The Potential Unreliability Of Eyewitness Criminology Essay

The Potential Unreliability Of Eyewitness Criminology Essay The potential unreliability of eyewitness testimony poses one of the most serious problems in the administration of criminal justice. Eyewitness testimony is very important for legal decisions. Eyewitnesses are central to most court cases (Kebbell Milne, 1999) and eyewitnesses accounts are the most common and significant testimonies that can potentially serve as the primary forms of evidence against a defendant. Moreover research shows that jurors exaggeratedly believe the testimony of eyewitnesses and this, can lead to possible miscarriages of justice (Cutler et al. 1990). The aim of this essay is to investigate, based on the literature, the reasons that may influence the memory process of eyewitnesses and also what can be done in order to ensure that eyewitnesses testimony worth the value. Eyewitness testimony is a legal term and it refers to an account given by a bystander in the courtroom, who describes what happened during a specific incident under investigation. This is the principal way in which the guilt of the accused is established through verbal witness evidence in court. It is considered to be a reliable accepted form that provides evidence and jurors tend to pay close attention to it. Recently forensics and psychologists declare that memories and individual perceptions are unreliable, can being easily manipulated and biased . As a result, inaccurate eyewitnesses identifications can have serious consequences leading to wrong convictions of innocent people (Wells et al., 1998). When scientific psychology was in its first steps, articles about mistaken eyewitness identifications started to appear in the field (Munsterberg, 1908). However, eyewitness evidence has made people to think if eyewitnesses testimonies are reliable or not. It would be said though that all people have the knowledge that they do not remember everything, and therefore they know that memory can be weak. On the other hand it is difficult to deny the importance of eyewitnesses testimony. Research has shown that people probably feel better about convicting an alleged criminal when an eyewitness claims I saw him do it than when there is no such claim. The hypothesis that inaccurate eyewitness identifications can lead to the conviction of innocent people is also accepted by Canadian legal professionals (Brooks, 1983). DNA testing in the United States has shown that mistaken eyewitness identifications are the reason for more false convictions than all other causes combined (Connors et al. 1996 ). Moreover, this statement about eyewitness misidentifications that is one of the most common causes of wrongful convictions ( Rattner, Sagarin, 1986). Borchard reported that eyewitness error occurred in 45% of 65 cases of wrongful convictions. Huff (1986) found eyewitness errors in nearly 60% of 500 wrongful convictions and Ruttner (1986) concluded that eyewitness error occurred in 52% of 205 wrongful convictions. All these wrongful convictions studies were conducted before the invention of DNA testing. In 1996 a study which analysed of the application of DNA technology to forensic issues in the United States, has revealed some significant facts (Connors, et al., 1996). More specifically 28 men who were found guilty for various criminal acts were exonerated through the analysis of DNA typing. Eyewitness identification was the single most common factor accounting for these erroneous convictions. Furthermore, Wells, et al., (1998) added some more cases to the list of DNA-related wi th false identifications. These cases revealed that one to up to five eyewitnesses made false identifications of innocent suspects. Nevertheless, the eyewitness evidence was presented by well-meaning and confident citizens it was highly persuasive but, at the same time it was at least partially responsible for the majority of wrongful convictions. More recently, The Innocence Project reported some significant facts. The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organisation dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The findings of this project show that about 66% of 138 cases in which DNA could exonerate the accused, wrongfully eyewitness identification was involved (Wells, 2004). As eyewitness concerns the memory process it is undeniable that some memory trace exists and this could have important consequences for the course of justice (Wells, 1993). Few people would doubt that human memory is fallible. According to Haber (2000), people tend to believe that memories are like video recorders that faithfully record the things that people do and replay them back perfectly later. The fact is that sensory and perceptual experiences of an incident are not recorded in memory in a similar way to a videotape recorder (Yarmey, 1980). Human memory is constructed and reconstructed from stored bits and pieces of acquired information of what actually happened and what a person intuits, discovers from others, or infers must have happened'(Graham, 2008). Following the reconstructive view, memory can be divided into three stages: (1) acquisition or encoding of information; (2) retention or storage of information over time; and (3) retrieval of stored information through recal l and recognition. A lot of problems may occur in each of these three stages. Loftus (1979, 1996) has focused a lot in these three stages of memory in order to understand the problems that may occur and lead to false convictions. Thus in the first stage which is encoding, the information first goes into the memories. More specifically, if not enough attention is paid to what is going on the encoding stage, then events may not be encoded properly. For example the length of time an eyewitness is able to see the perpetrator, will affect the accuracy of his/her memory. That is, the longer an eyewitness can see the perpetrator, the more will be able to encode and retrieve later on the identification task. Thus, exposure time is a very important variable that can affects the accuracy of eyewitness identification ( Laugherty et al., 1971). Furthermore other problems that may influence the encoding stage are the event salience and the prior expectations of the eyewitness. Usually eyewitnesses pay more attention to some details than others and also recall expectation n ot necessarily the truth. As a result they give wrong identifications (Loftus, 1974). During the second stage