Forensic Files

For this free blog I have decided to choose another one of my favorite crime shows, forensic files. Not only  is this show fascinating to me, but the narrator's voice tends to creep me out which adds a whole new element of excitement for me. Anyway, the show is a real life, non-fiction show in which forensic science and technologies are used to solve crimes. Usually, the show starts out giving the background story of the people involved. You know, life story, relationship status, etc. One of my favorite episodes involved a woman who had been cheating on her husband. One day she was at choir practice at church, and while getting ready to leave the church, she was gunned down in the parking lot. Her husband then became the prime suspect because investigators realized that he had just recently found out about her cheating on him.

here is a link to this episode. 

http://www.forensicfiles.com/episodes.php?id=119#EPISODE_INTROS

Oh the Horror!

So, I must say that I did find this video quite interesting. However, I found that many of these people are just ridiculous! The one that shocked me the most was about the couple who killed those people to get money. That is terrifying! Now I am going to be so concerned about who I decide to date. Good thing I don't have a lot of money though lol. Anyway, I just think that it is shocking that these two people got away with these murders for as long as they did. And the fact that they went through that much money that quickly was ridiculous. Secondly, the boy who killed his mother because of the Scream movies was scary. I, personally, have never seen a movie and then decided that killing a person in that manner would be awesome. This, again, makes me nervous about what I let my kids see. I'm not sure if there should be regulations on movies, or even if the creators of these movies should be held responsible because in the end these people are capable of making their own decisions. These are just a few cases in which people saw something and took it to the extreme by trying to copy it. That does not mean that the rest of society should suffer by having these movies removed, or not allowing movies like this to be made in the future. I, like many other people I am sure, enjoy a good horror movie every now and then, but that doesn't mean we will go out and copy the events that occurred in these films.

Belle

So it took me a while to think of something, and honestly I could not think of anything recently that applied to this. So, I called up my grandma and asked her about this question and found a rather embarrassing answer. Apparently, when I was young, about 3, I thought I was Belle from Beauty and The Beast. I watched the movie constantly, had a Belle doll, and even tried dressing like her. People would come up to me and ask me what my name was, and I would answer Belle. My grandma apparently was quite concerned about this haha. I, personally, have no recollection of this at all, however, Beauty and the Beast is still one of my favorite movies of all time.

Homecoming

So I do not attend homecoming festivities, but I did find an article from a local news station about the increase in police. Apparently, after springfest last year, Harrisonburg is increasing police all year. We have all seen them everywhere. Homecoming was no exception.One JMU student who was interviewed  said that he believes it will be a strong deterrent for students thinking about having parties. Their goal is to stop and prevent underage drinking and other activities involved with drinking. Also, one officer stated that an increase in police patrol creates an increase for the need of money to pay for these officers. Thus, several grants were given to the police department to help pay for the extra police on patrol for homecoming this year.

http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/Harrisonburg_Police_Increase_Patrols_for_Homecoming_Weekend_104899604.html

Article

Ok. So a few of the terms found in the article were cognitive biases which include bandwagon effect. Basically, these shape how we view information, with the bandwagon effect, or believing something just because everyone else is, being an example of this. Confirmation bias is when we seek out information to confirm what we already believe (not a good idea). Next, base rate fallacy, which I had no idea what it meant before reading this, is when we favor our own experiences over information that we find through research. Annd finally, cognitive dissonance, which is basically when we discredit or don't believe information that is against what we believe.

With that said...One example of when I jumped on the bandwagon was in high school. My freshman year, seniors were selling tickets for access to the swimming pool and elevator in our school. So many of my friends fell for this, and I was starting to believe that there really was a pool that only upper classmen could get into. Turns out, there is no pool and there is no elevator. The school was only 1 story. Haha I felt so stupid!

As for the Department of Information, I think it is a good idea in theory. Obviously, as the author stated, it isn't going to fly. However, I do agree that we need some sort of system to help regulate what is fact and what is fiction a little better than what we have. It is extremely difficult to determine fact from fiction in even our news today! I just don't think that's right. I shouldn't have to do research on every story the news broadcasts to get the facts straight. I don't know, maybe I am just lazy.

When Beauty Queens Attack

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2010/10/06/ng.ky.beauty.queen.attack.hln

So this story is about a 22 year old Kentucky Beauty queen who apparently had a freak out and decided to attack a gas station attendant with a pen, stabbing him with it in the neck. She then ran across the street and attacked a female pharmacist, punching her in the face, kicking her in the stomach, and biting her. She now faces up to 15 years in prison. When asked in the story what triggered this incident, a witness claimed that she was drunk.

So, at first glance this was a lot to take in. However, when it comes to whether or not this story is for entertainment, I would have to say YES! Who isn't entertained by seeing one of these so called "perfect" beauty queens completely lose it? In a way, it's nice to see that these people are human. I'm really not sure how this could influence criminal justice policy other than it being another story of an intoxicated person in public doing something stupid and/or violent. I guess it could be the media's way of portraying the affects of alcohol on the lives of the abusers. Sort of a "Look at the successful, beautiful women and see how alcohol ruined her life." Much like the countless other celebrities we see being arrested for DUIs and drug abuse.

When it comes the the article in class, Media and CJ Policy, the format of crime comes into play here. I would argue that this is an example of an episodic format, because it presents this case as a discrete event, which I am sure will be followed by the story of the resulting case. However, when it comes to the ideal offenders, I'm not sure where this would stand. This girl seemed to have it all, a perfect life, intelligence, successful, etc. However, she committed what was a pretty crazy crime.