Imagine that you have been retained by the client’s defense attorney as a death penalty mitigation expert. Your role in this capacity is to work as a sentencing advocate on behalf of your client
Choose Your Client
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read the article, “Sentencing Advocates Enhance Reasoned Court Decisions,” then read the list of infamous murderers whose high profile crimes dominated headlines for many years. Choose one of these individuals to become your client for the remainder of the course. That is, this individual and case will be the topic of your final assignment in the course:
In your online classroom, select the link “Killer Bios download” for a list of these infamous murderers. In that link, you will find several Ashford University Library sources on each murderer. In addition, there are some starter links listed below under each name.
Imagine that you have been retained by the client’s defense attorney as a death penalty mitigation expert. Your role in this capacity is to work as a sentencing advocate on behalf of your client (the defendant). In Week 5, you will prepare a comprehensive case study report. This report will contain an analysis of the psychological factors that may have contributed to the commission of the crimes in the chosen case study and how these psychological factors should be considered as a basis for a prison sentence less than the death penalty. For the purpose of this discussion, we are proceeding as if the client is still alive and has not yet been sentenced (though all of these cases have already been resolved). In your initial post of 300 words, please examine the following and address the questions below:
Tell us which client you chose and why. That is, what was it about the case that interested you?
Based upon your preliminary research on this case/client and your assigned textbook readings, what mental disorders might your client be suffering from that may have contributed to the crime?
Describe the disorder including its signs and symptoms. Connect those that you believe apply to your client’s behavior.
What does your textbook say about the likelihood that your client’s mental states contributed to the crime?
Discuss whether psychopathy, insanity, or competence to stand trial are potential issues in your client’s case based upon your preliminary research of the case and your assigned textbook readings.
Support your claims with examples from the required materials, other scholarly and/or credible sources, and properly cite any references.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 2 Discussion
Homicide Offenders
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 8: Psychology of Homicide in your textbook.
Your initial post should be at least 300 words in length. Please elaborate on the following as you complete your discussion. Support your claims with examples from the required materials and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite any references:
In your textbook, there are four different types of homicide offenders: domestic-violence homicide offenders, felony homicide offenders, accident homicide offenders, and altercation-precipitated homicide offenders. Based on your client’s case, which type, if any, describes your client’s homicide offender type? Elaborate on the homicide-offender type characteristics and the fact of the case that make you believe your client falls under that type.
If your client does not fall under any of the four types, elaborate on why you arrived at this conclusion.
Now focus on the six psychosocial (demographic) factors related to homicide discussed in the chapter. Which of these are relevant to your client? Why do you say so? Which of these are not relevant? Why do you say so? Be sure to elaborate and include details from your client’s life to support your assertions.
What does the research say about these psychosocial variables and homicide offenders? That is, what are some common themes that arise in the research about the life experiences of homicide offenders?
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 3 Discussion
Adverse Childhood Experiences
Prior to starting this discussion, please explore Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) (Links to an external site.), then read Take the ACE Quiz—and Learn What It Does and Does Not Mean (Links to an external site.)
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Please elaborate on the following as you complete your discussion:
Complete the 10-question Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire: Finding Your ACE Score (Links to an external site.) measure for the client you selected in the Week 1 Choose Your Client discussion. Complete it based on what you have been able to find out about your client’s childhood and whether your client experienced any of the events detailed in the questionnaire. What is your client’s ACES score? Keep in mind that the higher the score, the greater the likelihood of negative outcomes in adulthood.
Evaluate your client’s ACES score using examples of trauma experienced in childhood. If your client had no childhood trauma, or you were unable to locate any credible information about your client to answer the ACES questions, please provide general examples of the types of adverse childhood experiences that may lead to negative outcomes as adults.
How does childhood trauma influence criminality in adulthood? Why should the community be concerned about minimizing adverse childhood experiences?
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 4 Discussion
Do Juvenile Delinquency Diversion Programs Work?
Prior to starting this discussion, please read Chapters 6 and 7 in your textbook, watch the Columbine: Understanding Why (Links to an external site.) video, and read the Dylan Klebold Diversion (Links to an external site.) and Eric Harris Diversion (Links to an external site.) juvenile diversion program papers.
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Please elaborate on the following:
Your textbook covers primary and secondary types of juvenile delinquency diversion programs. Briefly examine each type and provide an example of each.
Klebold and Harris had contact with the criminal justice system prior to the Columbine shooting. Based on your textbook readings on theories of aggression, what, if anything, did you see in the video and/or read in the diversion papers that may have provided a clue as to the boys’ later aggressive and violent behavior?
