Capital Punishment Regarding The U.S Constitution A Level History Essay Help

Creative Accounting Sample Essay women’s rights history essay help: women’s rights history essay help

Creative Accounting

Financial statements are the primary documents that are used by internal and external stakeholders to gain an in-depth understanding of the general financial performance of a company. The financial data extracted from these documents constitute crucial information that influences the decisions of these stakeholders concerning company management and performances. Therefore, the accuracy and reliability of these documents is a crucial factor to considers in order to make appropriate business decisions.  This fact became a point of focus and importance following the collapse of well-established companies like HealthSouth, Enron, and WorldCom in 2001. Its significance is further intensified following the recent financial crises that have resulted in the collapse of many financial institutions around the globe.

To generate transparent, reliable, and timely financial statements, accountants should follow the guiding principles and standards as stipulated in the GAAP and IAS. Despite the existence of strong accounting standards (GAAP and IAS), it sometimes becomes impossible for accountants to create genuine financial statements without manipulating particular aspects of the business. These manipulative behaviors are primarily executed by the accounts who want to influence the decisions of users of these financial statements in favor of their corporations. The complex and unpredictable nature of the continuously changing business landscape makes it impossible to seal all the potential financial loopholes in advance when setting accounting and financial standards. However, Jones (2010) argues that even if the current accounting standards and regulations cannot prevent the financial scheming conducts in advance, they can curb it afterward. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate Companies’ use of Creative Accounting in Financial Reporting and examine its effects.

History and definition of creative accounting

Even though the practice of creative accounting has received many publications over the last few decades, there has always been an aspiration to manipulate business figures to create a favorable impression among business leaders. According to BALACIU and Alina (2010), the desire to make business figures more alluring to the public, stakeholders, and investors dated back more than 500 years ago. Luca Paciolo was an Italian mathematician, and early contributors to the field of accounting had developed the tradition of creative accounting in his book De Arithmetica (Balaciu & Alina, 2010) notes that. His records demonstrated that the Venetian trade men during that era had a practice of recording transactions between themselves by double-entry bookkeeping with inked quill-pens in primary and supplementary books. In case of any noticeable inconsistencies in these records, the ink column was periodically brushed over in the books to make the records more illegible. Citing from this example, it is evident that the manipulative behavior of figures in the business landscape is not a new phenomenon and date back five centuries ago.

Fast forward, the concept of account manipulation was brought into the light following the early researches of Copeland (1968). In his research, he defined the act as the ability of bookkeepers to skillfully manipulate their net profiting by either decreasing or increasing net profits or sales of their companies at will. However, Mulford and Comiskey (2005) demonstrated that account manipulation is a broad concept that also includes alterations in balance sheet transactions. Subsequently, the concept of account manipulation was coined into a business term “creative accounting” by a financial and economic journalist in the United King known as Griffiths. Numerous terms have since been coined to define the concept of account manipulation, including earning management in the US, innovative accounting, cosmetic accounting, financial engineering, income smoothing, or window dressing (Amat & Gowthorpe, 2004).

Similarly, several definitions have been coined over the years to describe the concept of creative accounting comprehensively. According to Griffith, creative accounting is the ability of business management teams to manipulate the accounting figures to achieve the desired outcome in their financial statement.  In scholastic sagacity, Pijper (2016) defines creative accounting as the ability of accountants to creatively manipulate figures reported in the accounting books without a break the set accounting standards (GAAP and IAS). Jones (2010) explained it creative exploitation of ambiguities or gaps in accounting rules by accountants in order to depict their preferred picture of financial performance.

Motivations for Creative Accounting

There are several motivations behind the application of creative accounting practices in the commerce landscape. One of the primary incentives for using these techniques is the projected increase in stock prices. Every corporation goes into business intending to increase its value. According to Carmen and Moroi (2019), the ability of a corporation to produce a sustainable and possibly growing stream of earning creates an illusion that the company is performing exceptionally and is likely to have a positive impact on the stock prices. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that profitable business attracts investors who willingly pay a higher value for stocks because of the corporate earning power and increasing cash flow. The cash flow must either be provided currently or expected to increase soon. Therefore, by applying creative accounting techniques, companies may effortlessly communicate to potential investors that their firms are on a growth trajectory of having higher profit margins, thus attracting higher stock prices (Carmen & Moroi, 2019).

