, sprawling hills, and rocky streams, was the silent witness of one of Britain's worst serial murders. Every few months another child would mysteriously disappear as he or she walked the moors between the villages. And so it might have continued for many more years had Myra Hindley's brother-in-law not seen Ian Brady take an axe to one of his young victims. It was a real shocker in an era that could not imagine a woman participating in the brutal murder of children. Myra and Ian were the prototypes for Fred and Rose West, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka and the other twisted partners in murder that followed them. Andrea Yates: Woman drowns her five children -- one at a time after her husband goes to work. Is she psychotic or a monster? Aileen Wuornos: One of the most prolific female serial killers, a pathetic drifter who gained power by killing David Brown: A sociopath whose charm allowed him to convince his own daughter to kill for him, who turned women into slaves and who was able to defraud insurance companies for over a million dollars. Harvey Louis Carigan: A man who used the want ads to lure women into torture, rape and death Randall Woodfield: a handsome and charming star student and athlete who became known as the I-5 Killer. Danny Rolling: On August 20 1990, the beautiful university town of Gainesville, Florida was ranked as being the thirteenth best place to live in the United States by Money magazine. By the end of the following week it looked as though Jack the Ripper had been reincarnated in sunny Florida. First, a bloodied naked body of a young woman was found lying grotesquely on a bed with her arms above her head. Then, another young woman was found nearby. Both had been stabbed repeatedly, mutilated and deliberately positioned for maximum shock effect. It got much worse. They saw what appeared to be a naked body seated on the edge of the bed, bent over at the waist with a small pool of blood at the feet. Then came the shocking realization that it was the headless corpse of the once beautiful Christa. On the bed next to her were her two nipples. Shades of the Jack the Ripper's treatment of Mary Kelly. The monster who tortured and mutilated five young women was Danny Rolling, a young man who was himself the victim of almost constant physical and mental abuse in his childhood. Carl Panzram: A remorseless, vicious killer, a child rapist, a man with no soul who was the essence of evil, a monster who hated the human race, one of Americas most ferocious, unrepentant serial killers. James Mitchell “Mike” DeBardeleben II: The Secret Service wanted him on charges of counterfeiting. Little did the agents assigned to him know what their investigation would ultimately uncover. The chameleonic James Mitchell (“Mike”) DeBardeleben II knew how to elude authorities, and he had more reasons to do so than anyone ever thought. Once he was caught, the investigators became aware that they’d been looking for him for many other crimes, from bank robbery to murder, and had not even realized it. Profiler Roy Hazelwood calls DeBardeleben “the best documented sexual sadist since the Marquis de Sade.” Paul Denyer: Over a 7-week period in the summer of 1993, three young women were stabbed and slashed to death in and around Frankston in southeastern Victoria. There was nothing to connect them other than they all lived in the Frankston district. When he was finally caught, the Frankston serial killer was an oafish lay-about who called himself John Candy, after the late funnyman. But Denyer was no funnyman. He dissected his sister's teddy bears at age 10 and then slit the throat of the family's pet kitten and hung its corpse from a tree branch in the back yard. Several months before he embarked on his summer murder spree, Denyer had disemboweled a friend's cat and cut the throats of its kittens. Richard Trenton Chase: Known as the Vampire of Sacramento, he killed puppies and people, took their blood and brains home to his blender. He believed his blood was turning to powder and that he needed the blood of other creatures to replenish it. Haddon Clark: A study in true evil. Author Adrian Havill takes some highlights from his recent book on Clark for this chilling feature story. A Washington, D.C. area psychologist took pity on this homeless man and hired him as a gardener. Her kindness cost the life of her beautiful, brilliant daughter who was home on vacation from Harvard. But this was just one of his many serial murders, beginning with a six-year-old girl who he murdered to get revenge on his young niece for calling him a name. Arthur Shawcross: A shocking case of criminal behavior and government incompetence leaves a number of women dead. In a handwritten report in 1990, Shawcross says, "I should be castrated or have an electrode placed in my head to stop my stupidness or whatever. I just a lost soul looking for release of my madness." An excellent case study in the attempted use of the insanity defense. Richard Speck: Judy Dykton decided to get some early morning studying done for a neurology exam. She heard a sound like an animal crying outside. Ignoring it, she decided to do some laundry before hitting the books. Once more she heard something. This time she thought it sounded like a child crying out. She pulled open the blinds and saw a woman across the street at 2319, perched on a ledge. Judy pushed open the window and heard Cora's tearful cry. "Oh, my God, they are all dead!" Reporter Joe Cummings went up to the second floor, looked down the hall and turned right. It was still dark, the sun had begun to rise. He walked down the hall. To his right, he saw bodies of the nurses inside the bedroom, their skin a sickly ochre. A little further down the hall, he saw another bedroom with three more bodies and said. "Oh my God." That made seven upstairs and one downstairs. Eight in total. REQUIRED FORMAT FOR RESEARCH PAPER This is the basic structure I want you to employ as you explain and analyze the actions of your killer. Follow this structure on your outline as well as on your paper. Section One: The Killings In this section you will describe the crimes committed by your subject, the investigation of these crimes conducted by law enforcement agencies, the manner in which your subject was apprehended by the authorities and the ultimate disposition of your subject’s case by the judicial system. Section Two: The Killer In this section you will examine the life experiences of your subject that formed the foundation for the murders he/she committed. Section Three: The Theories In this section you will examine the theories put forth to explain the actions of your subject. These explanations may come from a variety of sources. They may take the form of theories advanced by experts from fields such as psychology, sociology, medicine, law, science, journalism or religion. The attorneys who represented and prosecuted your subjects will in all likelihood have presented their theories on why the killings took place. In some cases the killers themselves were able to offer their views on their actions, although it would be wise to remember that the statements of the accused and the condemned are frequently the product of delusion or deception. The point in this section is to examine the range of theories that have been presented to explain the actions of your subject and to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Section Four: Your Explanation In this final section you will present your conclusions regarding the reasons that your subject killed. In the previous section you will have examined the strengths and weaknesses of each of the theories offered to explain your subjects’ actions. In this section you will identify which of these theories you believe should be accepted and which you believe should be rejected. In addition this section will offer an opportunity for the most creative and analytical among you: to transcend the explanations that have been offered and to present your own theory, to take the material that we have examined in this course and to apply it to the actions of your subject in ways that have not been done before. The best of papers will devote approximately the same amount of space and attention to every one of these sections. The worst of these papers will be overly focused on the first two sections, simply repeating a story that has been frequently told. Obviously a description of the killer and the crimes is important and I expect you to address them thoroughly. However the analysis of the crime and the killer is the heart of this assignment. Don’t lose sight of that fact.
