Summaries of Lectures on Policing, Crimes, and Sentencing

Lecture Summary
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Lecture Summary
Week 1
In the lecture, Lawrence Sherman points out that data has shown that crime hotspots tend to remain stable over time. The common police practice of reviewing hotspots on a weekly basis would be less effective compared to consistent policing in traditional hotspot areas. In fact, Sherman pointed out that the three approaches to crime prevention should be use of messages, interventions such as asking offender to stop committing crime and move along, and the accountability. One interesting point that Sherman raise is that system II knowledge generated by an association formed from a collaboration between the universities and police could be used to inform police reforms. Sherman emphasizes the need to generate knowledge about policing that should be used by the enforcement officers.
Week 2
The lecture focuses on examining the exceptional way in which America as a country approach crime and punishment as a means of providing foundation for potential reforms. Notably, American is an outlier in a number of areas. For example, though the country has a death penalty the number of execution has been on a consistent decline from 1777. On the other hand, the rate of incarceration has been increasingly explosively since the 1970s, with the minorities being the main victims. Notably, the lecture provided interesting information on how American diverged with the rest of world in terms of crimes and punishment.
Week 3
In the lecture, Michael Tonry talks about sentencing. Tonry describes three perspective of sentencing. First, sentencing can be described as actions taken by a court to offenders who are presented before them. Second, sentencing can be described as the action taken by policymakers to determine how courts should treat offenders presented before them. Third, sentencing can be reviewed from the actions taken by other countries to deal with their offenders. Tonry focus on the involvement of policy makers on sentencing. He posits that the involvement of policymakers in sentencing has been instrumental in increasingly the rate of incarceration. I agree with the view that policymakers play a role in the increasing incarceration in the United States.
Week 4
In the lecture, Francis Cullen starts by emphasizing the challenges in the pursuit of rehabilitation. Then he narrates the course of rehabilitation research starting with the role of Robert Martin in damaging the practice of rehabilitation and his role in setting the groundwork for rehabilitation. Then he explores the use of statistics technique played a role in proving that rehabilitation works before discussing the Canadian development of reh...