Assignment
Several cases have highlighted Congress power under the commerce clause, and the Wikard v. Filburn case is a good example. In this case, the US Supreme Court drastically augmented the amount of Congress’ economic regulatory power. The Heart of Atlanta Model v. United States is another case and the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the authority to compel private businesses to adhere to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination in public accommodations (Russell & Cohn, 2012). In the United States v. Lopez case, the Court ruled that Congress had surpassed the power given to it under the commerce clause when it passed a law forbidding gun possession in school zones. Based on the three cases, I would thus conclude that the power given to congress under the commerce clause is closer to Wikard v. Filburn. This is because the case dealt with economic regulatory power of Congress, and hence directly relates to the commerce clause which mainly highlights Congress power in regulating commerce/business with foreign nations and some states. This is contrast to the other cases which did not address issues that relate to business or commerce.
The social disorganization theory directly associates rates of crime to neighborhood ecological features; a main doctrine of social disorganization theory that indicates place matters (Weisburd, Groff & Yang, 2012). Therefore, this theory can be used to explain the crime of drug trafficking. And this crime may be prevalent in socio-economically deprived regions/neighborhoods. This is because such areas have weak traditional institutions (like churches, family, schools etc), and as such, they are not able to control the conduct of youths in the neighborhood. As a result, the youth easily fall prey to vices like drug trafficking. Also, these neighborhoods have a tendency of generating “criminal traditions,” and in this case, drug trafficking, and this is passed to successive generations of youths. Therefore, the youths easily learn this trade through their daily interactions with older juveniles.
References
Russell, J., & Cohn, R. (2012). Heart of Atlanta motel V United States. Book on Demand.
Weisburd, D., Groff, E. R., & Yang, S. (2012). The criminology of place: Street segments and our understanding of the crime problem. Oxford University Press.

Published by
Essays
View all posts