THINGS TO THINK ABOUT FROM WEBBOARD FOR NEXT CLASS (on law & Theory)

WebBoard helps share information and to make connections between course
themes that we can't do in class. It's a way to apply what we learn.
One reason we begin with the discussion of law in class is that law, courts, 
and the Constitution provide the basis of all the rest. 

Examples:

1) One poster wrote:

  http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/22/prisoner.abortion.rides/index.html#cnnSTCText

   The Missouri Department of Corrections banned the transportation of
   women off prison grounds for elective, non-emergency abortions. It went
   to the federal court of appeals and they ruled that female inmates must
   be transported at the state's expense.

   I don't want to turn this into a pro/anti-abortion debate, but what do
   you all think of this ruling? The state does not want to provide
   transportation because of the expense, but isn't that cheaper than the
   state's obligation to provide prenatal care to pregnant inmates? Then
   there's the issue of unwanted children growing up with a parent behind
   bars. One side argues that female inmates should be allowed to keep
   their reproductive rights. The other side says that this is one of the
   rights that an inmate gives up upon incarceration.

This post ties directly into our discussions of law, changing notion of 
rights, conflicts between components of the CJ system, and how conflicts
are resolved and in whose interests. In part, it illustrates law as a
social construct, something created by people, enforced by people,
and challenged enforced by people, in an on-going process of change,
but change based on ideologies and principles derived from the past.

What principles provide the roots for this particular conflict, what
ideologies support or challenge it, and what does it tell us about
the CJ system as an integrated organism?


2) Another post illustrates the interconnections between the various components 
of the system, and this passage from that article illustrates it. The
poster wrote:

   Now, in a growing standoff between the government
   of Florida and its judges, the state is being
   threatened with steep daily fines if it does not
   comply. And at least one judge has raised the
   possibility that the secretary of the Florida Department
   of Children and Families could go to jail for contempt of court.

This raises several questions related to class:

   a) How has the concept of rights changed in recent decades such that this 
is now an issue?

   b) We assume that a system is "integrated." Does this conflict between 
courts and the state illustrate or challenge this view? What would a conflict 
theorist say? A functionalist?

   c) What are the implications for other components in the system (police, 
corrections, offenders), if any?

3) Although criminological and related theories are only a small part of
class, we must remember that, as behavioral scientists, we think
theoretically and apply our theories to our chosen interest areas of
crime, courts/law, corrections, and police to inform our reasoned
judgments as practitioners, policy makers, or informed citizens. How can
we apply our favorite theory (or theories), or integrate theories, to
understand the complexities of the first two issues above?