Download or read book Crimes of Reason written by Stephen E. Braude and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crimes of Reason brings together expanded and updated versions of some of Braude’s best previously published essays, along with new essays written specifically for this book. Although the essays deal with a variety of topics, they all hover around a set of interrelated general themes. These are: the poverty of mechanistic theories in the behavioral and life sciences, the nature of psychological explanation and (at least within the halls of the Academy) the unappreciated strategies required to understand behavior, the nature of dissociation, and the nature and limits of human abilities. Braude’s targets include memory trace theory, inner-cause theories of human behavior generally, Sheldrake’s theory of morphogenetic fields, widespread but simplistic views on the nature of human abilities, multiple personality and moral responsibility, the efficacy of prayer, and the shoddy tactics often used to discredit research on dissociation and parapsychology. Although the topics are often abstract and the issues deep, their treatment in this book is accessible, and the tone of the book is both light and occasionally combative.

Download or read book The Crime of Reason written by Robert B Laughlin and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-09-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all agree that the free flow of ideas is essential to creativity. And we like to believe that in our modern, technological world, information is more freely available and flows faster than ever before. But according to Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin, acquiring information is becoming a danger or even a crime. Increasingly, the really valuable information is private property or a state secret, with the result that it is now easy for a flash of insight, entirely innocently, to infringe a patent or threaten national security. The public pays little attention because this vital information is "technical" -- but, Laughlin argues, information is often labeled technical so it can be sequestered, not sequestered because it's technical. The increasing restrictions on information in such fields as cryptography, biotechnology, and computer software design are creating a new Dark Age: a time characterized not by light and truth but by disinformation and ignorance. Thus we find ourselves dealing more and more with the Crime of Reason, the antisocial and sometimes outright illegal nature of certain intellectual activities. The Crime of Reason is a reader-friendly jeremiad, On Bullshit for the Slashdot and Creative Commons crowd: a short, fiercely argued essay on a problem of increasing concern to people at the frontiers of new ideas.

Download or read book Critique of Criminal Reason written by Michael Gregorio and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2008-03-18 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most honourable Procurator Stiffeniis, You talents have been brought to Our attention by a gentleman of eminence, who believes that you alone are capable of resolving a situation which holds Our beloved Königsberg in a grip of terror. All Our faith and consideration are due to the notable personage who suggested your name, and that same faith and consideration now resides in you. We have no reason to doubt that you will accept this Royal Commission, and act accordingly with all haste. The fate of the city lies in your hands. --King Frederick Wilhelm III It has been years since Immanuel Kant's landmark philosophical work, Critique of Pure Reason, brought him fame throughout Europe and made him Königsberg's best-known citizen. Now, rumors have begun to surface of a new work by this aging but still acute mind. Yet unlike his earlier work, this book will not examine the mind of the average man, but the mind of the serial killer. Hanno Stiffeniis, a young magistrate, has been called to Königsberg to assist in the investigation of an enigmatic string of murders. Is it part of a plot formed by Napoleon's spies to undermine the Prussian king or the work of a solitary, unknown killer? The case would seem unsolvable, were it not for the assistance and unmatched intellect of his mentor, Immanuel Kant. Together Stiffeniis and the elderly, eccentric philosopher must track down the killer who has the city of Königsberg by the throat. Hugely atmospheric, entertaining, and intelligent, Critique of Criminal Reason marks the outstanding debut of a new name in historical fiction.

Download or read book War Crimes written by Matthew Talbert and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do war crimes occur? Are perpetrators of war crimes always blameworthy? In an original and challenging thesis, this book argues that war crimes are often explained by perpetrators' beliefs, goals, and values, and in these cases perpetrators may be blameworthy even if they sincerely believed that they were doing the right thing.

Download or read book Beyond Reason written by Ken Englade and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1990-11 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering, convicted of the double murder of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom.

Download or read book The Age of Culpability written by Gideon Yaffe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why be lenient towards children who commit crimes? Reflection on the grounds for such leniency is the entry point into the development, in this book, of a theory of the nature of criminal responsibility and desert of punishment for crime. Gideon Yaffe argues that child criminals are owed lesser punishments than adults thanks not to their psychological, behavioural, or neural immaturity but, instead, because they are denied the vote. This conclusion is reached through accounts of the nature of criminal culpability, desert for wrongdoing, strength of legal reasons, and what it is to have a say over the law. The centrepiece of this discussion is the theory of criminal culpability. To be criminally culpable is for one's criminal act to manifest a failure to grant sufficient weight to the legal reasons to refrain. The stronger the legal reasons, then, the greater the criminal culpability. Those who lack a say over the law, it is argued, have weaker legal reasons to refrain from crime than those who have a say. They are therefore reduced in criminal culpability and deserve lesser punishment for their crimes. Children are owed leniency, then, because of the political meaning of age rather than because of its psychological meaning. This position has implications for criminal justice policy, with respect to, among other things, the interrogation of children suspected of crimes and the enfranchisement of adult felons.

Download or read book An Essay on Crimes and Punishments written by Cesare Beccaria and published by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the fourth edition, which contains an additional text attributed to Voltaire. Originally published anonymously in 1764, Dei Delitti e Delle Pene was the first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought, which had changed little since the Middle Ages. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law in Europe and the United States.

