“Marcia Clark.... Guilty as charged.” In the TV series “OJ Simpson vs The People”, a recreation of the OJ Simpson murder trial of 1994, the media, the lawyers, and the judge criticize the prosecutor, Marcia Clark, for her identity as a woman rather than her skill as a lawyer. Looking through a feminist lense, it is evident that women are constantly scrutinized for their appearance and behaviors differently than men. In the trial of OJ Simpson, the word “guilty” would presumably be attributed to a verdict towards OJ, but instead the media came to their own guilty verdict for Marcia Clark. On a talkshow from the news, style expert Dolly Sugarman claims, “Well, what we see with Marcia Clark is frump incarnate. Guilty as charged.” Rather than focusing on the Simpson case, or on Clark’s skill as a lawyer, the media dissects her image. The occurrence of the media scrutinizing a woman for her …show more content…
With her long days at trial, Marcia faces the repercussion of less time at home, which she is criticized for from her husband. At the end of a day of trial, Marcia states to the court, “I cannot go late tonight.” As the judge asks why she cannot go late, she explains, “I have to take care of my kids.” The idea that the woman has to be the parent who takes care of the children comes into play, as her ex husband becomes frustrated at times when he has to take care of the kids because his wife is working. Women are told to be the parent that stays home with the child, and when they don't they are criticised. Clark’s ex husband publicly criticises her for the lack of time she spends with her kids, which appears much worse for a woman than it would for a man. Because she did not fit into the perfect female-mother mold, she is condemned. This brings the traditional double standard; men are supposed to work, and women stay at home with the
Feminized Justice The Toronto Women’s Court by Amanda Glasbeek is a non-fiction book about the Toronto Women’s Court from 1913-1939. This book tells readers how poorly women were treated in the Criminal Justice System, so poorly that women had to create their own court system that was very different from a man’s. Some people described it as “approaching the teacher at the teacher’s table.” The thesis of this novel is the successes and failures of the Toronto Women’s Court, how women were not treated as fairly as men were in the court systems, and most men were acquitted while women were charged. This educational book is very impressive, Glasbeek did a very good job on proving her points with information from scholarly articles.
In 1995, The People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, became the “most publicized murder case in history” (Price & Lovitt, 1997). From the very beginning, it seemed that the prosecution’s case against O. J. Simpson for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman was doomed to fail. There were inconsistencies in how the Los Angeles Police Department collected and preserved of evidence. They were also called into doubt about how they controlled the evidence and who they let have access to the evidence during
The O. J. Simpson double murder case, also titled “People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson was a trial in which James O.J Simpson, a former National Football League player was convicted at the Los Angeles County Superior Court of two murder offenses on June 12, 1994. He was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, a restaurant waiter at Mezzaluna. The trial spans for a period of eight months. The opening statements were read on January 23, 1995, whereas the verdict, which left Simpson a free man, was declared on October 3, 1995. “The Trial of The Century,” as it is commonly known, has been described as the most publicized trial in history. However, before Simpson could be arrested and prosecuted, they had to go through an investigation process with the implementation of some techniques used by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as this essay illustrates.
The 2006 Duke Lacrosse Case brought to light many of the issues and divisions currently plaguing our media sphere. This terrible act of injustice, which blamed three innocent Duke lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, for the rape of an African-American stripper, garnered extensive media attention that gripped America for almost an entire year (Wasserman, 3). Today, many scrutinze the media’s methods of covering the case, and deem that certain codes of ethics were not adhered to. Rather than remaining neutral, newspapers and TV outlets allowed themselves to “be used” by Mike Nifong, the former District Attorney for Durham and prosecutor of the case, by reporting
“The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top”- O.J. Simpson. June 12, 1994 was the day O.J Simpson got away with murder. Nicole Brown was murdered with her companion, Ron Goldman, on June 12, 1994. Much evidence was found such as DNA evidence, a glove, and hair. In the controversial court case of O.J Simpson and the murder of his wife Nicole, the guilty verdict incorrectly acquitted him based on the previous violence, the evidence found, and the personal consequences following his act.
