The Crime Summary

Brief Summary of The Crime:

Niagara Falls native Jelena Loncar was conversing with her friends while standing in the entertainment district of Toronto on August 16th, 2014. Out of nowhere she became a victim of an unexpected shooting. Police believe that Loncar was not the intended victim of such a devastating act of violence, but merely an innocent bystander who unfortunately was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A second man was fired upon, receiving multiple gun shot wounds. Fortunately he survived the vicious attack. Police believe this man was the intended target. Before this fatal shooting took place, police were called to another report of shots fired near a gentleman’s club located on Queensway. They soon discovered

However these actions that were committed by these individuals were selfish and reckless pointing towards an internal or individual attribution. Even though these individuals acted out together in unison, they knew exactly what they were doing and all made the personal choice to engage in the violent crime. Evidence of this statement is reiterated in the reading Casual Attributions of crime and the public’s sentencing goals: “Individuals who endorse an internal or dispositional attribution believe that crime is a state of mind (Unnever et al. 2010). From this perspective, criminals are said to perpetrate by choice rather than from [End Page 46] being pressured into criminal activities and therefore deserve punishment”(Laura J. Templeton & Timothy F. Hartnagel 2012). Even if the group was ordered by a high power to commit these crimes, they still planned and carried out these actions instead of walking away. One can only portray these individuals as selfish monsters with no regard for human life based on the facts provided. A Punitive approach towards these criminals actions seems fitting considering they put more than just their intended target at harm, and made a conscious decision to do so. Luckily no one else was hurt, but in reality these situations usually result in more casualties and innocent

One specific tool used throughout the article to create awareness on the subjects is interviews with voice of authority. Detective Debbie Harris released a description of the cars in which the felons showed up and left in after committing the act. The cars were described as “base model Chrysler 300 with no front license plate and a small black antenna. A dark colored four-door vehicle with a small spoiler on the trunk. And a dark colored four door with all its windows tinted” (CHCH 2014). This article relates to multiple reading provided, one of them being How not to think about crime. Specifically on the fourth page when author Aaron Doyle explains that the media uses a large amount of its information provided from the police, in order to create the story for the general public to view. He believes that the media and police share a relationship in which can be very complex due to the excessive amount of information the law can obtain surrounding the crime. This can be directly related to the news article due to the fact that all the reporters have to go off of is the information provided by the police in this specific case, and information from family members regarding Jelena. Another reading that can be related to the news