Short Essay Questions

This examination represents the culmination of student coursework, as such, responses must exemplify master’s level thought and communication skills. The response to each question must meet the following requirements: Each response must be between 400 700 words (not including the references). Each response must include a minimum of three scholarly citations. Only primary sources may be used. Textbooks typically are not primary sources, though they may be (i.e. Hare). Professors may not be cited or referenced as sources. Include a reference list at the end of each response. The reference list does not count towards the word count. Significant errors in the reference list will result in a 0 for the response. Students will base their responses on the case provided below. Students may obtain additional case information through scholarly and non-scholarly sources. These sources must be cited in the reference list. Students are not required to cite or reference the case study provided in the examination prompt. CASE STUDY: 108.02: In late March 1978, Willie Bosket brutally murdered two men and assaulted multiple others during attempted robberies in New York City. Bosket, fifteen years old at this time, had a long rap sheet and had been in and out of detention centers since he was nine years old. He was a troubled youth with a family history of violence and crime. On March 19, 1978, Willie encountered Noel Perez on a subway train. Willie planned to rob Perez of his gold watch while he was sleeping until he noticed Perezs sunglasses, which reminded him of those worn by a counselor at juvenile hall whom he particularly despised. Willie became enraged and shot Perez in the right eye. When Perez woke up and started screaming, Willie feared that he would not die, so he shot him again through the right temple. He searched Perez and stole twenty dollars and a ring, along with the originally intended watch. For Willie, the fatal encounter was his destiny. He now knew what it was like to take a life and it was empowering. He had gotten away with murder and felt that it was no big thing to kill a man. Now he was badas bad as he had told everyone he would be one day. This earned him street credibility. On March 23, Willie and his cousin Herman Spates spotted Anthony Lamorte finishing up his shift in the train yard. Lamorte had a CB radio that Willie suspected would sell on the street. When the pair approached Lamorte, he told the boys to get out of the train yard since they had no business there. Willie ignored the warning and shot Lamorte in the shoulder; the wounds proved nonfatal. Over the next three nights, the boys committed three more violent robberies. After shooting one man, Matthew Connolly, Willie was grabbed and searched by a Transit Authority police officer who missed the gun in his pocket. Getting away with the crime made Willie felt even more invincible, as if he was smarter than the law. On March 27, Willie and Herman came across Moises Perez on the train. They approached him for money, but when Perez said that he had no money, Willie shot and killed him. They stole Perezs wallet, took the two dollars it contained, and discarded it in a nearby trash can. Willie was proud of getting away with this murder, bragging about the newspaper clippings to his little sister. Willie Bosket and Herman Spates were linked to Moises Perezs murder when latent fingerprints were lifted off Perezs wallet. Law enforcement officers ran the prints through the computers and found matches (both young men had been fingerprinted during previous periods of incarceration in juvenile hall). When interviewed, Spates initially insisted that he was at the movies asleep during the time of the murder. The questioning officer told him that Willie had already implicated him in the crime; consequently, Herman insisted that Willie had shot Perez. He also told them about the murder of Noel Perez (no relation) and gave the whereabouts of the gun. Officers obtained a search warrant for Boskets house and found the gun. Ballistics tests linked the gun to the Moises Perez murder. Willie Bosket descends from a long line of violent men. His grandfather, James, was reputed to be a violent man who was respected through fear. James and other members of his family frequently beat butch, Willies father. After Butch was convicted of a series of petty crimes, the courts decided that they could not handle him and sent him to the Wiltwych School for Boys. His initial diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia was later changed to conduct disorder. One report said that he was on his way to becoming a psychopath. As an adult, Butch was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Just before Willies birth, Butch was sent to jail for stabbing and killing two men in a pawnshop. He was sentenced to life in prison. Willie was born into a single-parent household with few adequate role models; his mother brought in a rotating cast of boyfriends, one of whom sold Willie the gun he used to murder two men for sixty-five dollars. He held his father to hero status and aspired to be as bad as he was. When evaluated at the age of eleven, Willie already displayed many behaviors that are antecedent to violent crime. He was an angry, hostile, homicidal boy whom no one could reach. He showed grandiosity, narcissism, poor impulse control, infantile omnipotence, and a history of suicide attempts and daily threats against others. He was diagnosed with antisocial behavior, one step below the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder that his father was given. One counselor even predicted that he would commit murder sometime in the future. Other predictors of his potentially violent behavior include family history of violence and abuse, including sexual abuse by his grandfather at the age of nine, histories of childhood violence and torture of animals, and an intense interest in and adoration of violent persons. – You do not need to cite sources for the following questions (unless you include case information not included in the vignette): #5 – the question related to diagnosis # 7 – the question pertaining to development of a profile 5. Formulate a clinical diagnosis for Mr. Bosket based on DSM-5-TR criteria and provide a detailed rationale supported by evidence. This is not to be written as a differential diagnosis. 6. Discuss how the diagnosis or diagnoses in the previous response relate to criminal responsibility in the Bosket case. 7. Apply profiling theory to the Bosket case. Students will address three to five of the below in their profile. Crime classification (ex. Murder, Stalking, Spree killing, mass murder, rape, fraud) Offender profile/characteristics/style Psychosocial history Modus operandi Intent Hypotheses concerning the crimes Crime scene indicators Victimology Common ground between victims Why these victims were selected. 8. Identify and discuss two landmark cases that are relevant to the Willie Bosket case. 9. Analyze the genetic predispositions and environmental influences that may have contributed to Boskets criminal behavior, referencing current research. 10. Choose any content from the program curriculum not addressed in the above responses and apply it to the Bosket case.