CRIMINOLOGY - Research Paper Example

?CRIMINOLOGY Module Module ID: Introduction: The present paper aims to explore the male rape crime committed on a French-Swiss youth of 15 years during his tour to the state-country of Dubai at the hands of three native rapists in July last year (Walt, 2007). The main reason behind selecting the male rape in an ethnically prejudiced country is not only to unveil the motivation behind committing such a heinous crime in a land that claims to be the haven for the European tourists, but also to reveal the violation of human rights aptly exercised in the purported modern states of the world. The Asian and African states blame the USA, Australia and Europe for creating a single mother society by allowing unchecked and unrestrained sexual activities, extra marital relationships and gay marriages. The girls in Europe, USA and Australia, Mendle et al (2009) observe, become victims of rape, perversion and other environmental influences, and thus enter their sexual life at a very young age subsequently. However, the Gulf countries forget to examine the most perturbed state of affairs being observed in their own lands, where the people are exploited and raped secretly with the support of law enforcing agencies. Not only this that tracing of offenders is near to impossible in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also registration of rape cases is really a hard nut to crack in the entire Arab region (Khalife, 2010). The paper has been supported with the conflict, labeling, feminist and nature theories of crime, which endorse various possibilities behind committing of offences and delinquencies by the individuals belonging to divergent ethno-racial cultures, communities and societies of the globe. The Victim’s Background: As stated-above, the victim of the heinous crime of male rape in the present study was a 15 years young French-Swiss adolescent, who had proceeded to Dubai on a recreational tour by second week of July 2007. While he was sitting at beach-side of this modern and affluent country with one of his friends, he was offered car lift by the three native motorists, so that both the boys could be dropped safe and sound at the hotel they stayed. The motorists, with the promise of leading them to their hotel, turned the car towards the desert; where they stopped the car at a desolated area, and asked Alex’s associate to stay outside the car till they inflicted brutal buggery upon the hapless youth. The three Dubai residents raped Alex viciously, and threatened him of grave consequences provided he disclosed the mishap before any authority in Dubai (ABC News, 2007). The poor victim was extremely harassed, heart-broken and frustrated; even then he disclosed all about the sad incident over phone to her mother Veronique Robert, a well-known and influential journalist of France, who moved the foreign office to probe into the matter quickly in order to get the rapists arrested, tried and penalized without wasting of time. The Background of the Rapists: The biased, prejudiced and cruel law enforcing agencies of Dubai never let the identity of the vicious rapists disclosed before the press. Despite Dubai's status as the Arab world's paragon of modernity and wealth, its legal system remains a perilous gantlet when it comes to homosexuality and legal protection of foreigners (Live Leak, 2007). Thus, they stuck to their traditional atrocious behavior of declaring the rape mere a sexual activity took place with the free consent of a European teenager as passive partner in gay sex, while the three Dubai residents as active partners. In other words, they declared the heinous anal rape as a routine gay sex activity, which is a punishable crime on the part of both the boy and the rapists. Somehow, after the direct involvement of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the UAE leader Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan, the local police traced out the whereabouts of the rapists, and arrested them for identification parade at the police station. The brilliant Alex was successful in identifying two of the rapists at the spot. Subsequently, the court tried the rapists, and sentenced them with six years imprisonment; even then, the police are reluctant to disclose their identity. Theories of Crime: Sexual offences such type of offences that carry motives of sexual gratification behind them. These crimes are committed by raping the victim forcefully and without his/her consent either individually or in group form; vaginal and anal rape, woman abuse, child molestation, voyeurism, exhibitionism, stripping and masochism etc are different forms of sexual offences (Hagan, 2010). These crimes not only inflict physical hurt to the victim, but also cause severe mental disturbance out of it, and sometimes leads towards psychological collapse of the rape victims. Many victims report distinctive psychological post-rape responses such as heightened fear, avoidance, re-experiencing the traumatic event, and anxious arousal (Charron et al. 2007). Researches have been conducted and theories have been articulated in order to define the motifs