In civil lawsuits, punitive damages are designed to punish a wrongdoer and act as a warning to others not to engage in similar conduct. For example, an individual might suffer $10,000 in compensatory damages because of lost wages, but the jury could award $1 million to punish the defendant over and above compensatory damages. The Eighth Amendment prohibits punishment by excessive fines in
criminal cases, but not in civil cases involving punitive damages. Therefore, the $1 million judgment in the civil suit would, if imposed as a fine by a judge or jury in a criminal court, likely violate the Eighth Amendment. Do you think this distinction is a relevant one? Why should punishment by the government be considered different than punishment by an individual?
What will be an ideal response?
Even though $1 million is the same amount of money whether it is paid by a defendant in a civil case or a defendant in a criminal case, the Constitution is designed to control the behavior of the government, as a general rule. The Eighth Amendment, which prohibits excessive fines, is designed to control the government and prevent it from destroying citizens through unfair financial punishment. Just as the amount of punishment in a criminal trial must relate to the crime, the amount of a fine must have a relationship to the seriousness of the offense. In a civil case, the plaintiff and the defendant are not government agents, but private citizens. Therefore, events that transpires in a civil court do not generally involve constitutional issues.
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The range is useful for:
a. advanced statistical procedures. b. estimating the standard deviation. c. estimating the mean. d. all of the above.
Susan Brownmiller explains that women are raped in war by ordinary youths as casually, or as frenetically, as a village is looted or gratuitously destroyed. Sexual trespass on the enemy’ s women is one of the satisfactions of conquest. This is referred to as ______.
a. spoils of war b. rape c. sexual assault d. prisoner of war
Extortion
What will be an ideal response?
The terrorists who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks, the Madrid train bombings, the London Underground attacks, and the attack on Glasgow airport in 2007 have been described as foot soldiers who had little frontline involvement in terrorist activities prior to the attacks. What did most all have in common?
a. Came from very poor backgrounds b. All were loners c. All came from relatively middle class backgrounds d. All were first generation migrants