Court increases sentence for attack on elderly woman

Jake Sokoloff
Court increases sentence for attack on elderly woman
March 19th, 2008
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420732262&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Summary:
This article actually deals with a very controversial subject of punishment of crime. All over the world this subject is disputed and debated over. In this article three men beat an elderly woman of sixty-nine years old. The punishment of one of the three men was just increased in severity recently. He will spend thirteen years in prison for his crime. The woman was tortured with burning cigarettes, bleach, and cold water all over her body. They were after money they thought she had in her home apartment. She was threatened to be killed if she did not reveal where her money was located. She was tormented for about three hours and spent about a month in the hospital. This attack happened over a year ago but it still affects the woman. The court recognized these acts as “inhumanely” and cruel and needed to be responded to with fair punishment and consequences. The elderly have been most recently targeted as victims of attack because they can not respond and fight back as easily as younger people. The head of the court justices says that the punishments need to not just be said but should be enforced and should reflect the severity of the crime done.

III.
1. I think that this article best relates to the theme, systems of social structure and gender structure. This article deals with the very controversial issue of crime and punishment in our world at this time. As social structure and social classes have changed and formed over the years, different crimes have come about leading to new forms of punishments. People all over the world disagree on the appropriate level of punishment for certain crimes. Ultimately the courts and law making government branches have the final say in this issue.
2. The history of this issue goes back until “the beginning of time”. Punishments for different crimes have morphed over the centuries. In the past tar and feathering someone for a crime they did was appropriate. Of course now that it not very socially accepted. As society changed through history the socially appropriate punishments have changed. Burning cigarettes and pouring bleach and water over an elderly woman, I personally think, is not socially accepted therefore an appropriate severe punishment needs to be made.
3. This article is written by Dan Izenberg. He is writing for the Jerusalem Post so I would imagine that he lives in Israel and might practice Judaism. This man is definitely an outsider in this case because he is not directly involved in this specific issue. He probably wasn’t present at the time of this crime taking place, so he clearly might not have all of his facts correct.
4. There is definitely some evidence of bias in this writer’s point of view. He is an outsider so he doesn’t have direct evidence and he is not a primary source. He is also a news reporter so he might be writing to try and make his work seem exciting. One of the main objectives of a newspaper is to sell copies and he might be exaggerating to make his writing more exciting and interesting to read.
5. I think that the point of view of the attackers is missing. I would like to hear from someone on their side of the case to gain a better understanding of the issue. This would help me to get their side of the story and get the facts strait. I would like to hear from them what exactly they did to this elderly woman and the specific reasons they had for doing this.
6. I personally think this article discusses a horrible issue that is talked about all over the world constantly. I definitely agree with the court. They need to increase the severity of their punishments, specifically in this case but more over all as well. Punishments need to be more severe so that people won’t break the law and perform crimes. This will scare these criminals. I think it would be interesting to see how much of a drop crime had in certain areas after punishments were increased generally.