In your opinion, supported by scholarly and/or credible sources, was there anything the juvenile justice system missed or could have done better that may have prevented the Columbine massacre from happening? Keep in mind that there are not always clear warning signs and not all tragedies are preventable. However, what insight, if any, was gleaned from the Columbine tragedy about the nature of aggression and delinquent behavior?
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 5 Discussion
Opioid Crisis and Violent Crimes Debate
Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 9 in your textbook, the required articles, Why the Opioid Epidemic May Have Fueled America’s Murder Spike (Links to an external site.) and Opioid Epidemic So Dangerous, Says CDC, It’s Finally Killing More People Than Guns (Links to an external site.), and watch the video: Warning: This Drug May Kill You (Links to an external site.). The opioid crisis has become a controversial issue but one that is becoming harder and harder to ignore. In the context of the relationship between psychology and criminal behavior, substance abuse is one of the leading risk factors for criminal behavior. Therefore, the opioid crisis is an issue that criminal psychologists, public health professionals, and our community-at-large are examining the implications, the most crucial of which appears to be a relationship between homicide/violent crime rates and opioid abuse. In your discussion,
Conduct additional research on the opioid crisis using the Ashford Library to ensure you are aware of the latest issues in the opioid crisis national debate. Then, briefly debate the issue with your classmates. Your instructor will assign you to one of the two prompts. Please debate the issue from the perspective that:
Prompt 1: Physicians have caused the opioid crisis by over-prescribing pain medications that are highly addictive, and
Prompt 2: From the perspective that the person taking the opiates is responsible for the person’s own behavior and doctors should be able to prescribe whatever they want in any quantity they deem medically necessary. Remember to provide your insight into whether rising violent crime rates stems from the opioid crisis as asserted in your assigned readings.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 1 Assignment
Diagnosing Criminal Defendants
Prior to beginning this journal, read the article, “Are Forensic Experts Biased by the Side that Retained Them?,” and examine the subjective nature of forensic psychology concerning the evaluation of criminal defendants. In a one- to two-page journal entry:
Evaluate the influences that can contribute to differential diagnoses depending upon which side hires the psychologist to evaluate a criminal defendant.
Determine how to minimize cognitive bias.
As you reflect on the article for your journal, analyze the ethical considerations of
Diagnosing a defendant.
Diagnosing the legal implications of a negative diagnosis.
Based on your assigned readings, including this article, do you believe that such assessments as the PCL-R Checklist can provide accurate predictions of an individual’s behavior? Cite examples from your readings that support your analysis.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 2 Assignment
Origins of Crime: Biological, Developmental, or Situational?
Prior to beginning the assignment, review Chapters 4 and 5 in your textbook, where risk factors for criminal behavior are covered from a biological, developmental, and situational perspective. Keeping your own “client” in mind (that you chose for your final paper), please read the chapters and in this assignment please cover the following:
Assess the role (briefly) that all three (biological, developmental, and situational) perspectives play in influencing criminal behavior.
Choose one of the three perspectives (biological, developmental, or situational).
Evaluate the relationship between your chosen perspective and criminal behavior.
Illustrate a link between your client’s crimes and your chosen perspective based on the client you chose for your Comprehensive Case Study Report Final Paper.
Be sure to use examples from the textbook and your client’s case to support your assertions.
The Origins of Crime: Biological, Developmental, or Situational? paper
Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper,
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
Must use at least one scholarly, peer-reviewed, credible source in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 3 Assignment
Final Comprehensive Case Report Topic and Outline
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the article “Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Criminality: How Long Must We Live Before We Possess Our Own Lives? (Links to an external site.)” and the additional sources now present in the “Killer Bio” application (below) that pertain to you’re the killer you chose from the Week 1 Discussion. For your Final Case Report, due in Week 5, you will explore, in depth, one well-known criminal case. Using the same client as before, consult your Killer Bio app along with sources provided throughout the course:
In your online classroom, select the link “Killer Bios download” for a list of these infamous murderers. In that link, you will find several Ashford University Library sources on each murderer. In addition, there are some starter links listed below under each name.
Here, as in earlier assignments, the individual whose case you chose will be your client for the purpose of your Comprehensive Case Study Report Final Paper. That is, you have been hired as a mitigation specialist by this individual’s defense attorney to investigate, analyze, and present the underlying biopsychosocial factors that you found were present in this individual’s background and that may explain why your client committed such heinous criminal acts. For the purpose of your Final Paper in Week 5, we will assume that your client is facing the death penalty, and your job is to use the results of your biopsychosocial investigation to provide credible evidence that your client should not be executed by the state. For this assignment, we will proceed as if your client has not yet been sentenced and thus is still alive, even though in all of these cases, your client was ultimately found guilty and in some cases, may have been executed (or may be deceased).