and causes behind such painful and disgusting violation of human rights. Social conflict theory submits to state that every type of crimes and offences committed are actually the outcome of social inequalities, injustices and exploitations have been in vogue in all cultures of the world in different forms (Smithey & Straus, 2004: 241). Exploitation of the weak and hapless stratum at the hands of the powerful individuals always create hatred and frustration, which pave the way to social conflict and subsequently to chaos, anarchy and disorder. Absence of true and fair justice system, and its being hostage at the hands of the influential stratum turns the victims alienated to the prevailing justice system (Vedder et al., 1976). Consequently, the helpless individuals appear to be determined to take revenge of the injustices being exercised on them in the name of fair play. The conflict theorists also state crimes as the outcome of ethno-racial and religious hatred among divergent communities. Shedd & Hagan are of the view that the perception of criminal injustice is common among disadvantaged American racial and ethnic minority groups. This perception of injustice is especially common for highly educated and socially and economically successful African-Americans (2006: 1); the same is applied to the rapists of Dubai. By looking into the history of Dubai, it becomes evident that the people of UAE had been leading a life of misery and poverty during 1960s before the discovery of rich oil reserves in the region. Consequently, they looked upon the European nations with great envy and desire. In the early 1960s Dubai was mere a fishing, pearling, and trading village of about 25000 people, entering the transformation arising from the discovery of oil (Thesiger, 1994). Since they used to feel pride while entering into communication with the people of advanced nations, bringing them under their subjugation and sway through different means had always been the dream of the third world countries. Somehow, their being established from paupers to a rich state appears to be really astonishing for them. Consequently, their humiliating a French teenager by raping him brutally also reflected their age-old inferiority complex, which induced them to deflower the hapless beautiful youth of France. Although the time took drastic change, and the nation of paupers became affluent by dint of natural resources, they are still lagging far behind from the European nations in education, intellect, science and technological advancement. Crime cannot be confined as an out come of the social conflict only; rather, many other reasons also play dynamic role in committing crimes and violating the statutes of law. Devised by Tannenbaum in 1938, labeling theory regards committing of crime as the outcome of defamation inflicted upon a person. Tannenbaum is of the opinion that declaring a person habitual offender continuously may turn him from an ordinary accidental offender to a habitual criminal and jail bird. The theory stresses upon avoiding of the false allegations upon a personality. Such an activity, according to him, not only diminishes the fear of criminal regarding the damaging of his reputation, but also destroys his personality by providing him with the encouragement to repeat his offences again and again in future. The same is also applied to the Dubai culture, which is notorious for undisclosed anal sex between couples before marriage, colossal gay sexual activities and homosexual rapes (Whitaker, 2011). Since people of Dubai secretly feel pride in displaying homosexual tendencies and gay activities, they frequently get involved into sexual crimes and child molestation. They also seek gratification on being famous for displaying their strong sexual powers against females and children, and thus have no repentance on raping the males even (Whitaker, 2011). According to the labeling theory, the criminal and offender is undergoing psychological problems due to some accident or tragedy, which forces him become famous for the same that he had once suffered (See, 2004). Additionally, Lombroso’s biological traits theory also asserts the concept of labeling, where biological traits of the offender also give him pleasure at the eve when people call him as deviant, sexual offender and culprit. Lombroso vehemently supported the idea of born criminals on the basis of his researches conducted on the physical and biological traits of prisoners and criminals (Bakker, 2004), which is parallel to the nurture theory, which believes that it is environment that influences major role in the development of man’s personality and behavior. According to Lombroso, some particular structure of skull, ears, hands and feet can suggest inner-self of criminals. Theorists of this school of thought are of the view that social injustices and inequalities prevailing in a community motivate the persons deviate from the existing rules, regulations and authorities. Nature theory i.e. determinism is the idea that humans are born with unmanageable traits, and that people are compelled to act rather than act out of free choice (Bakker, 