Criminology and Criminal Justice: Analysis of Political Misconduct

This assignment delves into the intersection of criminology and criminal justice by examining the backgrounds of U.S. congressional leaders and analyzing political scandals, including the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair and the Teapot Dome Scandal. It assesses the severity of these scandals and applies Susan Shapiro's characteristics of abuse of trust offenders to these case studies. Additionally, it reflects on personal experiences related to inappropriate circumstances in obtaining jobs or promotions and discusses the ethical implications of using government equipment for personal use. The assignment concludes with a list of references used to support the analysis and arguments presented.

Running head: CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Backgrounds U.S. congressional leaders and the occupation or firm were they employed
in prior to entering public service
The background of political Congressmen varies from person to person. Before entering into
Congress or the political leaders belonged were engaged in other occupation or they were
employed in firms (McLauchlan & Gay, 2015). Approximately two years, Chuck Schumer
had stood at the podium for the National Press Club and given a speech on the wake of
Democrats. In the year of 1990, Chuck Schumer was elected in the New York State
Assembly. He was a twenty three old lawyer who had graduated from Harvard Law School.
He made his position as a liberal Democrats in the chamber and remained the same
throughout the era of 1980 in the House of United States (Jackson II, R. & Richardson,
2014). However, during the phase of 1990s he had developed into an angry centrist. Chuck
Schumer had warned for an approaching crisis in politics that established a new phase of
acrimony into the body politics if the middle class declined (Brightman, 2014). During the
time of the political era, Schumer was known as a tough on crime Democrat for revising his
opposition to the death penalty and he helped to write the infamous 1994 crime bill that
fueled mass incarceration (Overholt, 2017). While running Senate in 1998, he had claimed
that his Republican opponent was not close to bring as tough on crime as Chuck Schumer.
According to him, they must convince Americans stating that Government can be on their
side and it will not be a tool of special interests. It is the duty of the Democrats to ensure and
make clear that will make the government the people’s champion but should not be captive to
the powerful (McLauchlan & Gay, 2015). Schumer had continuously interceded on behalf of
business interests specially those that have filled his campaign coffers. Chuck Schumer was
regarded among one of the twenty-seven Democrats who had voted against a 2010
amendment to break too big to fail banks. Schumer had proposed to provide multinational
profits overseas a tax break larger than one that Obama had suggested (LeMay, 2017).

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Schumer had fought attempts to regulate credit rating agencies that successfully halved the
fees that Wall Street had paid to the SEC. Schumer has never witnessed the affinity for the
financial industry (Blau, 2017). Chuck Schumer was not only a prolific fundraiser for his own
campaigns but he was in charge of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the
mid-aughts. Schumer had also spent time by pushing the Democrats further to the center. He
made the party avoid calling for tax increases and made them focus on tax enforcement.
An analysis of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair
In the controversy of Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair scandal, the problem that
occurred was that the President did not appear or react properly in a situation where a man
admitted of his extramarital sex with another woman who his half of his age. In 1998, the
news of this sexual scandal spread like a wildfire (Everbach, 2017). Clinton had to project a
strong image in front of everyone anyhow. However, he got success on that front. Since he
avoided to portray his weakness, he had failed to come across all punished. Clinton did not
apologize at all. He did not convey a clear and straightforward description of his relationship
with Lewinsky (Adams, 2016). According to him, Clinton claimed that he was only
inappropriate and wrong. Clinton’s strength related to every usual person and his speech to
the nation was treated as a missed break to giver fuller accounting while engaging for the
comprehension of the general people (Beggan & Allison, 2018). Even when he was annoyed
after four hours or years of interrogating intimate questions, he could have apologized for his
behavior. He had the chance of being thrown in a pinch of humility for good evaluation. The
President should receive an award for boldness. He had taken the position that many people
do not have faith in and fewer honor. It was one of the rarest moments when the President did
not bother to mince his words. Instead, he followed a riskier one. According to Clinton
Independent Counsel Ken Starr Congress and the media, they got their business out of his
family (LeMay, 2017). The President refused to take the advice of advisors that consisted of a

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measured attack on Starr (Anderson, 2016). It was not necessary for the public to hear all
this. Opinion polls had registered long time the fact that how poorly the public thought of the
independent counsel. Apparently, Starr still controls the probe of Lewinsky (Kundacina,
Cardozo & Schulte, 2016). Clinton must have felt something and had to feel from his
intuition. Due to his defensive tone, he kept a little space for other genuine emotion (White,
2018). That was the surprising part when the President’s details and expalnation to the people
ruined on a quick note before it even began. Probably Clinton did not owe an apology to the
public. In Clinton’s best interest to keep the public’s opinion on his side as the line in the
investigation of Lewinsky between the political and legal has been removed efficiently
(Green et al., 2017). Clinton tried to striking a balance between those nights and granting to
the public as a little way of misconduct as possible while working in such criticism of the
political attacks against him as listeners would be able to stomach. President could have done
with a lot less of the latter and a whole lot more of the former. The proof against President
Clinton for a misconduct of sexual affair was pretty powerful and strong. There have been
plenty of scandals that surrounded and ruined the presidency of Bill Clinton. This forced the
citizens of the United States to deny his plea of innocence (Kundacina, Cardozo & Schulte,
2016). Lewinsky was hired as a full time employee of White-House. She had left the white
house for the position of public affairs at the Pentagon. Lewinsky in this case of extramarital
affair had saved as a souvenir that had the President’s DNA on it. It was the first of several
turning points and it worked. It can be analyzed that Clinton was not brave enough to accept
his fault and apologize for his activities (Green et al., 2017). The Teapot Dome Scandal was
also known as the Oil reserves Scandal in the history of America. It was an incident of
bribery that took place during the 1920. President Warren G. Harding and Albert Bacon Fall
had leased the Navy Petroleum reserves at Tram Dome and two other places in California to
private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding (Silverman, 2015). Later the