Using the Ashford University Library, examine the criminal behaviors involved in your case using a minimum of four scholarly and/or credible sources.
In your paper,
Analyze a minimum of two particular psychological factors that explains the client’s criminal behavior, such as specific environmental/situational, biological, or mental health issues that may explain this individual’s crimes.
Create an outline that examines a minimum of two particular psychological factors explaining your client’s criminal behaviors.
Note: For further information regarding the proper format for Outlining (Links to an external site.), visit the Ashford Writing Center.
Each topic or step of the outline should include two to three sentences regarding what will be discussed in that section, focusing on the particular psychological factors that explains the criminal behaviors
Cite specific examples from the sources that support your research and analysis. For example, if you find that your sources show early childhood trauma is a factor in criminal behavior and your client suffered early childhood trauma, or had a high ACES score, write about that connection between your source and your client’s case.
Note: You are encouraged to integrate any feedback from your instructor and upload the assignment to your ePortfolio (Links to an external site.).
The Final Comprehensive Case Report Topic and Outline paper
Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
Must use at least four scholarly, peer-reviewed, credible sources in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 4 Assignment
My Son Was a Columbine Shooter
Prior to beginning this journal, please watch the video, My Son Was a Columbine Shooter. This Is My Story (Links to an external site.). In a one- to two-page journal entry:
Examine Mrs. Klebold’s observations about the link between mental health and violent criminal behavior. What have you learned in the course so far that supports what Mrs. Klebold asserts in her talk?
It is clear that Mrs. Klebold is grappling to understand how she missed signs that her son could be so violent, and that he was in fact suicidal. It seems, based on the diversion program paperwork you read, that the juvenile justice system missed it as well. Based on what you have learned in the course so far about the nature of mental illness, violent behavior, and crime, explain to Mrs. Klebold why she and the system were unable to prevent this horrible tragedy from occurring.
CRJ308 Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Week 5 Assignment
Comprehensive Case Study Report
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the Week 3 Final Comprehensive Case Report Topic and Outline assignment and your discussions in Weeks 1, 3, and 4 that pertain to this Final Paper.
For the Final Paper, you will take on the role of a death penalty mitigation expert hired by the defense attorney to work as a sentencing advocate on behalf of the client/defendant. Based upon the chosen case from the attached list (that was selected in Week 1), you will create a comprehensive case study report arguing against the death penalty for your client (the perpetrator). This report will contain an analysis of the psychological factors that may have contributed to the commission of the crimes in the chosen case study and how these psychological factors should be considered a basis for a prison sentence less than the death penalty.
In your online classroom, select the link “Killer Bios download” for a list of these infamous murderers. In that link, you will find several Ashford University Library sources on each murderer. In addition, there are some starter links listed below under each name.
In your paper,
Summarize the chosen case.
Evaluate the biopsychosocial factors that led the client to commit his or her crimes.
Explain the psychological, situational/social, and biological factors that you believe led to the offender’s criminality.
Evaluate how these factors may have contributed to committing violent crimes.
Identify whether your client suffered from a mental illness.
Identify the diagnosis and how the diagnostic criteria was met.
Evaluate the ACEs score you calculated for your client in the Week 3 Adverse Childhood Experiences discussion, to the extent that you were able to answer the questions based on what you could out about your client’s history.
Explain the impact of childhood trauma, abuse, and neglect may have on criminal behavior.
Examine whether your client had any events in life that could be considered traumatic such that this could have influenced the criminal behavior.
Explain what the scientific research says about the impact of trauma on criminal/violent behavior.
Analyze any other mitigating factors that may provide a credible argument against a death sentence for your client.
(That is, was your client gainfully employed? Did your client lack a significant criminal history prior to the most recent offenses? Mitigating factors can be anything that humanizes your client and thus makes him/her seem like a candidate for a lesser sentence than death).
Evaluate the mitigating circumstances found in this report.
Propose a specific psychosocial intervention based on your evaluation of the client and case such as counseling, medication, restitution, and so forth. (This proposed intervention will serve as your argument that the death penalty is not appropriate for your client based on these mitigating factors.)
Summarize your analysis and restate your intervention in the conclusion.
The Comprehensive Case Study Report
Must be six to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper and must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
Must use at least four scholarly, peer-reviewed, credible sources in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment. Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers
Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.
Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS
Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?
Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.
We write plagiarism Free Content
Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.
Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.
