The Flawed and Ineffectiveness of the Criminal Justice System As humans, we believe in myths that the police, or anyone working for the justice system, will say the truth. This is a given, since they work for the justice system. Nevertheless, the Serial podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig questions this criminal justice system people whole heartedly trust. Serial is about a 1999 case where a Muslim teenage boy, Adnan Syed, is convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee – 17-year-old Korean teenager. I have listened to the Serial podcast and took a significant amount of interest toward it. However, when I continued to listen to the podcast, I could clearly see that throughout Adnan’s trial and the investigation process, there were many flaws in the justice system. This has confirmed the criminal justice system to be flawed and ineffective, which is seen through the defense, investigation team, as well as the prosecution. The defense demonstrates how ineffective and unreliable the criminal justice system is through the tactics used. The only job Adnan’s lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, had was this: to prove Adnan is innocent. However, undoubtedly, she did not do her investigation properly. For instance, Asia’s letter to Adnan when he is in prison was the key evidence to prove that the State’s timeline was wrong. Asia mentioned speaking to Adnan in the Woodlawn Public library, for 15 to 20 minutes during the time the State’s said Hae was killed. The judge wrote Christina Gutierrez’s, Adnan’s lawyer, not using Asia McClain as an alibi witness was strategic, since there was no specified time in the original letters. There was also the call Asia made to the Prosecutor, Kevin Urick, saying that she only wrote the affidavit because Adnan’s family pressured her. If these were the only facts to consider when trying to comprehend the tactics of the defense, I would say it was a good call. Despite it being a well thought out method it made me wonder, if she has gone to the library and asked to see the footage of the day Asia claims to have held a conversation with Adnan, rather than a disadvantage, the letter would have been beneficial for them, since Adnan now has an alibi. Proving the timeline the State presented to
When it comes to the Mississippi Sovereignty and Commission and COINTELPRO being strengthened by destroying civil rights movements, it does indeed turn the criminal justice system upside down. As Martin Luther King once said, ''There are just laws and then there are unjust laws." Although, then what the Mississippi Sovereignty and Commission and the COINTELPRO did was legal, did not mean it was right. In several ways the both programs did wrongful things such as; killing, disrupting, and overall bullying. Because of the two programs, it really makes me think about the criminal justice system.
While the crime control is a great way to set up the system, the justice system itself has been corrupted due to this time of mind set. Absolute power corrupts absolute people. When a police officer has the “authority” to control the liberty of an individual, that authority may corrupt the officer as he has the power to deny the liberty of another individual. Not only the police officer can be corrupted, but the justice process itself. Due to “budgeting” and “efficiency” many of the rights can be overlooked. Court employees can become institutionalized and look at people being arrested as a number instead of a person. Therefore the dual process approach must be followed. It is easy to arrest a person, but what if the person arrested is not
It is impossible to know the exact components that contribute to crime. There are a variety of known factors that play a role, such as physical, sexual and substance abuse, poverty, lack of education and mental health. Solutions needs to be found for each different factor. When considering our nations criminal justice system, it is vital that we focus more on providing mental health care, education, drug treatment, and counseling, rather than forcing all delinquents into jails and prisons. Imposing a life of loneliness, separation, and discrimination is harmful. These things do not promote change for the better. Optimism, effort and opportunity allow for change. This country has a broken criminal Justice System.
Justice. Dictionary meaning: just behaviour or treatment – “A concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people". Everyone deserves access to justice and a fair trial. It’s what inspires, motivates and fuels my desire to specialise in law.
The criminal justice system helps prevent wrongful convictions, strives for justice, investigates crimes, addresses the victims' rights, and discovers the truth. One aspect of the criminal justice system is to protect the accused without obstructing the interests of law enforcement. For this reason, there are criminal defense attorneys who legally represent the accused throughout the criminal procedure. With their help, the accused can stand on trial and get a fair verdict.
The video Problems with the Criminal Justice System published by Freedom Works University (np.) addresses some pretty good arguments. It’s philosophy advocates for elimination of discrimination. In the video the narrator points out the main issues in our justice system today. Our justice system has failed to follow the legislative and judicial system through law put in place such as, the unreasonable search and seizures, cruel and unusual punishment in the 4th and 8th adimenment (FWU). As well, the right to do process has been ignored which is clearly stated in the 5th addiminament. This has lead to defect in the justice system that is unable to distinguish between violent and nonviolent criminals. Noted in the video Problems with the Criminal
The last but not least mechanism is criminal justice policies that are verisimilar. These policies are in contrast with the economy. Ghandnoosh (2015) suggest that:
Over the past 30 years, crime has become a major issue of public concern, of political discussion and action, often intemperate and not likely to reduce crime, and of major public expenditure. Despite its salience in public arena, very little is known about the factors driving the crime trend, and the knowledge base is too limited to support intelligent forecasts of the direction in which crime rates are moving, especially when changing direction. Developing such as knowledge base is important for enhancing the rationality of public policies and public expenditures related to crime, particularly because many such commitments have to be made well in advance of
Firstly, we must bear in mind that discretion is not just restricted to police officers. In fact, it is prevalent in almost every facet of criminal law. The criminal justice system in the United States allows the use of discretion widely through the police, defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, parole officers. However, as the ostiaries of the justice system, it is the police who make perhaps the most critical decisions. They are the ones who must decide how to diffuse a particularly heated crisis, or how to handle a particular offender. Their contact with the community is at the most personal and pivotal level. As such, their decisions – sound or unsound – fall under the greatest scrutiny.