which is storage, people keep the information in their memories to recall later. In this stage the factors that may influence the eyewitnesses testimony are the length of time or the exposure to new information. For example witnesses might read a new report about the incident, which can affect their original memory, or if the information is stored for a long time the natural processes of forgetting could further degrade the memory. For this reason, some witnesses are more susceptible than other to false memories. However, people appear more susceptible to post-event information if it occurs later in the interval before formal retrieval (Loftus, 2005). Moreover research suggests that witnesses from each end of the age spectrum may be less reliable on average than those in between. For example, elderly witnesses and young children were found to be poorer at identifying strange rs accurately than other age groups (Ceci Bruck, 1993). Moreover, according to Loftus (1974) another reason that may lead to false memories is the stress that might experiment different eyewitnesses. High levels of stress have been suggested to have a negative effect on a witnesss ability to encode and retrieve information (Kassin et al., 2001). Finally the retrieval stage which is when the information is released in peoples memories, perhaps as a response to questioning, it can create further changes. For example the way questions are asked can distort the original memory or the stressful circumstance may prevent accurate recall. Psychologists distinguish two types of retrieval, recall and recognition. Recognition is where, for example, a eyewitness may take part in a line-up and asked if they have seen it before. The recall equivalent of these tasks would be to ask the eyewitness to describe the suspects appearance or what they were wearing. Recall is usually considered to be mor e difficult because it involves more stages of processing, not only verification but also retrieval (Kebbell Wagstaff, 1999). Other factors that can lead to wrongful evidence are the confidence that eyewitnesses may have the different type of questioning and problems with line-ups. First of all confidence should always be taken into account when assessing the risk of misidentification. Research has shown that lawyers in general accept that confident witnesses are accurate (Leippe, Manion Romanczyk, 1992; Wells et al., 2000). It is suggested that people tend to be more confident when they are forced to choose answers which can cause difficulties in the criminal proceeding (Bornstein Zickafoose, 1999). Moreover badly worded questions, complex sentences and difficult vocabulary are all potentially problematic for witnesses (Kebell Johnson, 2000). Finally according to Busey and Loftus (2007) there are some problems with line-ups. These problems might be inadequate matched fillers, which means that the foils do not match the descriptions of the offender provided by eyewitnesses, bias and unconscious transfere nce which happens when the witness has seen the suspect before but not realise this. Eyewitness testimony is a topic that has a lot of limitations and need for further research is essential. The majority of studies designed to assess the validity of eyewitness have been conducted in laboratory and have used videotapes or live simulations of crime events. Only a minority of these researches have been field studies involving genuine victims and eyewitnesses of real crimes (Brigham et al., 1982; Krafka Penrod, 1985; Pigott, Brigham, Bothwell, 1990; Penrod Cutler, 1997). Of course, eyewitness identifications are made under all sorts of the adequate conditions, but these studies were based on conditions that made witnesses feel more comfortable. For example in several studies there was no psychological pressure for identifying the perpetrator, because in a laboratory study there is not any real risk of the defendant to be sentenced to forensic settings. Furthermore another factor that makes these studies inaccurate consists of the fact that witnesses were asked to iden tify photos rather than real people and there was no arousal for a lot of studies at the time of the encoding. Finally another element to take into consideration is the confidence of the witnesses. In some cases it has been shown to have a significant effect while other studies have shown that it does not. A factor that may increase the credibility of the eyewitness testimony is the expert testimony about eyewitness identification. Such expert testimony has already been allowed in numerous countries around the world (Fishman Loftus, 1978). Expert testimony is designed to provide scientific information. According to Loftus (1978), an expert psychologist can describe to the jurors the studies that have been conducted and the results from the experiments on peoples ability. Furthermore expert testimony about eyewitness behaviour takes part when a professional psychologist is admitted by the judge as an expert authority on eyewitness testimony who is presented in the court and informs the jurors about scientific studies related in memory and the variables that are known to influence memory and memory report (Vidmar Schuller, 1989). Research has shown that expert testimony is the only legal safeguard about the factors that affect the reliability of eyewitnesses accounts to perceive and re call complex events (Cutler Penrod, 1995). Thus the jurors can have enough information on which to evaluate the identification evidence correctly. However expert testimony is not always useful (Cutler Penrod, 1995), expensive time -consuming and there are limited number of experts (Wells, 1993). To summarise, eyewitness testimony is very important in the determination of various legal decisions and also eyewitness accounts are essential because they serve strong evidence against a defendant. However researches have shown that inaccurate eyewitness identifications can have serious consequences leading to wrong convictions of innocent people. The reasons which provoke these erroneous convictions may be problems in the three stages of memory or some types of physical features such as the age and the race of the witness, the behaviour of other witnesses, the presence or absence of expert testimony and the confidence of eyewitnesses. Moreover researches have revealed numerous limitations. The fact that research is mostly based on laboratories studies can be problematic when it comes to apply to real-life situations with