Download or read book The Limits of Blame written by Erin I. Kelly and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-12 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, Erin Kelly challenges the moralism behind harsh treatment of criminal offenders and calls into question our society’s commitment to mass incarceration. The Limits of Blame takes issue with a criminal justice system that aligns legal criteria of guilt with moral criteria of blameworthiness. Many incarcerated people do not meet the criteria of blameworthiness, even when they are guilty of crimes. Kelly underscores the problems of exaggerating what criminal guilt indicates, particularly when it is tied to the illusion that we know how long and in what ways criminals should suffer. Our practice of assigning blame has gone beyond a pragmatic need for protection and a moral need to repudiate harmful acts publicly. It represents a desire for retribution that normalizes excessive punishment. Appreciating the limits of moral blame critically undermines a commonplace rationale for long and brutal punishment practices. Kelly proposes that we abandon our culture of blame and aim at reducing serious crime rather than imposing retribution. Were we to refocus our perspective to fit the relevant moral circumstances and legal criteria, we could endorse a humane, appropriately limited, and more productive approach to criminal justice.

Download or read book A Need to Kill written by Michael W. Cuneo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes how sixteen-year-old Alec Kreider murdered his best friend, Kevin Haines, and Kevin's parents, Tom and Lisa, for no apparent reason, and showed no remorse for the brutal crime.

Download or read book Why They Do It written by Eugene Soltes and published by Public Affairs. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial fraud in the United States costs nearly $400 billion annually. The executives responsible for this corporate duplicity usually earn excellent salaries. So why do they become criminals? Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes shares his findings after years of extensive research. His numerous case histories make for fascinating reading. He speaks almost exclusively about men so don't look for gender-neutral pronouns. As Soltes explains, "Women are conspicuously absent from the ranks of prominent white-collar criminals." getAbstract recommends his compelling study to business students and professors, executives, business pundits, financial law enforcement officials and anyone who handles the money.

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America written by Barry Latzer and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling case can be made that violent crime, especially after the 1960s, was one of the most significant domestic issues in the United States. Indeed, few issues had as profound an effect on American life in the last third of the twentieth century. After 1965, crime rose to such levels that it frightened virtually all Americans and prompted significant alterations in everyday behaviors and even lifestyles. The risk of being mugged was a concern when Americans chose places to live and schools for their children, selected commuter routes to work, and planned their leisure activities. In some locales, people were afraid to leave their dwellings at any time, day or night, even to go to the market. In the worst of the post-1960s crime wave, Americans spent part of each day literally looking back over their shoulders. The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America is the first book to comprehensively examine this important phenomenon over the entire postwar era. It combines a social history of the United States with the insights of criminology and examines the relationship between rising and falling crime and such historical developments as the postwar economic boom, suburbanization and the rise of the middle class, baby booms and busts, war and antiwar protest, the urbanization of minorities, and more.

Download or read book Power and Crime written by Vincenzo Ruggiero and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-27 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an analysis of the two concepts of power and crime and posits that criminologists can learn more about these concepts by incorporating ideas from disciplines outside of criminology. Although arguably a 'rendezvous' discipline, Vincenzo Ruggiero argues that criminology can gain much insight from other fields such as the political sciences, ethics, social theory, critical legal studies, economic theory, and classical literature. In this book Ruggiero offers an authoritative synthesis of a range of intellectual conceptions of crime and power, drawing on the works and theories of classical, as well as contemporary thinkers, in the above fields of knowledge, arguing that criminology can ‘humbly’ renounce claims to intellectual independence and adopt notions and perspectives from other disciplines. The theories presented locate the crimes of the powerful in different disciplinary contexts and make the book essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of criminology, sociology, law, politics and philosophy.

Download or read book Motives for Murder written by Little, Brown Book Group Limited and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *WINNER OF THE CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER WITH THE TRIALS OF MARGARET BY L. C. TYLER* In honour of multi award-winning author Peter Lovesey, the members of the Detection Club have written twenty-two twisty - and twisted - short stories that will take you on a journey from cosy English towns to the glaciers of Iceland and the glittering towers of Dubai. The collection is edited by current Detection Club president Martin Edwards and features stories from Ann Cleeves, Simon Brett, Andrew Taylor and several other best-loved crime authors. The Detection Club was founded by the crème de la crime of British crime writing in 1930 and its members included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley and the Club's first president, G. K. Chesterton. The Detection Club was a way for crime writers to get together, socialise and discuss ideas, a tradition that continues to this day. Authors include: Ann Cleeves - Simon Brett - Andrew Taylor - Len Deighton - Peter Lovesey - Michael Jecks - Michael Ridpath - Kate Ellis - Ruth Dudley Edwards - Alison Joseph - L. C. Tyler - Catherine Aird - David Roberts - David Stuart Davies - Janet Laurence - Liza Cody - Martin Edwards - Kate Charles - John Malcolm - Marjorie Eccles - Michael Z. Lewin - Susan Moody

Download or read book Imaginary Crimes written by Sheila Ballantyne and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1983 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Crime Reason and History written by Alan Norrie and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work provides a challenging approach to the study of criminal law, offering a critical introduction to the law's general principles and, in contrast to orthodox criminal law texts, emphasizes the tensions and contradictions that lie at their heart.

Download or read book Small Crimes written by Dave Zeltserman and published by Serpent's Tail. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chosen by NPR and the Washington Post as one of the best crime & mystery novels of 2008, Small Crimes is now a major film starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones' Jaime Lannister) Bent copper Joe Denton gets out of prison suspiciously early after disfiguring the district attorney. Nobody wants Joe to hang around, not his ex-wife, his parents or his former colleagues - if he had any decency he'd get out of town and start over. Unfortunately, Joe has precious little decency - and a whole lot of unfinished business to attend to. A tale of redemption and revenge as dark and violent as it's bitterly comic, Small Crimes is the UK debut of hard-boiled hotshot Dave Zeltserman.

Download or read book Convicting the Innocent written by Brandon L. Garrett and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.