America was ruled by the other powers of the world. Because of this, there was no single justice system. The different areas or colonies were having different systems to handle the improper and unfair activities of the society. Different regions justice systems were influenced by France, Britain, and Spain, etc. Other than Britain, all other effects were removed from the criminal justice system gradually. There were 13 different colonies with different approaches of justice. Moreover, these colonies were increasing in size because of high wages. Due to this attraction, increasing population was becoming an inspiring factor to demand freedom from British rule (Roth, 2010).
The criminal justice system refers to the way in which a society chooses to handle all aspects of crime and punishment. In the Western world, particularly the United States, the criminal justice system is an official governmental system that focuses on crime and punishment, though some societies still incorporate a significant amount of informal social controls into their criminal justice systems. The criminal justice system covers everything from crime-prevention and control efforts, to criminal trials, post-conviction treatment of offenders, and post-release treatment of offenders. This paper will focus on the criminal justice system in the United States of America. Theoretically, there are four goals of the modern American criminal justice system: doing justice; promoting secure communities; restoring crime victims; and promoting noncriminal options (DiIulio et al., 1993). It is important to realize that doing justice is not merely about apprehending and punishing criminal offenders, but also involves the protection of offenders' constitutional and legal rights, treating offenders equally, and also taking into account relevant differences among offender and offenses (DiIulio et al., 1993). Therefore, the criminal justice system involves a delicate balancing act between zealous prosecution of offenders and equally zealous protection of constitutional rights.
Throughout this course, I have learned about the many segments of the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is made up of three main elements which process a case from initiation, through trial, to punishment. First a case starts with law enforcement officials, who investigate crime and gather evidence to identify and use against the assumed suspect. The case then proceeds to the court system, which evaluates the evidence to decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent. If the defendant is, in fact, guilty, then it goes to the corrections system to punish and correct the behavior of the offender. (Hendrix 2013 p. 9) What I also learned from this course is how to combine biblical principles in critical thinking and
The mechanisms of the criminal justice system in America function as more than the instruments for determining guilt in a criminal court case. Through the creation and enforcement of laws, it is a reflection of our society’s morals and values. It is our form of social control. As set out in our text, in 1964 two models emerged in an article written by Herbert Packer, “Two Models of the Criminal Process.” Professor Packer proposed that there are two fundamental criminal justice models: the crime control model and the due process model. Decision making within the criminal justice system is based on these two philosophical models. Historically, emphasis for one model over the other has shifted back and forth throughout the evolution of American culture. The crime control model is oriented toward law and order, the protection of society over the rights of individual defendants; while the due process model is attentive to the legal procedures and constitutional rights of the accused. This back and forth emphasis with either the conservative model of crime control vs. the liberal model favoring due process is known as how the pendulum swings.
The criminal justice system in the United States has been around since the mid-1800s. It was created to bring order to our growing society and bring justice who have broken the law. As our country continued to grow and thrive, crime rates also began to increase. Though law enforcement has good intentions, it is evident that too many flaws in the criminal justice system are overlooked and must be brought into the light. There’s been a pattern throughout our history where racism plays a key role in law enforcement. Since the foundation of law enforcement, until about fifty years ago, a police officer’s main duty was to keep people of minority separated from everyone else. Even throughout our recent history from the past twenty years, families of color suffer the consequences of these flaws in the criminal justice system more than white families. Dr. Chenelle A. Jones believes that the criminal justice system is doing exactly what it was designed to do and the Department of Justice needs to rethink the system all together. While experts agree that the criminal justice system is flawed, there seems to be a pattern among scholars discussing the issue of racism as a significant part of the flawed system.
The earlier criminal courts started to punish those who committed a crime or differentiated from the norms of society (NACM, 2017). It was a system put in place to keep order. In the 16th century , if the person was found guilty, it was most likely going to result in a death sentence(NACM, 2017). Unlike in modern criminal court, the accused was guilty until proven innocent. The earlier criminal courts followed numerous laws that displayed discrimination until centuries later, philosophers and policy maker, began to change the laws to try to assure all citizens’ rights were protected.