CJT202 Discussion - Crimes Against Persons, Property, and Society

Criminal Justice (CJT202)

Discussion: In the first required reading  "Crimes Against Persons, Property, and Society - Fall 2019", the FBI  identifies a broad category of offenses that "represent society's  prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity and are  typically victimless crimes." (FBI, 2019). If you look at the offense  groups in the reading, you will see that it lists offenses such as  prostitution, gambling,  drug violations, animal cruelty, weapons law  violations, and pornography.

For your discussion: 

(1)  pick ONE (1) of the above listed offense types, find an applicable  criminal code for your state (or state of your choice) and discuss some  of the penalties associated with that offense. You only need to pick one  specific offense from your state - for drug violations, you don't need  to discuss every potential drug violations - pick one particular statute  and discuss its elements and penalties; 

(2) describe what you believe your biggest challenge as an investigator would be in investigating these types of offenses; and

(3) what do you think of the FBI's classification of these types of offenses into this grouping?

For  example, of you pick burglary as your topic, you will need to explain  what the general elements of that offense are and then identify an  element that you think is the biggest challenge to prove (is it proving  the entry was unlawful, that a theft actually occurred, that a felony  was committed, etc) then identify an investigative technique or service  that will be critical (is it polygraphs, ballistic evidence,  interviewing, crime scene management, etc), and finally explain if you  believe creation of a specialized investigative unit would be an  appropriate response (for example, would creating a crime analysis unit  to better track these crimes be a good idea, or would creating a unit  that does only those types of investigations, or would creating a  community policing unit that raises community awareness be a good  response, etc)