Compose an essay for each of the three questions posed. While there is no required minimum/maximum length per question, please plan to provide enough detail to adequately address every component of each question asked. The goal of this exam is it demonstrate your abilities to analyze, compare, and contrast different theoretical perspectives’ strengths and weaknesses. In most cases there will not be an exact answer due to the variety of possible applications. It is not necessary to use references outside of course materials, but if you choose to please submit a reference sheet with your responses. Be sure to be thorough and complete and show-off what you have learned…good luck!
1. Pick a behavior that is currently illegal in the state of Delaware. From the perspective of all three major paradigms discussed in our course, answer the following questions:
a. Why should the behavior be considered a crime?
b. What motivates the offender to commit this crime?
c. What can we do as a society to reduce or eliminate this crime?
Finally, for the selected crime behavior-which paradigm does the best job of explaining why this crime takes place? (Note-this will require both justifying your position and trying to discredit the other paradigms that you do not deem best at explaining this crime).
2. Imagine you are at a national conference of people who all follow the positivist school of thought when it comes to criminology. A debate begins over the following topic of discussion-should recreational drugs be legal? Compare and contrast three different positivist theories and how they would answer this question. Evaluate the strengths of each theory based on some of our key terms for the course that were introduce in chapter one (accuracy/validity, scope, falsification and/or proof that the theory is correct, parsimony/assumptions made by the theory, etc.).
3. Imagine yourself in a leadership position in a criminal justice agency and your area has been hit hard by grand theft auto. You have two senior-level employees advising you as to how to lead a task force into reducing the occurrence of auto theft in your city, however they disagree as to what the best course of action would be. Charlie, an old school classical thinker believes that the town should work toward make penalties harsher for offenders. Mac, a young radical thinker believes that the problem began when Globo-bank, a town staple for financial services, laid-off hundreds off town employees while it’s CEO received an eight-figure bonus last year. Demonstrate your leadership skills by explaining how both might be on to something (Charlie, from one classical theory, and Mac from one radical theory). Finally, decide what your task force’s first order of business will be and why (from any theoretical viewpoint you feel most appropriate). 30 points total for this response-10 each for each theory described.