precision. In addition a not well organised structure of the line-ups and the inappropriate questioning techniques can contribute to witnesses making mistakes. Ne vertheless, eyewitness testimony continues and will continue to have value because it is considered to be one of the most important factors of evidence in the court which provides vivid and virtual evidence of an incident. On the other hand witnesses are not automatically unreliable. There is much that can be done to promote good evidence both by the police and the courts. It is the forensic psychologists role to investigate further issues which lead to accurate as well as inaccurate accounts and to assist the criminal justice system in interpreting research findings for the benefit of all parties. New studies may help increase the value of the eyewitness testimony by enhancing judges and jurors knowledge of this type of testimony and this can reduce wrongful convictions. Judges and jurors will be more aware of the dangers of erroneous eyewitness testimony and more willing to permit legal safeguards, including expert testimony which informs them about the limitations that they have to be aware of and not to discount a testimony entirely in these limitations. Moreover increasing judges and jurors knowledge of eyewitness testimony is also essential because expert testimony is not a panacea for erroneous identifications. Finally, a dialogue between judges and researchers who specialise in eyewitness studies would be useful in increasing the value of the testimony. Reducing wrongful convictions is vital because the continual discovery of false convictions undermines the reliability of the legal system.

Cell Phones in School

Reynna Thomas Mrs. Arroyo English 10 HL 14 November 2012 Cell Phones in School Would you prefer cell phone usage in school, or cell phones banned in school? Most students and parents prefer to have the usage of cell phones in school. Cell phones should be allowed to be in school for various reasons. The use of cell phones in school can be beneficial to both students and parents. A lot of times there is school emergencies, family emergencies or even work emergencies. A child can contact their parents to let them know what is going on if there is an emergency in school.Also, the parent can contact their child if there is something happening in the family. If something goes wrong at work and someone’s hours need to be changed, then the boss can contact their employee which may also be a student, by texting them and letting them know. If students were not allowed to use phones during school, they would not have any idea of what is going on if there is an emergency. Apps and instan t internet access are great advantages for most students with smart phones. Apps can help students get to things quicker, and they can also help save things that cannot be saved on the internet.Having instant internet access can make it easier to search things in a short period of time. They can both also be quicker to get to then a computer. Ever hear of calendars and organizers? Well that is another good reason for students to use cell phones in school. Since most students mark their important dates in their calendars on their phone, they can have access to it in school if something comes up. They can also use their calendar to see or mark when something is due. Organizers can be helpful while doing a project, or even for homework that they have that day.Students may forget what they had to do something and look back at their organizer. Most students with phones have voice notes or a recorder. Both of the two can be beneficial and a good reason for students to use their phones in class. Voice note or the recorder can be used to record something that was important, or if they do not have time to take down notes they can record what the teacher is saying. For example, if the teacher is teaching a new lesson and a student does not have enough time to write notes, or if someone cannot write fast enough they can just pull out their phone and record.Using their phones to take pictures in class is another reason students should be allowed to have access to cell phones in school. They can take pictures of experiments that were used in class that they can’t take home with them to use. If there props or other things that can be used in their projects, and they can’t take it home they can also use their phones to take a picture of that. Say you came into class late and you weren’t there for notes, you can use your phone to take a picture of the notes you missed. What if a project is due and their partner isn’t in school that day?Well, if stu dents were allowed to uses cell phones in school then it would be possible for them to text their partner and ask them for information that they had. Also, they can text their partner and let them know what work they missed, or what information they need to add to their project. Foreign students’ usually have problems with understanding or even speaking another language besides their own. If they were able to have access to their phones throughout the day, they can contact their parents and ask them for a translation, or even Google translate.A lot of students’ have a stopwatch on their phone, or a timer. A stopwatch or timer can be used for students to time a lab that their doing in Science. It can also be used to time a project that is being done in a certain period of time, or classwork. Teachers and Administrators would save a lot more money on calculators if they allowed students to use their phones. Students can use their phones to use their calculator for differ ent activities. A lot of calculators on smartphones are most likely more upgraded then school calculators.Using calculators from their phone are also way easier for students. All they have to do is pull out their phone and the app is right there. In a lot of schools, there are situations where teachers have interactions with students. If a student is noticing something is going on with a student and teacher, they can use their phones as evidence. Most of the time the Administrators believe the teachers before they believe a student. With someone having evidence, the principal can’t deny that the student is telling the truth.Capturing a picture, or recording something is good enough evidence to prove something. It is understandable why Administrators do not allow cell phones in school, but not all students’ are going to abuse the policy. Most students actually need the