Thought-Provoking Exercise

Stop for a moment and think about a crime occurring right now. It can be any type of crime and the characteristics associated with that crime are totally up to you. Quickly now ... without spending a lot of time thinking about this, jot down your "off the top of the head" response to the following questions:

• What type of crime was occurring as you went through this exercise?
• What was the race, age, and gender of the offender?
• What was the race, age, and gender of the victim?
• What type of crime was occurring?(e.g. property crime, violent crime, etc.)

Now, thinking about the offender only, what do you think might have led that person to commit that crime? You can provide more than one possibility.

Finally, jot down what you think should be done to that offender when it comes to an appropriate punishment.

Post your thoughts to the Lesson 1 Crime and Punishment discussion forum in Week 01 folder.