Recently in Crime Category

http://www.robertpetersonlaw.com/Family%20Law%20Issues/No%20Contact%20Order.aspx

The other day I went to the Waterloo courthouse to sit on a "order hour" and there were two women who wanted their no contact orders dropped. One lady was not able to because she had not gone through the organization "seeds of hope." The second women wanted to drop the order because she was due with the man's baby soon, but the judge had to remind her that while it is being "processed" she cannot see them else they both can go to jail.

The article I found states that A No Contact Order remains in effect until modified or terminated by further order of the court, until the criminal case is dismissed (in a criminal No Contact Order), or until sentencing in a criminal proceeding (when a further order is entered). Only the court can change the order, a protected party can not change the order.

Furthermore, even thought the second women only had a no contact order against the neighbor for bulgary this article mainly talks about  no contact orders due to domestic violence which related the the first women, which she never stated why she wanted it dropped.

In addition to the article, Violation of a No Contact Order (Iowa Code 664A.7) is treated as Contempt of Court and can result in punishment of up to 6 months in jail, up to $500 fine, or both. If convicted or held in contempt of a no-contact order, a jail sentence must be imposed by Iowa Code 664A.7 (2009).  A minimum of 7 days, served on consecutive days is imposed.  The sentence cannot be deferred or suspended and a fine may not be imposed if the no-contact is issued for a public offense. If the no-contact order was issued for domestic abuse assault the conviction is for a simple misdemeanor or treated as a violation of a no-contact in violation of a public offense.

Reeve (2009) states that self-efficacy is the individual's belief that he/she has what it takes to marshal together the resources needed to cope effectively with the potentially overwhelming demands of a situation. In getting a no contact order women are usually able to cope better with their daily lives, but a no contact order only is in effect for a year unless re-instated.

Do you know anyone who has ever had a no contact order against someone or them? or decided to drop it period?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html?src=me

This article talks about what used to be something that used to be a non-violent act, but now in Philadelphia these flash mobs are turning violent.  The police have said that they had enough and they are starting to enforce curfew and hold parents responsible for having their children out late in the city.  There has been five flash mobs this year in the city, more than in any other part of the United States. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_re_us/us_philly_teen_mobs_1

This article also quoted Temple University professor Frank Farley is an expert in risk-taking and thrill-seeking personalities. He says the flash mobs attract teens because they offer thrills and attract publicity.  Chapter 13 discusses risk taking personality about arousal.  It is more likely that the teens who are a part of these flash mobs  are high sensation seekers rather than low sensation seekers.  There have been findingd that sensation seekers have low levels of monoamine oxidase (Schooler, Zahn, Murphy, & Buchsbaum, 1978). 

I've always been interested in learning what motivates people to do things that would be considered extreme to the general population of that culture.  Why do people kill other people?  There are many different motivating factors that could answer that question.  But what kind of motivators are present for someone to kill another person they don't know and have no personal problem with?

I read an interesting article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100310/ts_csm/286499  about a US-born woman that is described as having become gradually radicalized by Islamic contacts through the internet.  She is a middle-aged American woman that had contact with Muslim extremists and was given an order to kill a man in Sweden.  She was preparing to do so when police got wind of the conspiracy and arrested her.  She agreed to marry a co-conspirator so he could travel more easily and have better access to travel in Europe, which is also an example of extreme behavior that doesn't have a blatant motivator. 

All of her actions seem without obvious motivation.  Religion doesn't seem to be the strongest motivator in this case because none of her comments mention God, converting to Islam, or anything that could be tied with extreme religious belifs.  The little I know about the incident from the article seems to me that she could possibly be motivated by a need for affiliation.  What I infer from the article is that she is a single, middle-aged woman with plenty of time on her hands to spend perusing the internet making contacts with Islamic extremists.  She might feel interpersonal rejection from her peers in her own culture, which is a typical fear of people with high needs for affiliation, and because she was unable to gain approval with people in her culture, sought approval elsewhere and via the internet. 