Another motivation behind the use of creative accounting in companies is to attract higher credits and lower interest rates. Creative accounting helps in improving specific key performance ratios used by creditors to determine the viability of businesses to obtain credit. Cernusca et al. (2016) argue that inflating company assets and understating company liabilities on the balance sheet is one way of improving the crucial performance ratios analyzed by creditors.  Also, to attract proper credits, companies can use creative accounting to conceal their unstable profits that portray as being susceptible to hostile takeover or stock fluctuations (Pijper, 2016). Creditors perceive companies with unstable net returns as less well managed and generally riskier in comparison to companies with stable returns. Furthermore, in certain instances, companies use creative accounting not to appear to be exceptionally profitable but to manage earnings down. However, the usefulness of this account manipulation will pivot on the acknowledgment or recognition of the reduced profit level as being valid by the key players (Pijper, 2016). For instance, during the Gulf War, oil companies applied income decreasing policies to evade the political consequences of a higher profit stemming from increased retail prices.

Techniques of Creative Accounting

There are several methods of creative accounting that companies have used to lure investors and creditors into investing in their businesses. Below are some of the significant creative accounting techniques:

Income Smoothing

According to Copeland (1968), income soothing is the ability of expert accountants to even out a company’s variations in net returns from one period to the next. This form of creative accounting is practiced by most companies in recognition of investors’ willingness to pay more for stocks from companies with steady and predictable cash flow as opposed to stocks from corporations with unsteady and unpredictable income. Investors’ term the volatile cash flow patterns of the later company as a higher risk investment and tend not to invest. Kliestikova, Kovacova, and Kliestik (2018) argue that the practice of income smoothing is not illegal as long as the preparers’ follows generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Bhasin (2016) note that expert accountants can use their accounting expertise to manipulate figures reported in accounting books without breaking accounting standards (GAAP and IAS) to ensure the legality of income smoothing.

One of the primary examples of income smoothing techniques is deferring revenue during a successful fiscal year in case the next business year is expected to be unfruitful. Also, the company can delay recognizing its sales during a challenging financial year in anticipation of a better return in the future (Bhasin, 2016). Additionally, a company may engage in deferring the recording of present time operating costs like payment of suppliers and rental fee, to subsequent period to make the current period earning look better.  It is, therefore, sensible why companies engage in some level of creative accounting techniques. However, implementing the income smoothing process requires a consideration of what the Internal Revenue Service IRS permits and total deception.

Overvaluing Assets

During the construction of a balance sheet, accountants put much focus on assets valuation. Like liabilities, assets can be categorized as either current or long-term. Some of the everyday items found in the asset category include intellectual intangibles, inventories, account receivable, and cash and equivalents.

Manipulating inventory

According to Ali, Butt, and Bin (2011), inventory represents an organization’s manufactured goods that are yet to be sold to the final consumers. The value of inventory is usually priced at a wholesale price but sold to the consumers with a markup. If the inventory is sold, its wholesale value is recognized as the cost of goods sold, and the total value is recorded as revenue in the income statement (Ali, Butt & Bin, 2011). Therefore, increasing any inventory value subsequently leads to an understatement of cost of goods sold, and consequently attracts higher cash flow, assuming the sales volume remain constant. With an illusion of higher net income, companies can easily attract investors and creditors.

A typical example of this practice was carried out by Laribee Wire Manufacturing Co. The company under financial difficulties in the late 1980s decided to record an imaginary inventory and carried other inventory at bloated values to create a favorable impression among six different banks. Laribee Wire Manufacturing Co. reported having received more than $3 million in profit, while in the real sense, it had made a massive loss of $6.5 million (Ali, Butt & Bin, 2011). Wire Manufacturing Co. got away with this tactic and managed to receive a loan of $130 million by using its inventory as collateral.

Provision for Doubtful Accounts

Account receivables are considered as current assets in the balance sheet. Therefore, corporations that employ accrual accounting can record the anticipated revenue in their account receivables immediately sales are made. Thus, during the process of recording anticipated sales on account receivable, accountants often have the opportunity to manipulate figures in the balance sheet. That is, when they want to create a favorable impression to investors, they can increase the company profits by acknowledging that there will be a deficient level of non-payment for goods and services already sold.

Undervaluing Liabilities

Another crucial technique that accountants use to practice creative accounting in the business landscape is to undervalue corporation liabilities on the balance sheet. Understating any form of company expenses is crucial in boosting the bottom line profit. The following are some of the techniques used in this category:

Masking Contingent Liabilities

According to Balaciu and Alina (2010), contingent liabilities are liabilities that a corporation can accrue and are contingent upon the outcome of an unpredictable future event. These liabilities are reported at the footnote on the financial statements if the contingency is possibly to occur, and the sum of liability can sensibly be estimated. Kliestikova, Kovacova and Kliestik (2018 ) note that a company contingent liability can be an anticipating law suit from a competing firm for violation patent right, pension obligation, or warranty obligation. Accountants can innovatively account for these liabilities either downplaying their materiality or underestimating them.  Underestimating contingent liabilities subsequently increases the company’s net income and shareholder’s equity. Bhasin (2016) notes that underestimation or downplaying contingent liabilities by corporation accountants is a violation of the GAAP and IFRS standards and regulation that requires firms to accurately record their contingent liabilities with full disclosure, prudence, and materiality.