advantage to use their phones in school. The majority of students would only use their phones when all owed or told to. On the other hand, there are a handful of students who would abuse the policy. Some students use their phones throughout lesson, which distract themselves and also others.Other students use their phones to cheat on assignments, tests, quizzes etc. Those students are the reason why cell phones are banned in most schools. All in all, there are good reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school, and why cell phones should be banned. Just because a few select students cannot follow directions does not mean it should be required to all students’. If Administrators allow cell phone usage then students and parents would be much happier. Also, students would concentrate more and have all their needs met. Cell Phones in School Reynna Thomas Mrs. Arroyo English 10 HL 14 November 2012 Cell Phones in School Would you prefer cell phone usage in school, or cell phones banned in school? Most students and parents prefer to have the usage of cell phones in school. Cell phones should be allowed to be in school for various reasons. The use of cell phones in school can be beneficial to both students and parents. A lot of times there is school emergencies, family emergencies or even work emergencies. A child can contact their parents to let them know what is going on if there is an emergency in school.Also, the parent can contact their child if there is something happening in the family. If something goes wrong at work and someone’s hours need to be changed, then the boss can contact their employee which may also be a student, by texting them and letting them know. If students were not allowed to use phones during school, they would not have any idea of what is going on if there is an emergency. Apps and instan t internet access are great advantages for most students with smart phones. Apps can help students get to things quicker, and they can also help save things that cannot be saved on the internet.Having instant internet access can make it easier to search things in a short period of time. They can both also be quicker to get to then a computer. Ever hear of calendars and organizers? Well that is another good reason for students to use cell phones in school. Since most students mark their important dates in their calendars on their phone, they can have access to it in school if something comes up. They can also use their calendar to see or mark when something is due. Organizers can be helpful while doing a project, or even for homework that they have that day.Students may forget what they had to do something and look back at their organizer. Most students with phones have voice notes or a recorder. Both of the two can be beneficial and a good reason for students to use their phones in class. Voice note or the recorder can be used to record something that was important, or if they do not have time to take down notes they can record what the teacher is saying. For example, if the teacher is teaching a new lesson and a student does not have enough time to write notes, or if someone cannot write fast enough they can just pull out their phone and record.Using their phones to take pictures in class is another reason students should be allowed to have access to cell phones in school. They can take pictures of experiments that were used in class that they can’t take home with them to use. If there props or other things that can be used in their projects, and they can’t take it home they can also use their phones to take a picture of that. Say you came into class late and you weren’t there for notes, you can use your phone to take a picture of the notes you missed. What if a project is due and their partner isn’t in school that day?Well, if stu dents were allowed to uses cell phones in school then it would be possible for them to text their partner and ask them for information that they had. Also, they can text their partner and let them know what work they missed, or what information they need to add to their project. Foreign students’ usually have problems with understanding or even speaking another language besides their own. If they were able to have access to their phones throughout the day, they can contact their parents and ask them for a translation, or even Google translate.A lot of students’ have a stopwatch on their phone, or a timer. A stopwatch or timer can be used for students to time a lab that their doing in Science. It can also be used to time a project that is being done in a certain period of time, or classwork. Teachers and Administrators would save a lot more money on calculators if they allowed students to use their phones. Students can use their phones to use their calculator for differ ent activities. A lot of calculators on smartphones are most likely more upgraded then school calculators.Using calculators from their phone are also way easier for students. All they have to do is pull out their phone and the app is right there. In a lot of schools, there are situations where teachers have interactions with students. If a student is noticing something is going on with a student and teacher, they can use their phones as evidence. Most of the time the Administrators believe the teachers before they believe a student. With someone having evidence, the principal can’t deny that the student is telling the truth.Capturing a picture, or recording something is good enough evidence to prove something. It is understandable why Administrators do not allow cell phones in school, but not all students’ are going to abuse the policy. Most students actually need the advantage to use their phones in school. The majority of students would only use their phones when all owed or told to. On the other hand, there are a handful of students who would abuse the policy. Some students use their phones throughout lesson, which distract themselves and also others.Other students use their phones to cheat on assignments, tests, quizzes etc. Those students are the reason why cell phones are banned in most schools. All in all, there are good reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school, and why cell phones should be banned. Just because a few select students cannot follow directions does not mean it should be required to all students’. If Administrators allow cell phone usage then students and parents would be much happier. Also, students would concentrate more and have all their needs met.