This woman also seems to display long-term goal setting behaviors.  All of this communication with extremists, planning, and marrying a co-conspirator was done over a period of time in order to achieve the goal of killing the man in Sweden.  These behaviors done before the long-term goal was reached were mini, short-term goals that would have provided enough reinforcement to keep her going with the end result, long-term goal in mind.  Constant communication and smaller steps to take before her desired result provided motivation to continue toward the goal.  It also helped internalize her goal to become more intrinsically motivated.  The article said: "In June, 2008, LaRose posted a comment on YouTube under the moniker "JihadJane" saying that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" suffering Muslims, according to the indictment." which indicates that she was somehow intrinsically motivated toward extremist thinking to the point of plotting and intending to murder someone.

All of this seems to make sense with what we've been learning in class, but I'm still left wondering how all of these motivators and reinforcers could be enough to make someone intend to murder another person and having adopted these extremist views at a later age in life.  I would be able to understand it more from a motivational standpoint if she had been immersed in this culture and extreme thinking her whole life, but she was born in the US and adopted these views from internet communications.  It doesn't seem like enough motivation to commit murder.  But, perhaps this disturbing phenomenon is why the beginning of the article says how even experts are baffled by this sort of extreme behavior.

I ran across this article and couldn't believe it at first.

Overdue Library Books

Basically, libraries around the country are turning to the police to help them retrieve property (books, dvds, etc.) that people have not returned despite several notices from the Library. Eventually, they are sent a summons to appear in court, and if they fail to do so they are arrested for that and fined. Libraries are apparently facing some budget problems, and everything that isn't returned can add up to significant losses for them (assuming they have to replace it). Apparently, some people really don't care (low energy) about returning their books to the library. The library considers this theft of public property and soon the police get involved

Reading this article reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a book that has been overdue since high school, and he gets confronted by Mr. Bookman the library detective:

Seinfeld: Library Detective

This is a clear-cut case of the use of a punisher (fines, arrest) to reduce the frequency of undesirable behavior (not returning library materials). But, how effective is this? Does it have the general deterrent (affect others) capability that I assume the libraries think it has? It is probably an effective punisher for the individual (specific deterrent), but I would imagine only in the sense that they will probably never go back to the public library again. Basically, could be a better way to get people to return their library materials without using punishment? Should the libraries even get the police involved in the first place, or is it their right to track down uncompliant borrowers?

Nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, psychomotor agitation, rambling flow of thoughts and speech...with all of these symptoms you would think you were looking at the definition for a disorder according to the DSM.  As a matter of fact you are...these are symptoms for the psychological disorder of Caffeine Intoxication. Caffeine intoxication sounds like a made up disorder but it is very real and does appear in the DSM. Surprisingly enough, Daniel Nobel is being evaluation to see if that is what caused him to hospitalize two University of Washington students last Monday when he hit them with his car that morning. Can it really be that something as simple as caffeine is altering our behavior so much that it is considered a psychiatric disorder that can alter how we operate a vehicle just as alcohol can? According to researchers this is exactly what happened to Nobel when he was charged with vehicular assault and a hit and run on the by the University of Washington's Police. Blood tests are not back from the lab yet but from my understanding of the article alcohol consumption was rule out therefore there is some underlying cause as to why Noble was acting in such disarray that morning. Investigators and researchers predicted that Noble consumed approximately 2g of caffeine which is 10 times the amount an average person consumes a day (200mg). Normally people develop a tolerance to this drug and do not see such drastic results; however, there are clinics and treatment centers designed to get people "clean" from the addiction of caffeine.  After reading this article I became very interesting is this concept. Never have I heard that someone was driving recklessly due to caffeine overdoes. I am currently in a course at UNI called Drugs and Individual Behavior. In this class when we talked about stimulants we discussed caffeine and the effects is has on our body and in turn on our behavior. This article makes me think...if I was evaluated this case would I deem that Caffeine intoxication was a severe enough diagnosis that I would accept this for the reason for this ridiculous behavior that place two people in the hospital? For some reason (even after learning about how caffeine is a drug and can alter how the brain functions) I can not seem to link it in the same category as anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and diseases such as alcoholism.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/man-caffeinated-psychosis-defense-hit-run/story?id=9306666