Other Creative Accounting Techniques

“Big Bath” Accounting

According to Cernusca et al. (2016) big bath is an accounting practice where a company’s management team knowingly manipulate its income statements to make its poor net returns look much more worst than it really is, so that future  net returns look better. This practice is often implemented in a bad financial year that is characterized by significantly reduced sales and increased liability, and performance artificially inflated in the following year. There are several techniques that company CEO can use to carry out bid bath: delaying the realization of revenue, taking write-offs, or prepaying expenses (Cernusca et al., 2016).

Using Cookie Jar Reserves

According to Pijper (2016) cooking jar reserves are saving from companies previous quarters that are used by companies to inflate or maintain net income in the subsequent quarters. Like smoothing income, the intent of using cookie jar reserves in reporting net profit is to create an impression among investor that the company is on a steady growth trajectory thus attracting higher stock prices. Using cookie jar reserve to normalize financial statements is considered unethical and illegal because it potentially mislead investors into believing that the company is doing great while it is recording loses in almost every quarter. As Mulford and Comiskey (2005) states this technique includes making unrealistic estimation of the more common liabilities like warranty cost, loan losses, or sales returns. The recorded accruals are then stashed in cookie jars during good times and retrieved during tough economic times.

Abuse of Materiality Concept

According to Mulford and Comiskey (2005) material concept is accounting principle that allows trivial matters to be disregarded from financial statement while all material items to be disclosed. Therefore, abuse of materiality concept involves an intentional documentation of errors in revenues, expenses, equity, within the defined percentage limit. Companies engaging in this practice often defend their actions by arguing that the effect on net on the net income is too insignificant to influence investors’ decisions (Amat & Gowthorpe, 2004).

Getting Creative with the Income Statement

It consist of the practice of recording a dissimilar level of earning power by using the layout of the income statement instead of using the normal format in which transactions are recorded. For instance, corporations may label a recurring expenditure as nonrecurring or record nonrecurring revenue as a recurring revenue “other revenue” (Amat & Gowthorpe (2004).

Problems with Cash-flow Reporting

Cash-flow reporting presents company executives with other loopholes to use in communicating higher earning power to indicate a sustainable and consistent cash flow. A corporation’s ability to earn more profits from sales of its products and services is much greater when it has steady cash flow. Therefore, a company can classify financing inflow as operating item, or operating expenditure as a financing or investing item.  Jones (2010) argues that even though the following process may not potentially alter the total change in cash, it still increases cash flow from operations.

Other Important Issue to Address

If creative accounting is believed to be stemming from the presence of loopholes in the accounting standards (GAAP and IAS) maybe one of the principle roles belongs the setters in decreasing the possible negative effect of account manipulation. Milesi-Ferretti (2004) notes that the primary strengths of the currently practiced accounting standards (GAAP and IAS) is their ability to clear define and explain relevant accounting items which can help in preventing the  abuse of accounting principles that are fundamental to creative accounting. Milesi-Ferretti (2004) further acknowledges that the IAS are constantly being reviewed to keep up with the emerging trends of creative accounting and views creative accounting as the primary drivers to the formation and expansion of IAS.

Even though this point of view is correct, it would be more important for standard setters’ to intensify the careful definition and clear clarification qualities of the standard. It is impractical to completely seal all the loopholes being exploited by accounts to practice creative accounting. However, it would be practical to reduce at least the negative impact of creative accounting by strictly implementing the accounting standards, decreasing managers’ flexibility in deciding among different accounting methods, and giving more importance to ethical considerations of accounting practice.

Recommendations

The concept of creative accounting has attracted mixed reaction from practitioners and academicians. Some scholars and practitioners’ view creative accounting as an unethical and unlawful act while another equal proportion argue that the practice is ethical and legal because it only exploits the flexibility of accountings standards. Whichever way we decided to view this practice, it is important to acknowledge that it plays a pivotal role in massive accounting scandals that have recently hit the global business landscape. Furthermore, the practice of engaging in creative accounting stems from different factors other than accounting standard loopholes and motivation of firms to appeal to outside investors.

Milesi-Ferretti (2004) asserts that the practice of creative accounting results from the insufficiency in the legal framework for banking and accounting, difficulties in enforcing the legal and ethical rules due to slow functioning of the judicial systems, and inadequacies in the independence of governmental regulation and supervision bodies. The following are some of recommendations that should be implemented to curb the growing incidences of creative accounting.