2004). Consequently, human beings enter the world with criminal inclinations in their biological features and physical traits. Similarly, another school of thought refutes the very idea of born criminals, and is of the opinion that man’s interaction with society paves the way towards developing his personality in either positive or negative way. Hence, this school of thought led by Sutherland, supports the nurture theory that criminal environment urges the individuals commit crimes of different types in one way or the other (Hagan, 2010). The nurture school further elucidates that the individuals, learning committing crimes from society, establish their groups and organizations, under the banner of which they get indulged into organized crimes of various kinds, including blue collar and white collar crimes, drug trafficking, gang rapes, bomb explosions and homicide. Consequently, the criminals involved into drug trafficking, robbery and assaults on life, honor and properties confiscation, come under the definition of habitual and organized criminals (Sutherland, 2003). It is also applied to the male rape case under evaluation, where it becomes evident that the Dubai rapists committed their crime against French teenager boy in an organized way, where Alex’s Dubai born classmate was also an accomplice in the criminal offence committed on the poor Alex. To conclude, it becomes evident that the case under study can be examined in the light of nature, labeling, conflict and organized crime theories. A significant proportion of the males of Dubai have homosexual tendencies; since they are unable to exercise the same openly in their conservative society, they commit it secretly in order to conceal their identity before the world (Whitaker, 2011). Similarly, labeling and conflict theories are also applied in the light of unspoken state of conflict between the individuals belonging to divergent ethnic, racial and religious groups and communities of society. Furthermore, organized crime theory vehemently advocates the very notion that such offences are committed in a proposed, planned and organized manner, where the victim is unaware of the scheme devised by some ill-natured minds against him. Alex also became prey to the same situation, where his purported friend made arrangements of his rape under his obnoxious criminal plan. References Akers, Ronald L. and Sellers, Christine S (2004) Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Applications Fourth Edition Youngstown State University Roxbury Publishing Company Los Angeles, California Bakker, Erin van Zinderen (2004) Nature versus Nurture: A Criminological Perspective. Retrieved from http://web.viu.ca/crim/Student/Erin%20VZBakker.pdf Charron, Thomas J., Floren, Roger., Long, Jennifer Gentile., and LaBahn, David (2007) Victim Responses to Sexual Assault: Counterintuitive or Simple Adaptive American Prosecutors Research Institute New York http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/pub_victim_responses_sexual_assault.pdf Hagan, Frank E. (2007) Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior Sage Publications Khalife, Nadiya (2010) Dubai's shameful record on rape The Guardian Retrieved in http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/dubai-rape-women-middle-east Mendle, J., Harden, K. P., Turkheimer, E., Hulle, Carl A. Van., D’Onofrio, Brian M., Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne., Rodgers, Joseph L., Emery, Robert E., & Lahey, Benjamin B. Associations between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual Intercourse Child Development, September/October 2009, Volume 80, Number 5, Pages 1463–1480 Shedd, Carla & Hagan, John (2006) Toward a Developmental and Comparative Conflict Theory of Race, Ethnicity, and Perceptions of Criminal Injustice Retrieved from http://digitalreserves.law.stanford.edu/dauber/W08/Shedd_HaganAugust2006.pdf Smithey, Martha & Straus, Murray A. (2004) Primary Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence In Crime prevention -New approaches, 2004, edited by H. Kury and J. Obergfell-Fuchs. MainzIGermany: Weisser Ring Gemeinnutzige Verlags-GmbH. 239-276 Sutherland, E.H., & Cressey, D.R. (2003). A Theory of Differential Association In F.T. Cullen & R. Agnew (Eds.), Criminological Theory: Past to Present (2nd Ed.) (pp.23-25). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Company. Thesiger, Wilfred (1994) Arabian Sands Motivate Publishing, Dubai, (First Published by Longmans, Green and Company 1959). Vedder, Clyde B., Koenig, Samuel & Clark, Robert E. (1976) Criminology Holt, Rinehart & Winston New York Walt, Vivienne (2007) Outrage over Dubai Rape Case Time World November Edition Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1680682,00.html Whitaker, Brian (2011) Unspeakable Love University of California Press ABC News (2007) They Destroyed Me': French Teen's Rape Case Exposes Dubai's Dark Side December 12 Edition Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3932740&page=1#.UA-sEZHXgpt Live Leak 2007 Dubai and rape: French youth tells his story Retrieved from http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=775_1194490026 Read More