Ideal Victim

“Innocent until proven guilty.” The entire basis of the criminal justice system is to prosecute those who commit crimes and to validate every piece of evidence before prosecuting a suspect. It can be difficult for law enforcement to be precise and procedural in their quest for arresting and convicting a criminal as public outrage and pressure can affect the process of arrest and conviction. However, in other instances, the errors of law enforcement officials are not always due to outside forces or natural human errors. Bias and corruption can affect the outcome of an investigation, case, trial, verdict, and life, of a possible guilty or innocent person. In short, the criminal justice/legal system is not a perfect system, and those that serve both systems are imperfect as well. In the case of Sean K. Ellis, who was 19 years old at the time, was arrested for the murder of a Boston police officer. However, even though Ellis was arrested, tried, and convicted for this crime, he did not commit said crime. The circumstances leading to his conviction were riddled with inconsistencies and the actions taken by the police were ethically questionable as well. Police corruption, racial bias, witness credibility, and the tampering/tainting of evidence, have led to an unfair trial of an innocent man; as a result, Ellis was freed and he will receive a new trial in the coming months.

The same kind of good evil scenario between the defense attorney and prosecutor’s office is also evident in the television show Law & Order. Although that show does not often portray one side as only good or only bad, there have been times when it has created defense attorney characters who have taken advantage of the law to force the system to completely exonerate their clients, which makes them appear to be evil people who are “cheating” justice. Reality and Fiction: the True View 3 The reality of attorneys on opposing sides of a case is that they are seldom easily identified as good or evil persons and just because they are working for the defense or the prosecution does not indicate the type of person they are (Steinberg). Both are expected to act legally and both have pressures on them that affect their work and who they are. Simply the side they represent does not alone affect the kind of person they are. As to how they try their cases, attorney ethical codes require attorneys to “zealously” pursue their case for the benefit of their client to the extent the law allows (ABA). This means that if a defense attorney sees an opportunity for his client to be set free then he or she must use it because that is their job. It is the job of the prosecutor to assure the defense does not have those opportunities. Again, this does not reflect on the quality of their character. The same thing can also

As we learned in class last week, victimless crime can be one of many things. Victimless crime is defined as a crime taking place where there are no harmful injuries done from one person to another. Instead, the damage being done is committed by the individual who is committing the crime. Some examples of a victimless crime are, Drug use, prostitution, gambling, suicide, traffic citations and trespassing.

One does not have to be attacked to be a victim. The woman who must run to her car after shopping at night is a victim, as is the tired cleaning woman who can 't ride a subway home without being afraid. We do not seek to violate the rights of defendants. But shouldn 't we feel more compassion for the victims of crime than for those who commit crime? For the first time in 20 years, the crime index has fallen 2 years in a

A victimless crime is an illegal act or offense that involves consenting adults and no party is harmed or injured during the act. Such offenses are considered illegal, but there is no apparent victim. Although there are several disagreements to whether or not a crime is victimless or not four of the most commonly identified victimless crimes, also known as public order offenses, are: drug use, prostitution, pornography through sexting, and gambling. Victimless crimes have been the topic of a heated debate, primarily centered on the question to whether or not these victimless crimes are crimes at all. Another issue that is constantly argued is whether or not victimless crimes should be free from governmental interference. Although the term is difficult to define, the government should interfere with victimless crimes because there can be much harm done not only to the individual committing these acts but also possible unwilling victims around them. Victimless crimes highlight a significant number of issues concerning crime, morality and the criminal justice system. Some of the major issues victimless crimes have are: perceptions of the public and police concerning s, including perceived seriousness and harm; the impact of victimless crimes on other members of society, including quality of life issues; the potential economic impact of the various victimless acts (both positive and negative), and the community factors that affect economic impact; and the effect of specific

When considering all the different types of victims out there, it is important to keep in mind the hardships they experienced to be labeled a victim. Although victims may come out the situation stronger, so victims still prefer to keep the crime to themselves. We like to think to ourselves, “Why would someone keep a crime amongst themselves?” A victim may have had a horrific past experience with law enforcement and feel they would be unsuccessful or not take the situation seriously. The victim may think the crime could be better handle personally, or that the crime is a personal matter. There is also the possibility of the victim feeling they

One thing I notice is a lot of the misconduct is by the arresting officers or detectives that are investigating the crime. The ways an office can have misconduct that could lead to false convictions, include suggestions when conducting interviews, coercing false confessions, lying to jurors about observations, failing to turn over evidence. Common forms of misconduct by a prosecutor can include, withhold evidence from defense, mishandling, mistreating or destroying evidence, allowing witnesses that they know are not truthful to testify, Pressing Witnesses of the defense to not testify, relying on fraudulent forensic experts.

In this case, I will balance the scales of justice, and also dispense justice according to the state statute. Also, taking into consideration the victims impact statement. Even though the victim wants the offender to receive jail time this scenario must take presidents to the judicial system. Due to the evidentiary rule, I will support the defendant’s plea of guilty being that evidence may not support a conviction. This is called plea bargaining.

To say that one reason prosecutors engage in misconduct is because the U.S. criminal justice system favors convictions over justice is too vague of a term and it is not necessarily this way. There are other factors that needs to be taken in consideration and it is too skeptic to say it this way for all prosecutors. To encourage justice over convictions, one can participate by giving more training to prosecutors, investigate thoroughly before pressing any charges, and pursue the truth of the case instead of thinking ways to be promoted. Prosecutors are the administrators of justice at trial and they should uphold constitutional rights of everyone involved. The reactions would be overwhelmingly crazy and shocking if we started charging prosecutors

Crime is not an easy concept to define and is very problematic. The two proposed definitions offered by Dr. Hutchinson of crime is behavior that violates laws and behavior that violates morality. These two definitions often do not correspond with each other. In the case of behaviors that violate morality, there is not a plaintiff. Examples of behavior that violates morality are white collar crime and prostitution. These crimes usually do not involve victims of any kind but are just simply illegal due to norms and morals of society. Society is also morally opposed to them or does not like the kinds of people who are committing these acts. Law violating crimes usually involve a victim. Usually, this victim brings charges against the accused and

Indeed, prosecutorial misconduct is an issue, a severe issue, but the rare occurrence does not dictate that the criminal process is broken. In fact, it could be argued, and should be argued, that the process prevents greater atrocities, including prosecutorial misconduct, from occurring.

The first victimless crime I want to discuss is Prostitution. This term is defined as two people engaging in inappropriate behavior for some form of payment <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/479546/prostitution>. I honestly find it sad that people struggle so much that they feel the need to fo these types of acts to money or necessities in life. It’s a sad reality of the world.

Victimless crimes are simply defined as a crime having no victim. I believe the laws against victimless crimes are not direct threats to the privacy of individuals. On the contrary the laws help protect the existing right we have as individual and help assure a civilized society. In criminalizing certain acts, society makes a judgment that there can be no privacy interest in those acts. These acts of self abuse are destructive. These crimes erode the systems of ethics’ and morals in the fabric of our society. .

When we look at crime reporting and victimization together we can come up with the conclusion they go hand in hand. When there is a victim a report is automatically being generated and without the report writing there will not be a valid way of evaluating crime rates and the number of victims.

There are thousands of laws on the books that are rarely enforced by law enforcement personnel. Numerous laws are violated each day, in private, and do not raise the suspicion of the police or any other person. Does that mean there were no victims of a crime? Unfortunately no. There is a large contingent of people that want to keep the state out of an individual’s private lives and suggest there are many “victimless” crimes that should never be enforced and stricken from the law books. Regrettably every crime that is committed has a victim, whether directly or indirectly that affects society as a whole.