While doing my daily internet searching, I came across this article explaining the motivation behind assisting others with suicide.  This article doesn't say there is an open doorway now for assisted suicides, but it does say there may be a new framework as to how lawyers will choose who should be prosecuted and who shouldn't. 

"It made clear that someone acting out of compassion, to help a terminally ill patient with a "clear, settled and informed wish to die" is unlikely to face the courts. "

"But persuading or pressuring the victim to kill themselves, or benefiting from their death, would encourage prosecution. "

I found this extremely interesting, because as a student in this motivation class, I couldn't help but think what if there wasn't an extrinsic motivation, but an intrinsic one?  If someone helps another committ suicide and is not receiving any money from their will etc they may not be prosecuted, but what if someone just wishes for them to die because of dislike or revenge?  You know that, NOT in most cases, there is the potential for this type of situation to come along. 

Also, by allowing the person more choices, does that persuade them in a different direction than what they were originally thinking?  When giving someone autonomy, they can second guess initial decisions-- An example-- Person A was diagnosed with cancer and was given X amount of time to live.  Person A was motivated to stay alive as long as possible to try and beat the odds.  Person A was then given to option to be given a drug that woud ultimately kill them within an hour.  By giving someone the option alone is a form of persuasion .  INow there is a decision to be made, and dont you think the drug option would be in the back of their heads on a 'bad' day? 

I also understand the other side of this extremely controversal topic-- if someone is an immense amount of pain/on their death bed and the family no longer wants to have them suffering so they collaborately (with the patient if applicable) decide what would be best. 

I think deciding of whether or not to prosecute someone is a very complicated issues-- I believe there are more factors involved than just whether or not the person assisting is receiving some kind of benefits from the death. 

I hope no one takes offense to this article, I just thought it was extremely interesting-- both sides shown here.  I hope you guys thought it was as interesting as I did--

http://www.uni.edu/safety/

Here is a link that provides information on safety and services offered at UNI and you can also go to the UNI police department site which is below.

http://www.vpaf.uni.edu/pubsaf/police_division/index.shtml

The first link can help with a variety of things from the weather, students safety, alerts on campus and off, health center, H1N1 shots and so forth.

The second link also deals with a variety of things to help students from services, prevention, sexual assualt, drugs and alcohol, and even statistics of crime on campus.

I thought that since this past semester we had hate crimes going on not just on campus but in the Cedar Fall area off of campus that I would share a story I found on hate crimes on college campuses other then our campus.

http://socyberty.com/issues/hate-crime-on-college-campuses/

check it out for yourself. One psychologist found that offenders attack people because of their antisocial behavior and their hate against those who might be better than them.

Because college campuses account for 13% of hate crimes, colleges have had to increase their security.

Reeve talks about emotions in the textbook, and depending on what a person has experienced, going through or even a friend going through something traumatic can involve many students facing fear and anger. Everyone experiences things differently. Some may fear others, be angry towards others for what they did (e.g. sexual assualt, hate crimes etc.) and others might show no emotion what so ever. The UNI sexual assualt department had a lady talk to my violence in intimate relationships class on how they see people show emotions such as: fear, anger, laughing, crying, no emotion because no one experiences the same things the same way. Hope you enjoy this information and it helps someone.