Articles of Confederation vs Constitution Essay

The Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution are two documents that shaped the U.S. government into what it is today. The Articles of Confederation (AOC) was the first Constitution of the United States. Americans soon realized that this document had to be substantially modified because the U.S. needed a stronger government. The AOC was thought of as an ineffective national government document, although there were some strong points. The AOC was ratified in 1781, and replaced by an improved document known as the United States Constitution in 1789. An unknown person once said, â€Å"Perhaps the greatest service rendered by the Articles of Confederation was the impetus its shortcomings gave to those who favored a strong central government.† This is an analytical essay supporting this quote by comparing the strengths, weaknesses, and achievements of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The AOC gave Congress many powers which included: the right to declare war, develop foreign policy, regulate Native American activity in the territories, coin money, run post offices, borrow money, and appoint military officers. Although the AOC seemed to have a lot of power, there were also several underlying weaknesses and problems that were not initially addressed. As a result the United States Constitution came into action. This document essentially addressed all the underlying problems of the AOC. The AOC did not allow Congress to levy taxes on individuals which the Constitution addressed. The AOC had no federal court system so the Constitution had a dynamic court system in place which was created to deal with issues between citizens and the states. The AOC offered no regulation of trade between states and interstate commerce. The Constitution gave Congress the right to regulate trade between states and control interstate commerce. The AOC had no executive power; the president of the United States simply presided over Congress until the ratification of the Constitution which created the Executive branch. This was designed to give the president a more powerful role in the government. The Executive branch gave the president power to choose his Cabinet members and checks on the power of the judicial and legislative branches. The AOC offered little hope if Congress or the states needed to amend any documents as it called for 100% (13/13) of participants  to agree. The Constitution made it to where a 2/3 vote of both houses of Congress, plus a 3/4 vote of state legislatures or national convention could amend a document. In the AOC the representation of states was flawed as it said each state were to receive 1 vote regardless of siz e. The Constitution in turn fixed this by making the upper house (Senate)give each state 2 votes and the lower house (House of Representatives) is based on population. The AOC did not allow Congress to recruit military troops, but was dependent on states to contribute forces. The Constitution allows for Congress to raise an army when needed in military situations. The AOC had a complicated system of arbitration in effect and the Constitution issued federal courts the right to handle disputes. Sovereignty was an issue while the AOC were in place as it resided in the states whereas the Constitution created the supreme law of the land. When passing law the AOC required 9/13 to approve legislation and the Constitution made it majority vote in both houses plus the signature of the President. The AOC faced many challenges and did not maintain order as the United States needed. It essentially did not work for the United States which is why the ratification of it is such a historical outcome of the United States. All these ratifications of the AOC did not come so simple to the United States. There was a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787 to solve the problems of the AOC. It was at this convention that many plans were proposed, and compromises were reached. The weaknesses of the AOC had to be addressed. The first plan introduced by Governor Edmund Randolph, was the Virginia Plan, better known as the Large State Plan, called for a strong national government with bicameral legislation apportioned by population. This plan also called for the lower house to be elected directly by the people and the upper house to be elected by the lower house. This plan as well called for a Chief Executive and a Federal Court system, and it gave Congress the power to tax and regulate interstate commerce. The Large State Plan gave the national government the power to legislate, and gave a proposed national Council of Revision a veto power over state legislatures. The delegates loved the sound of this fundamental reform plan. The Virginia Plan struck opposition among delegates from the smaller states and thus a competing plan, presented by William Patterson, known as the New Jersey  Plan, or Small State Plan, came into action. This plan kept federal powers rather limited and created no new Congress. Instead, the plan enlarged some of the supremacies then held by the Continental Congress. It also called