SOC 305 DQ 1 Legal Representation and Social Class

After listening to the interview with Stephen B. Bright, The quality of a legal defense: Does it matter if you’re rich or poor?, please respond to the following:
a. How does geographic location play a role in the quality of representation provided by the public defender?
b. How does the overburdened public defense system in many areas contribute to issues of wrongful conviction?
c. Contrast the legal representation described by Bright to the level of representation available to white-collar, corporate, and environmental crimes.
d. This discussion highlights two issues – wrongful conviction and the overburdened public defender system. How can these problems be solved?

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Moral Panic. After viewing the video, Gender & Crime, please address each of the following questions:

a. Is crime normal in a society?

b. What is the purpose of crime and punishment?

c. How much crime is “enough,” and how would this be measured?

d. How is crime defined?

e. What problems are defined as worthy of social control?

f. What is the influence of the media?

Race and Death Row. This discussion focuses on topics addressed in several chapters of your text – the death penalty and discrimination. Although first discussed in Chapter 2, the death penalty is also discussed in Chapter 4. Rather than thinking in rigid terms about reading assignments, please use your textbook as a resource. After reading the text and watching the video, Injustice for Blacks in Alabama, respond to each of the following questions:

a. What do you think best explains high incarceration rates for Blacks compared to their percent of the general population?

b. What do you think explains high incarceration rates for Blacks on death row?

c. Is institutionalized racism to blame for these disparate rates? Please explain.

d. Are genuinely high rates of Black crime to blame? Why or why not?

e. What other factors explain the high incarceration rates for Black men?

f. How can this problem be solved?