GAAP standards should be subjected to IAS and SAS standards to ensure the provision of comprehensive and effective rules and regulations of accounting practice within the business landscape to foretell the practice of creative accounting within organizations.
Operators of accounts and those performing accounting duties should strictly embrace and adhere to global financial reporting standards like the international financial reporting standards (IFRS).
There should be greater emphasis on enforcement of code of corporate governance and ethics. Regulatory bodies should effectively enforce changes in accounting regulations and ethical standard government code to prevent corporations from using deceptive reporting practices of creative accounting.
External auditors should honestly carry their duty in identifying and reporting dishonest entries in the financial statements.
Regulatory bodies should come up with rules and regulations that minimize the use of judgement prediction and estimations in the treatment of specific entries like extra ordinary item in financial reporting.

Conclusion

Creative according have recently hit the air waves following numerous accounting scandals around the globe. This paper comprehensively explored some of the critical creative accounting techniques, including Income Smoothing, Manipulating inventory, “Big Bath” Accounting, and Abuse of Materiality Concept. Generally, creative accounting has created formidable challenges in the accounting practice especially when carried to extreme negativity. Extreme creative accounting practices have often cast aspersion on the credibility of accounting standards and principles. As a result, there has been a rise in the need for close scrutiny of the potential abuses of accounting standards among corporations. Therefore, the effect of creative accounting on stakeholders as a whole should not be ignored and given much consideration than it is currently getting.

References

Ali Shah, S. Z., Butt, S. A., & Bin Tariq, D. (2011). Use or abuse of creative accounting techniques. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 2(6).

Amat, O., & Gowthorpe, C. (2004). Creative accounting: nature, incidence and ethical issues.

BALACIU Diana, Alina Beattrice Vladu (2010), “Creative Accounting – Players And Their Gains and Loses”, Annals of Faculty of Economics, Vol.: 1, issue: 2, pp. 813-819

Bhasin, M. L. (2016). Survey of Creative Accounting Practices: An Empirical Study. Wulfenia Journal KLAGENFURT, 23(1), 143-162.

Carmen, V. Ã., & Moroi, C. (2019). The Determining Factors of Creative Accounting. Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, 19(2), 927-933.

Cernusca, L., David, D., Nicolaescu, C., & Gomoi, B. C. (2016). Empirical study on the creative accounting phenomenon. Studia Universitatis “Vasile Goldis” Arad–Economics Series, 26(2), 63-87.

COPELAND, Ronald M. (1968), “Income Smoothing”, Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 6, pp. 101-116

Jones, M. J. (2010). Creative accounting, fraud and international accounting scandals. John Wiley & Sons.

Kliestikova, J., Kovacova, M., & Kliestik, T. (2018, April). Hiding the bankruptcy through creative accounting. In Proceedings of International Academic Conferences (No. 7508682). International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.

Milesi-Ferretti, G. M. (2004). Good, bad or ugly? On the effects of fiscal rules with creative accounting. Journal of Public Economics, 88(1-2), 377-394.

Mulford, C. W., & Comiskey, E. E. (2005). The financial numbers game: detecting creative accounting practices. John Wiley & Sons.

Pijper, T. (2016). Creative accounting: The effectiveness of financial reporting in the UK. Springer.

Get professionalPLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!

History of Criminal Law in the US. university history essay help

History of Criminal Law in the US.

Criminal laws were created around 2100-2050 BC. The Sumerian people from the land of Iraq were identified to be the first people who adopted the laws. The rules created a gap between civil and criminal wrongdoings (Norrie, A. 2014). The most significant force behind the creation of American Law was the prevailing laws. The judges implemented the universal codes by action ruling the specific actions that were pointed to defined offences and punishment such as murder as crimes opposite to the state.

The best suited and preferable Law was criminal Law because it conveys a fair and justified penalty. Criminal Law provides suspected criminals with an opportunity to prove not guilty in the criminal courts (Cassese, A. 2013). On the other hand, it places the defenders under a responsibility to provide enough show in accounts to the offences claimed. This aspect happens because of the anticipation of conviction. The Law protects the civic liberties, and resolve the crimes while in the protection of the properties for both parties.

At times, the protection of individuals and at the same tie promoting public safety may be difficult. This aspect is evident in situations involving a collection of digital data, cases related to death penalties, and crimes involving controlling guns (Robinson, P. H. 2008).  Criminal laws support privileges for individuals, but other times limit them purposely to promote safety to the public. The improvement of the current criminal Law can be made by eliminating the penalties related to death and introduce those that provide overly harsh sentences.

