Criminal Justice Crimes Against Property

Heather E. Dahl 11/19/2012 CRJ105 Crimes against Property Steven Holeman

By the narrowest and oldest definition, the trespassory breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony. Also, the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. On November 13th 2012 a 31-year-old man is behind bars after police say the he burglarized a
Kmart and was caught red-handed. According to police the suspect, identified as Devon Eugene
Bolton, Jr. of Hampton VA forced his way into a side door and took jewelry and electronics.
Bolton was arrested and charged with burglary, grand larceny, possession of burglary tools and felony vandalism he remains incarcerated in the Hampton City Jail. This offender was recently released from the prison in which I work at here in Chesapeake VA.
This case was unique to me because this was an offender whom had been through many cognitive community programs and rehabilitation classes. It is obvious to me that upon the
Offender’s release he did not have a good family support system or live in an area that lacked crime, in fact Hampton VA has a very high crime rate when compared to other cities which led him back to his old ways. I believe that the economy that we live in today has a lot to do with the reason for burglary.
There is no excuse for it but when an offender exhausts his/her efforts in trying to find employment and is denied he/she feels that stealing/burglarizing is the only way that they have to support oneself. Of course this is not the answer and the offender chose the wrong tools to use in order to resolve his hardships however, he chose to go back to his old way of thinking and this leads me to believe that either we are lacking in our rehabilitation services or he is one of many that has an addiction to a life of crime. Most burglaries are committed for money, drugs, food, alcohol and family crisis. The motive in this particular case describes an offender who was not able to find work and was struggling to produce money for his family. Judging the amount of times that this offender has recidivated I would make the assumption that he has decided that a life of crime is all he knows and all he is worth. He has other choices and has had the opportunity to take advantage of different programming and such however as I have said before we need to improve some of the imperfections that lie in the Criminal Justice System and rehabilitation of our offenders. As a criminal justice system I believe that there is a lot of holes that need to be filled in our rehabilitation programs. We need to make society aware of what we are trying to do to improve the choices that these offenders are making in life. If we hold more job fair in our prisons as well as allow the offender the opportunity to get his/her driver’s license before release this would help in the job process which in return helps reduce the need for money right out of prison. We also need to improve our programs we need to make it mandatory that they go to school and obtain a
GED and other cognitive classes that will help with their self-confidence. We cannot change everyone and we cannot force them all to make the right decision in life however, if more effort is put into resolving our criminal justice system we may be able to stop many from committing a crime such as burglary or any other crime for that matter. Not all criminals are bad people they are people who have made bad decisions and lack self-worth.

References:

Hampton, Va. (WAVY). (Tuesday, 13 Nov 2012, 1:33 PM EST). Police catch burglary suspect in act. In undefined. Retrieved November 15, 2012, from www.wavy.com/dpp/news/crime/police-catch-burglary-suspect-in-act.

References: Hampton, Va. (WAVY). (Tuesday, 13 Nov 2012, 1:33 PM EST). Police catch burglary suspect in act. In undefined. Retrieved November 15, 2012, from www.wavy.com/dpp/news/crime/police-catch-burglary-suspect-in-act.