Law and order - Research Paper Example

Law and order White Collar Season 3 episode 5: Veiled threat White Collar is a US based show with two main characters being Neal Caffrey who is a conman and Peter Burke who is a special agent. It has five seasons. Caffrey is a forger and a con man that has been at his game for three years till he is caught. He is sentenced for four years after being caught by the FBI and he escapes and gets together with his girlfriend. Burke finds him again and puts him back to prison but Caffrey asks for Burke to have a meeting with him and gives him information about another conman case to occur.

They form a team of sorts and the arrangement is such that Caffrey will help Burke catch criminals and this will be his probationary period. Their partnership seems to be successful however it is unheard of in otherwise lawful terms. Caffrey proves himself in case after case to Burke which establishes that relationship of trust. This show generally seems to follow a process of due process in its criminal justice system as compared to the crime control model which allows for extreme punishment of any individual found guilty of crime.

Otherwise Caffrey wouldn’t have even made it as an ally of Burke let alone get an out of jail free card when he escaped before his term in jail was over, no matter how talented a con artist he was and would lead Burke to other criminals. This shows the justice system as fair be it from the agent to the police offer to the parole officer. It also proves that justice seems to have priority in court over the truth, because truth may be veiled between several parties and may not be clear, but justice gives each part a fair share in the court room and presenting time and then the court makes a decision.

Caffrey was punished for being a con artist, but this was just since he had stolen before, however once he redeemed himself, he was on better terms with special agent Burke. In the episode ‘Veiled Threat,’ Peter and Neal get personally involved in the case they are trying to crack and take on the roles of wealthy bachelors, when in fact Burke is not a bachelor and they try to catch a black widow. The black widow has a reputation of marrying wealthy old men and then getting rid of them to inherit their properties.

Thus according to the law she had to be put to jail with proof. Thus the law is absolute, there is not either or two ways about it, and either the black widow was punishable in Court or innocent until proven guilty. This would also be in accordance with the principle of distributive justice than procedural justice in which the law equally gives out punishments or fairness to those who deserve it; that is, those who are more involved would receive a more severe punishment, so should the black widow.

Burke asks for his wife’s permission to get married to the black widow who bids on him in the bachelor party so that they can catch her red handed in action, which Caffery eventually manages to do. The location and the accents added to the mystery and aura of the entire episode. There are several ways that are identified for catching criminals. One can use witness reports but they can be faulty. One way is to do customer profiling as well. Profiling believes that certain psychological traits lead to behavioral traits which will lead to clues or traces that criminal leaves behind in his crime much the same way as the black widow does.

For this purpose, even an apt profiler is needed who can decode the personality characteristics of the criminal and this need a special kind of training in order for this information to be relevant and useful. Such as this woman was a serial killer who had the motive of profit on her mind when murdering her husband; she inherited their property and that was her motive. This profiling first lead to some input which came from the background search of the individual; in this stage a few other suspects may or may not be in line, and the law holds them all innocent until guilty therefore they have to be treated fairly and as the innocent bystanders would be treated in the court.

After this a decision making model determines the important questions and patterns to be observed in the case in order to crack the code. Forensic psychologists have also become important in law studies especially in the case of criminal problems or juvenile issues in court because the link between psychology and law has become important over the years, therefore such clauses in law such as pleading a case of insanity. Before even those who were mentally ill were found to be guilty and convicted for their wrong doings.

However, the black widow was in the right frame of mind as forensic evidence proved and her only motive behind murder was profit; she was also to kill Burke when Caffrey intervened. If she had been insane, she wouldn’t be considered in control of her actions and her actions might even be pardoned, depending on the severity of the case. The law also allows certain things at time which the society may condemn; in some countries it may be illegal to bid on people. And in some states like Nevada, gambling and prostitution are also considered legal where as in other states they are not.

Even in Nevada, society may condemn the act of prostitution but if the law holds it to be legal, then the law takes precedence over society in this case. Since this woman was committing a violent act of murder, the fact that Caffery and Burke went undercover and deceived her took less prevalence over the act that was condemned by law i.e. murder of first degree. (Edie Greene) . Bibliography Edie Greene, Kirk Heilbrun. Psychology and the Legal System. Cengage Learning, 2010.