Elements of crime

Crimes and offences can be split down into elements that need evidence during prosecution more than reasonable doubt. The features of crimes are in sets of criminal statutes, or misdemeanours in the jurisdiction that promote the Law of ordinary crimes. Exceptionally, every sin holds a minimum of three elements, actus rues, criminal intent, also known as men’s rea; and finally, the concurrence of the two. The reflection of the criminal act and the purpose of the element use the term conduct. Just as asserted in the model of Penal Code, that manner implies an action or the omission and the state of mind accompaniment.  Actus reus means to the parts of a crime that are physical, similarly to the guilty act. The elements can be defined into three types, namely: Conduct, consequences and circumstances. Also, the term represents to do an act. An occurrence of unlawful omission of actions, it is referred to be an element of the crime.

Concurrence

Another fundamental component of crime is the concurrence, and this implies that both the men’s rea and actus rues should co-occur, and the action should be considered as an offence. This situation is called a concurrence. Briefly, a voluntary or overt act should be present. Besides, a failure should take particular actions as expected, the ordinary statue of Law. Even if the possibility is physical, that is the only time that an effort is a crime. But in some instances, also if the actus reus and menus reus do not occur simultaneously and even when there is no intention to commit an offence, an act can be considered as a crime

Legality

The obligation, as imposed by the Law, is the legality. Every individual is expected to follow the implemented laws by the court of Law. Incase individuals lack to develop his or her obligations, and he is commenting on an offence. Therefore, it is the irresponsibility of the court to consider the occurrence clause, and the intent clause is also attained before the defendant is convicted.

Causation

The causal relationship between the conduct of a defendant and the end of the results is causation. Mostly, cases appear to an injury. The word describes the causative agent of harm and misery to the society or any other individual. This action is done by considering the legality that should be taken.

Harm

Harm is the legal parlance because it follows: the elimination or acts that cause injury of another individual. The lesions may be informed of physicality, the dignity damage or the reputation of another person, breaching of an agreement or taking a specific action that leads in the elimination of the legal rights for another individual. However, the harm caused by a person is another an essential element of the crime as well.

Punishment

This element promotes awareness of the penalties offered by the court for those who are convicted of crimes. The sanctions forbid the awarding of punishment to the convicted individuals because of the hefty penalties. Sentence qualifies to be a constituent of crime. The judges in the courts take into consideration the factors and satisfy themselves on the occurrence of the crime and the results before the punishment awards to the convicts.

Criminal law classification

Misdemeanours

In most states, the criminal offences that carry up to a year are referred to as Misdemeanors. However, some states have made maximum imprisonment for more or all misdemeanours three hundred and sixty-four days. The design of the change to eliminate the effects that would have been triggered by the defendant of this offence received. In most cases, this change can also include probation, fine payment, restitution and services of the community. The defendants who are charged with misdemeanours entitle to the trial in the jury. The individuals accused of misdemeanours are often allowed to representation that is legal at the expense of the government. However, other states divide the misdemeanour crimes as gross. The severity of the punishment determined by the classification. For instance, Dave had a simple assault which he was convicted. The maximum file of offence is thousand dollars and six months of jail time. This situation is a misdemeanour.

Felonies

The most dangerous criminal offence is felonies. They involve physical harm that is serious to victims.  The crimes that are thus misdemeanour can be raised to felonies for the repeated time offenders. A conviction of a felony may rarely affect in the time behind the Law. This element holds many potential punishments that range from life and time imprisonment. In the same case, felonies can also subdivide by degree or class. For example, Randy attained a conviction of assault felony with a deadly weapon. Although he missed the injury to the intended person, hid, the intention was directed to harm and risk.

Infractions

Violations are similar to the infractions. They are crimes that are punishable by fines but not jail time. Defends charged with crimes attains a right to have no right to a jury trial because infractions do not result in a jail sentence or even probation. The criminals can hire an attorney, but the constitutional duty is unavailable to point one. Often, in the case involving the infractions, prosecutors rarely appear on the government’s behalf. Some states consider specific kinds of infringements, such as a ticket to be civil instead of criminal crimes. An example: Ginger, attains a ticket for speeding. After the testify of the police and the driver, the punishment alongside the speeding is limited to a fine and the crediting of point to her driving data record.

malum in se and mala prohibita-strict liability

Malum in se, is a natural wrong in itself, a case or act that employs the illegality form the transaction naturality, the natural principles, public Law and moral. When an act is fundamentally evil and inherent, the bill is said to be malum. Melum in se affects the nature of crimes without any credential to the defendants. Mala prohibita is the actions that are wrong and are prohibited in the states. An effort that is not immoral inherently appears in that situation because the expression is forbidden by good Law; an act that relates to the prohibited affecting form positive Law. The distinction of criminal Law carries out malum in se, and malum prohibitum is old with five centuries in an ordinary law jurisdiction. Still, the usefulness appears to be a matter of discussion.

References

Norrie, A. (2014). Crime, reason and history: A critical introduction to Criminal Law. Cambridge University Press.