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leases became the subject of investigation. Albert Bacon Fall was later convicted for
accepting the bribes from the oil companies and therefore became the first Cabinet member to
go to prison. However, Teapot Dome was regarded as the greatest scandal in the history of
American politics. The scandal ruined the goodwill of the public of the Harding
administration that was already dismissed by the controversial handling (Schneider et al.,
2016). The scandal of Bill Clinton’s ex, Monica did not create such a controversy in the
history of America. In the scandal of Monica Lewinsky, the House Republicans had lost their
seats in the elections and later it constituted that the impeachment proceeding was considered
as one of the major reasons since polls proved that the public did not favor impeachment.
Therefore, there was no probability or hope that the Senate would convict any charge. At the
end, Bill Clinton agreed to accept and admit in giving false testimony in the case of Jones
case.
Characteristics might apply to the individuals discussed in each of these case studies
Shapiro’s characteristics include economics and beyond, political science,
management and law. Shapiro being the sociologist knew the perspective from where these
characteristics can be applied. In a comparative analysis of agency theory, the characteristics
of political science, law and economics will be applied in these scandals. Sociology has much
offer by examining all the situations of these scenarios.
Inappropriate circumstances faced while obtaining a job
There are cases in the corporate field where a candidate or an individual can be turned
down for a job or a promotion. Both genuine and non-genuine reasons exist for such
circumstances and situations. There are individuals I know who have faced such situations,
where she was turned down promotion and another less deserving woman received it due to
other reasons. Other reasons being personal relationships. In the corporate world, as of now, I

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have not faced such a situation but there are less deserving men and women who gets
promoted for in their jobs because of their personal relationships. As per my opinion,
obtaining a job or a promotion based on personal relationships is highly inappropriate. This is
because other deserving employees get affected. It has a bad effect on them because they
genuinely deserve that post than the one who received it on an advantage of the personal
relationship. Individual often seek the benefit of special connection to get promoted or to get
a job in organizations. From my personal experience, I have never used a personal or special
relationship to obtain a job or promotion. According to beliefs, doing such activities just to
obtain promotion and to get a job is unethical. One must obtain it or achieve it genuinely and
with efforts. It is completely out of my ethics to commit such activities for a job. Although I
know individuals who have been turned down for a job and found out later that someone else
had received it because of the special connection. This is unjustified and unfair on the part of
the legitimate deserving candidates or individuals opting for the job. Such circumstances are
highly inappropriate and it should not continue in the corporate sectors as it treated as being
unfair to others present in the organization.
Usage of government equipment for personal use
There are certain circumstances where individuals use equipments of government for
personal use. Using government tools like surfing the internet is appropriate and usable.
Individuals can only use surfing the net by using the government websites but photocopying
homework assignments and burning CDs is not appropriate. Surfing the internet is
appropriate and necessary since it helps an individual to obtain information regarding any
topic. Usage of government sites are only allowed since there are plenty of illegal surfing
sites available for individuals. Out of the illegal sites, the government itself has blocked
many. Therefore, only using burning CDs and photocopying homework assignments are
considered as inappropriate.

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References:
Adams, E. M. (2016). Analyzing Media Coverage of a Presidential Scandal: Is Hillary
Clinton Held to Account for Her Husband’s Impropriety?. Colloquy, 12, 22-38.
Anderson, K. V. (2016). Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American
Politics by Shawn J. Parry-Giles. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 19(1), 122-125.
Beggan, J. K., & Allison, S. T. (2018). Leadership and Sexuality: Power, Principles, and
Processes.
Blau, B. M. (2017). Price dynamics and speculative trading in bitcoin. Research in
International Business and Finance, 41, 493-499.
Brightman, H. J. (2014). White‐collar Crimes. The Encyclopedia of Criminology and
Criminal Justice.
Everbach, T. (2017). Monica Lewinsky and Shame: 1998 Newspaper Framing of “That
Woman”. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 41(3), 268-287.
Green, B., Kloss, C., Seidlich, M., Kern, J., & Morrison, Q. (2017). CO2 Based Enhanced Oil
Recovery Scenario for the Tensleep Reservoir at Teapot Dome, Natrona County,
Wyoming USA.
Jackson II, R. L., & Richardson, E. B. (Eds.). (2014). Understanding African American
rhetoric: Classical origins to contemporary innovations. Routledge.
Kundacina, D., Cardozo, N., & Schulte, L. (2016, May). Fracture Modeling Guided by
Seismic Attributes, Teapot Dome, Wyoming. In 78th EAGE Conference and
Exhibition 2016.

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LeMay, M. C. (2017). The American Political Party System: A Reference Handbook. ABC-
CLIO.
McLauchlan, J. S., & Gay, T. (2015). When Congress Speaks, Does the Supreme Court
Listen: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Congressional Participation as Amicus Curiae
before the US Supreme Court during the Rehnquist Court. Tex. Rev. L. & Pol., 20, 79.
Overholt, W. H. (2017). The Great Betrayal: How America's elites are failing to confront the
challenges of trade politics. The International Economy, 31(1), 33.
Schneider, S., Eichkitz, C. G., Schreilechner, M. G., & Davis, J. C. (2016). Interpretation of
fractured zones using seismic attributes—Case study from Teapot Dome, Wyoming,
USA. Interpretation, 4(2), T273-T284.
Silverman, M. R. (2015). Tempest at Teapot Dome, Wyoming: The Greatest Political
Scandal in the History of the American Oil Industry.
White, M. (2018). Son of the Sixties: The Controversial Image of Bill
Clinton. History, 103(354), 100-123.