for a plural executive branch and a federal court system like the Virginia Plan. This plan was not as highly sought out as the Virginia Plan, so in turn was rejected which caused the supporters of the Virginia Plan to make amends to the smaller states. This in turn resulted in members of the Senate being elected by the state legislatures. After the Virginia and New Jersey Plan delegate s worked out a series of compromises between these competing plans. The first was The Great Compromise, or the Connecticut Compromise, which resulted in a bicameral legislature: House of Representatives (lower house), which was representation based on population, and the Senate (upper house), which was based on equal representation where each state would have 2 senators selected by the state legislatures. Another compromise reached was The Three-fifths Compromise. This was proposed over the â€Å"counting† of slaves and it determined that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a vote for both purposes of taxation, and purposes of representation in the House of Representatives. On September 17, 1787, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved the documents over which they had labored since May. To ratify the Constitution it was determined that 9 of the 13 states had to agree to the ratification in order for the new Constitution to go into effect. Although 9 states is all the government needed to ratify the new document, Congress knew it was important to get the support of the large states, New York and Virginia, in order for the new government to be effective. Delaware was the first state to ratify and soon after 4 more states joined in on the ratification. There were those who favored ratification, better known as the Federalists, and those who opposed the ratification, known as Anti-federalists. The Federalists fought back and convinced the states that rejection of the Constitution would result in anarchy and civil strife. The Anti-federalists argued against the ratification that the delegates in Philadelphia had exceeded their congressional authority by replacing the AOC with an illegal new document. Others protested that the delegates in Philadelphia represent only the noble few, and thus hand crafted a document that saved their special interests and set aside the franchise for the propertied classes. The Anti-federalists  also argued that the Constitution would give too much power to the central government at the expense of the states, and that a representative government could not manage a republic as large as the United States. The biggest objection by the Anti-federalists was the Constitutional Convention had failed to adopt a Bill of Rights. The Federalists believed that the Constitution was so constrained that it posed no threat to the rights of citizens. It was clear in order to get the remainder of the states on the ratification side that the government had to put a Bill of Rights in place. The Federalist assured the public that the first step of the new government would adopt a Bill of Rights. Soon after, The Federalist Papers were written by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton of New York, and James Madison of Virginia. This document encouraged the ratification of the Constitution. These papers circulated through New York and other states and soon after ratification passed in the New York and Virginia state conventions. The last and final state to ratify the Constitution was Rhode Island. After it was faced with threatened treatment as a foreign government, it passed ratification of May 29, 1790.

George Orwell s Jerusalem s Lot And Children Of The Corn

A small moment, a second, transforms over time to be a nightmare influencing life. (Hook) King’s childhood was filled with pain, from wasps, cinderblocks and giant needles going into his head. Without even a complete family unit to draw strength from, King remembers the inordinate amount of pain from his early- and later- years, and that pain is present in his horrific stories. His chaotic childhood with economic struggles and estranged family transferred into his stories as well. (Discussion) The overbearing chaos and horror within his stories â€Å"Jerusalem’s Lot†and â€Å"Children of the Corn† originates from King’s personal experiences as described in On Writing. (Thesis) The unresolved conflicts of his stories resemble the problems in his childhood that were never fixed. He doesn’t skimp on pain and chaos in his stories as life didn’t hide pain and chaos from him as a child. That chaos was also aided by ambiguous details, and the chaos peaks at the end of the stories. (Essay Map) King’s experiences from his life influenced the horror and chaos of â€Å"Jerusalem’s Lot†. (Topic Sentence) King’s childhood was unique because of his lack of a father. His parents split before it was common, and a similar split family was centered in â€Å"Jerusalem’s Lot†. (Supporting Detail 1) The character Boone was separated from a side of his family because of a fight between his grandfather and great-uncle over the evil that was plaguing the town. The addition of this backstory to the tale could have been