Cassese, A. (2013). Cassese’s international criminal law. Oxford university press.

Robinson, P. H. (2008). Distributive Principles of Criminal Law: Who should be punished, how much? Oxford University Press.

Get professional assignment help cheaply

Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?

Whichever your reason may is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.

Our essay writers are graduates with diplomas, bachelor, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college diploma. When assigning your order, we match the paper subject with the area of specialization of the writer.

Why choose our academic writing service?

Plagiarism free papers
Timely delivery
Any deadline
Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
Subject-relevant academic writer
Adherence to paper instructions
Ability to tackle bulk assignments
Reasonable prices
24/7 Customer Support
Get superb grades consistently

Criminal Justice Sample Essay do my history assignment: do my history assignment

Criminal Justice

The early history of the police force was characterized by a simple system, meant to guide citizens in maintaining law and order merely. Mainly, policing before the 17th century was significantly the individual citizens’ role rather than an informal law enforcement structure. For many centuries, the police force was based on a loosely controlled system, which focused on morals and societal structures to govern it (Rawlings 31-51). The dawn of the 1800s saw the need for a more structured system due to a wide array of reasons. The most significant reasons were the sudden population increase, which was accompanied by a hike in the rates of crime. This necessitated a new system to be formulated quickly to combat the rapidly increasing rates of insecurity. A particular increase in civil unrest, fatal rioting, and demonstrations became the order of the day.  It was soon quite clear that there was the need for the formulation of a reliable and respectable law enforcement structure that would be a representation of governmental enforcement of law and order.

Modern policing was propagated by sociologists and philosophers who were in the new fields of justice and criminology at the time. In 1829, Robert Peel, a parliamentarian, formed the Metropolitan police force in London (Rawlings 1). This was the first significant move towards achieving contemporary policing; hence, he is the pioneer of modern policing (Rawlings 110). It was understandable that this concept was met with a lot of backlashes. Primarily, the citizens felt as though the police force would be another branch of the military, working with the same cruel and inhumane, brutal policies. However, Peel formed police codes of conduct that ensured a great diversity between the work ethics of the two bodies. The American modern policing system, borrowed heavily from these codes, creating institutions of learning for the police force, and structuring the police force into the vital part of the criminology system, that it is today.

One of the significant criminology theories that were conceptualized to gain public trust was the self-control theory (Hay & Forrest 774-793). The police force was expected to be rational when dealing with suspects and criminals, without letting their issues or opinions get in the way of this. The goals of the modern-day criminal justice system call for the massive reduction of police brutality, which has, unfortunately, increased significantly in the last fifty decades. Despite the existence of this theory, therefore, it is clear that there is still a considerable gap in achieving a system that treats citizens humanely.  The sad reality is that the justice system has been structured to intentionally discourage prosecution of the police, hence further cementing their inclination to brutality. Statistics show that most police brutality cases are not reported since the masses find it intimidating to report misconduct in the very offices that the injustices were cultivated (Skolnick & Fyfe 198-205). The reasons for these include the blue code of silence, which is an unofficial code that ensures that police officers keep silent on crimes committed by their colleagues.

The goals of elimination of police brutality and the silencing of police crimes are yet to be achieved. However, the continual use of social media platforms to bring these issues to light is proving essential. It will be a necessary part of the evolution of the self-control theory. As the plight of citizens towards self-controlled police officers is furthered, there will be more deliberate and conscious efforts towards punishing brutal police officers, hence ensuring that there is a more controlled and rational police force.

Works Cited

Hay, Carter, and Walter Forrest. “The development of self‐control: Examining self‐control theory’s stability thesis.” Criminology 44.4 (2006): 739-774.

Rawlings, Philip. Policing: A short history. Routledge, 2012.

Skolnick, Jerome H., and James J. Fyfe. Above the Law: Police and the excessive use of force. New York: Free Press, 1993.

Get professional assignment help cheaply

Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?

Whichever your reason may is, it is valid! You can get professionalPLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!

Collection of Digital Evidence Sample Essay history assignment help cheap

Inspective Collection of Digital Evidence

List of People to be interviewed

Carol McPherson – She is the current HR Director of Provincial Worldwide Management, and she ought to have relevant information based on the exit interview of Mr. John Belcamp. She can provide information on comments, behavior, as well as a reaction during their last meeting with the former engineer.
Evelyn Bass – she has recently claimed to be the girlfriend to Mr. Belcamp, thus believed to have crucial information that will not only help in the investigations but also during prosecution.
Security guards – the guards can provide valuable information concerning the behavior, as well as the attitude of the former engineer before he left Provincial Worldwide Management. The guards will tell if they found anything suspicious while Mr. Belcamp was entering or exiting the company’s premises.
Colleagues – the workmates of the suspect will be questioned about his behavior before he leaves the company.
Neighbors and friends – neighbors and friends will provide valuable information on the character of Mr. John Belcamp to ascertain if he is capable of leaking the secrets of the company for his gains and of getting immediate employment in a rival organization.