I was read this article in the Oprah Magazine by Susan Klebold- the mother of Dylan Klebold who, along side another, killed and injured many people at their high school.  The story itself is extremely interesting-- Susan goes into details about Dylans life before the shooting, starting with being a toddler.  She stated everything seemed to be pretty normal until high school when he started withdrawaling (something a lot of teenagers do).  There home never had any guns and the Susan quotes "In raising Dylan, I taught him how to protect himself from a host of dangers: lightning, snake bites, head injuries, skin cancer, smoking, drinking, sexually transmitted diseases... it never occurred to me that the gravest danger- to him and, as it turned out, to so many others- might come from within".  This article really gave me chills, because although this happened some time ago, its absolutely crazy to think that 2 people could have this much power to do something so horrible.  Susan also goes into the hurt of how the media mainly blamed Dylans family for raising him the wrong way.  This really quite frankly pissed me off.  I do believe nurture has an effect on people, but this was a normal family that the media started ripping apart.  Susan goes on to say even "Our elected officials stated publically that bad parenting was the cause of the massacre".  That may have been what people thought and they have the right to voice their own opinions, but they need to know background information before making a claim like that.  I really appreciate the article, becasue Susan covers many different things involving their family, their story during and after this tragedy, but also goes into how suicidal thoughts can affect a person and how she supports suicidal research and encouraging responsible prevention and awareness practices as well as support for survivors. 

The article states there are roughly 33,000 suicides in the US every year.  It's estimated 1-2% of those suicides involve the killing of an additional person/people. 

In chapter 15 of the text, it is mentioned that there are two kinds of definition one can have regarding themself.  Self-Definition and Social Definition.  Self Definition is as explained as someone who resists any external definitions of themselves and rely mainly on themselves.  Social Definition is defined as someone who accepts external definitions of themselves.  This can be connected with Dylan in many ways.  Susan explains what police found when they searched the house-- many pages of journals claiming how alienated he felt and out of place he was.  I think its VERY common among adolescents to socially define themselves, because that's what they know at that point.  Also in this chapter they discuss finding value systems, that if parents do not provide a child with this, they will find it elsewhere.  Dylans partner in crime, Eric, was said to have a bad influence on Dylan from the day they had met.  I dont believe it was the parents' fault, but I think this was a result from Dylan pushing away form his parents like normal teenagers do.  So he confided in Eric and came up with this plan of murder and suicide. 

The article was extremely interesting, some parts were sad but I believe the end of the article brought everything into perspective.  It's a really great article (although a little long) but it was still worth it.  Check it out!

http://www.oprah.com/world/Susan-Klebolds-O-Magazine-Essay-I-Will-Never-Know-Why

I have talked to my younger cousin about off the wall text messaging that younger teens are spreading through text messages within her school.  She says everyone knows who you have a crush on, or if you are mad at a friend, and with everyone knowing those kind of things; uncalled words are being said and the texting is getting out of hand.  I read one of her text messages that someone said to her and it said "____ said that you are too skinny and you should eat lol"  Now for a young girl in middle school that could harm her self-esteem and feel as thought no one likes her, and the way she is isn't good enough, even though she is a beautiful petite young girl who is only in 7th garde. 

When watching T.V. the commercial of teens getting abused by other teens via text messaging comes up a lot, especially on MTV. When is it becoming too of athinline for young teens with their text messaging?  The website (athinline.org) helps teens cope with abused text messaging, such as sexting, constant messaging, spying, digital disprespect, and cruelty.  This website definitely is taking a step to help out teens who feel as though they can't say anything to anyone, because if they do they will be called a nark or taddle tail.

It's very alarming how many teens are getting abused or are doing the abuse over text messaging.  When I was in middle school I was'nt allowed a cell phone, unless I went to a movie and needed to call for my parents to pick me up.  Now a days all I see is young kids with cell phones in their hands walking in the mall or down the street.  It's no wonder why the text messaging abuse is becoming so popular. 

Athinline.org is definitely a big step for helping teens with this abusive problem via text messaging.  Pass it along to friends and family who you know that have been abused or are the abuser.