Case Summary

The Human Resource Director, Ms. Carol McPherson, notified the stakeholders of Provincial Worldwide Management that Mr. John Belcamp had been dismissed from the employment of the company as the engineer of the company in the Division of New Product because of persistent lateness as well as absenteeism in the workplace. The director of the human resource department reported that Mr. John Belcamp had raised controversial comments on the highly profitable project that is presently being worked upon by the organization. Ms. McPherson feared that the former engineer might have carried the intellectual property of the firm with him in the quest of using it in the new employment in a competitor company. She feared that Mr. John Belcamp might have taken away the source code of the product with him for his gain, as well as a security that is aimed at earning him quick hiring. Ms. McPherson gave me a copy of the source code that he believes will help me in carrying out my duty as an information security analyst of the company.

The United States legal authority permits an information security analyst of a company to conduct a search, as well as seize anything that can provide evidence for digital crime because there is a likely cause of happening of crime, in addition to the place being well described and defined (Chang, 2018). As a result, the law permits me to carry out a search on the desk and space of Mr. Belcamp’s office for any allegedly suspicious paperwork and electronic material that has the source code content of the product or such relatable content.

Part II: Physical Evidence Acquisition

2. Potential Digital Items in Mr. Belcamp’s Workspace

Following the office workspace of Mr. Belcamp, as shown in the photo, the items that are likely to contain digital evidence are a Dell model laptop, voice recorder, a USB drive, and a digital hard drive. The investigation team is set to visit the office of the suspect and carry some of the items that they think might be helpful in one way or another in ensuring Mr. Belcamp, as well as his accomplices, are brought to book.

The laptop is Dell in terms of model, black, and approximately 30 centimeters in length. It is suspected that the laptop has power-point presentations, word documents, video, as well as audio of the processing of the new product. The laptop would give physical and digital evidence, as well as other information that might be missing in the USB drive and hard drive.

The voice recorder is small in size, as well as silver in color. It might have voice recordings of the conversations between Mr. John Belcamp and other parties, as far as the ongoing investigations are concerned, which will provide useful evidence to be used in the time of prosecution. On the other hand, the USB drive has both plastic and metallic components, with grey and black colors on adjacent ends and a small hole on one end. The former engineer of Provincial Worldwide Management might have used the USB drive to store information transferred from laptops and desktops in the form of photos, videos, as well as document files that might be useful in the investigations at hand. The USB drive might also be helpful during the prosecution, as it would provide physical and digital evidence to be used by the investigators.

To end with, the digital hard drive is irregularly shaped, black, and silver with a green label. Based on the information from the manufacturer, it can hold about one TB of data. Additionally, the hard drive is convenient to carry and can store more photos, videos, as well as large files. It is suspected that the drive was used to store data about the new product of Provincial Worldwide Management, as well as search code that provides significant evidence to be used not only during investigations but also to is used during prosecution of the suspect and accomplices if any.

Steps to the careful handling of items to avoid contamination of evidence

The custodian of evidence should take photos before picking the Western Digital Hard Drive from its place. It should be picked in chloroprene or latex-gloved hands using a pair of tongs and placing it in a zipped airtight antistatic container to safeguard the information inside it without necessarily having it distorted (Meshram & Patil, 2018). The evidence custodian should also ensure that the bag is well labeled to avoid any confusion in the forensic lab.

The laptop should be handled similarly to avoid contamination of the fingerprints already present. The latex-gloved custodian evidence should carefully disconnect it from the external power source, switch it off, put it in an antistatic bag, label it appropriately, and place it in an evidence container considering all measures of care. All items should be recorded in an evidence book, and the suspect made to sign to avoid claims later that some of his items were lost during the search (Lillis, Becker, O’Sullivan & Scanlon, 2016).

Items of non-digital evidence

The yellow, square sticky notes stuck on the shelves, as well as on the desktop might continue useful information such as reminders of events or meetings linked to the search code and new product of Provincial Worldwide Management that might have been recorded by Mr. John Belcamp, the main suspect in the ongoing investigation. Sticky notes are mostly used to write information for reminding an individual on a significant event or a meeting that he or she has to attend on a stipulated date. As a result, the investigation team aims at carrying out a scrutiny check on the sticky notes to know the meetings, as well as events that the suspect has been attending to and probably ascertain the agenda of such encounters. The sticky notes are believed they would help in the provision of real evidence both in the investigation period and during the prosecution of the suspect. The papers on the workspace of the suspect might be handwritten or typed with structures, sketches, and information of the search code and new product of the company written by the suspect.

On the office worktable of Mr. Belcamp, there is a white notebook with a blue logo on the left-hand side of the pages that might contain written information just as the other paper works in regards to the search code and new product of the company at hand. Notebooks, just like sticky notes, are used in recording important information on appointments, as well as meetings that an individual is supposed to attend. Sometimes people write the list of appointments in the book. In our case, the investigators want to establish the pending, as well as past appointments that Mr. Belcamp has been attending to and, if likely, ascertain their agendas. The book can provide real evidence in the investigations, as well as during prosecution. To end with, on the table, there is a white stapler with a stainless steel rim that might contain fingerprints that would help in the provision of supplementary proof that would back up the allegations against Mr. John Belcamp.

 Steps of collecting the items to mitigate the loss of evidence

To begin with, the custodian of the items stored to provide evidence should take photographs of the paper documents, as well as sticky notes on the workspace of the suspect before physically handling them. Taking pictures helps in preventing the alteration of evidence that might take place due to the mix up of fingerprints (Pak & Lee, 2018). Next, those involved in the investigations should not use bare hands when handling items to be used as evidence. Instead, they should use latex-gloved bags that should be appropriately zipped for security reasons.

Each item should be put in its bag for easier forensic retrieval, as well as the description. Moreover, the evidence items should be placed in appropriate containers ready to be transported to a forensic laboratory for further scrutiny. The items ought to be labeled appropriately to avoid confusion when they are transported to forensic science laboratories. The custodians of the evidence have to ensure that all items are put in evidence book. The owner of the items should also be made to sign the list of items to avoid claiming later that some of his things were lost during the search (Li, Bajramovic, Gao & Parekh, 2016)

Security procedures and environmental considerations for the storage of evidence

(i) All the evidence both in non-digital and digital should be put in envelopes, papers, as well as antistatic containers for items such as a laptop. Plastic containers should not be used in storing the items. Research has revealed that plastic containers produce latent heat that allows both condensation and humidity, which might interfere with the evidence at the end of the day. Digital evidence items should be kept in places that have no extreme moisture, pressure, as well as temperature (Chang, 2018).

(ii) Items containing digital evidence should be placed away from magnetic fields for safeguarding the information that might ultimately be altered by those fields (Li, Bajramovic, Gao & Parekh, 2016).

(iii) Digital evidence should be packed in a manner that will safeguard the items from any form of deformation (Lillis, Becker, O’Sullivan & Scanlon, 2016). The packaging container should also be counterchecked for their security, as far as keeping information is concerned.

(iv) All evidence has to be labeled appropriately for security reasons; their names, location, as well as time for collection (Pak & Lee, 2018). All the items have to be recorded in the checklist for future reference and to ensure that they are not tampered with for safeguarding the evidence.

(v) The evidence should be put in black and white in the inventory records per the policies of the agency and a chain of custody maintained for the items that have been removed from the area of storage (Meshram & Patil, 2018).

The forensic examiner at Provincial Worldwide Management made a commendable attempt in the description of the digital materials that were collected to be used as evidence in the case against Mr. John Belcamp. Stephen’s description involves most of the unique features of the items. On the other hand, the voice recorder is scantly described. He should have incorporated the estimates of its measurements to give precise details of its descriptions, as far as size is concerned. The voice recorder has dark coloring, another description that was omitted in the statement, which might lead to ambiguity in a case there is a mix up of another voice recorder in the room. Additionally, he ought to have indicated a precise location, as well as to label them properly to avoid confusion.

It was also noted that some of the seized items were not in the evidence book, which should contain the list of all things taken to the forensic science laboratory for further scrutiny. The law requires recording of all things that have been taken from the suspect. The items should also be appropriately labeled to make it easy for those working in the lab and to avoid being mixed up with similar items that might be stored in the same location as the evidence items.

References

Chang, C. H. (2018). New Development Regarding Search Warrants under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution–Jones, Jardines & Grady. Euramerica, 48(2), 267-333.

Li, J., Bajramovic, E., Gao, Y., & Parekh, M. (2016). Graded security forensics readiness of SCADA systems. Informatik 2016.

Lillis, D., Becker, B., O’Sullivan, T., & Scanlon, M. (2016). Current challenges and future research areas for digital forensic investigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.03850.

Meshram, B. B., & Patil, D. N. (2018). Digital Forensic Analysis of Hard Disk for Evidence Collection. International Journal of Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics (IJCSDF), 7(2), 100-110.

Pak, C. U., & Lee, S. J. (2018). Digital Evidence Collection Procedure for Hardware Unique Information Collection. Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology, 28(4), 839-845.

Get professionalPLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!