This essay is purposed for the evaluation of the provocative case, The State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, more commonly referred to as O.J. Simpson. On the 12th of June, 1994 the homicide of Nicole Simpson, O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, occurred at her home. Reports of a body sprawled out the front of Nicole Simpson’s house were made through a 911 call. On arrival, police made the discovery of Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman’s dead bodies outside the house. The review of this investigation will be achieved through; Assessment of the key aspects of the process of investigation. Evaluation of the main investigative flaws made throughout the investigation. Identifying strategies to prevent these flaws from happening in
In “ ‘A Steep Price…’” it analyzed the opinions of the public, media, victim, and aggressor in defending their particular take on the case. The article offers mild bias, so it does not completely report the events of the case, because it mostly focuses on the opinionated effects and not so much the facts. In “Feminist Put Judge...”, major bias is introduced by claiming to be in support of the feminist cause; however, the article uses a stronger ethical appeal to attract a broader, more unified audience. In “Here’s the Powerful Letter…”, the author recants the letter the victim wrote to her attacker, Brock Turner. She not only aims for the audience to feel the distress and havoc the case has relinquished on her life, but also a chance to spread a more positive message to thank her supporters while encouraging her audience to stand up for themselves and their self worth. The overall purpose of analyzing all these different media sources is to be able to recognize how the multiple points of view that a story can be told from will alter the objectivity of the event. A society’s culture will emphasis bias or certain point of views to get the public to believe one interpretation of the story based on the
The New York Times bestseller book titled Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case examines the O.J. Simpson criminal trial of the mid-1990s. The author, Alan M. Dershowitz, relates the Simpson case to the broad functions and perspectives of the American criminal justice system as a whole. A Harvard law school teacher at the time and one of the most renowned legal minds in the country, Dershowitz served as one of O.J. Simpson’s twelve defense lawyers during the trial. Dershowitz utilizes the Simpson case to illustrate how today’s criminal justice system operates and relates it to the misperceptions of the public. Many outside spectators of the case firmly believed that Simpson committed the
Soon, excitement wears off, and reality sets in. For many generations, even into the early twentieth century, women all over the world fall as victims into the deep, never-ending hole of domestic violence. In “The Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard accepts her fate as being submissive and obedient to her husband even though her life as the “perfect wife” is nothing less than torturous. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” the self-confidence and self-esteem of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are continuously diminished publicly by their husbands. Mr. Peters puts down the very act of Mrs. Minnie’s household duties when he states, “Well, can you beat the women!
On June 12, 1994, the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found dead at her home in Brentwood, CA. Orenthal James Simpson, or O.J. Simpson was notified of their deaths and immediately taken into custody for questions. Upon the collection of various pieces of evidence from the crime scene, all avenues pointed to Simpson as the culprit for the double murder. The conclusion of Simpson criminal trial resulted in his acquittal. There were various reasons for this acquittal. The most prominent reasons include accusations of racism, evidence contamination, and the lack of faith in DNA profiling. This paper will discuss the issues that arose with the trial in depth and offer an explanation and solution to resolving issues
The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first
It would be foolish to assert that gender plays no role in the criminal justice system, just as it would be equally foolish to say that race plays no role in this system either. Covington and Bloom cite the work of Kivel (1992) in reminding all that "Where sexism is prevalent, one of the gender dynamics frequently found is that something declared genderless or gender neutral is, in fact, male oriented. The same phenomenon occurs in terms of race in a racist society, where the term "race neutral" generally means white" (2003). The criminal justice system reflects the needs of men and the values of men in a highly patriarchal society; the issue becomes more complicated when some scholars argue that women should fight for equal rights in all areas of life, including the criminal justice system, arguing that while equal treatment might hurt women in the short run, in the long run, it's the best policy for women (Covington & Bloom, 2003). On the other hand, opposing groups argue that women are inherently different from men and that insisting on equality will always create a situation where women lose out (Covington & Bloom, 2003). This debate creates an uncertain situation about how women should be treated in the criminal justice system and whether gender should play a role accounting for differential treatment.
When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being look down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes women and the criminal justice system is no different.
Criminality is still assumed to be a masculine characteristic and women lawbreakers are therefore observed to be either ‘not women’ or ‘not criminals’ (Worrall 1990, p. 31). Female offenders are hallmarked for tireless and inescapable coverage if they fit into the rewarding newsworthy categories of violent or sexual. It is always important to note the reason for overrepresentation of women criminals in the media. “Women who commit serious offences are judged to have transgressed two sets of laws: criminal laws and the laws of nature” (Jewkes 2011, p. 125). Such women are hence “doubly deviant and doubly damned” (Lloyd, 1995). When women commit very serious crimes, such as murder, they attract
All feminist theorists share a common focus on gender inequality; however feminism can be described as a set of perspectives rather than a single viewpoint (Strider, N.d.). Therefore, challenging gender biasness in the criminal justice system from the feminist perspective can take many forms given the fact that there a lot of sources of gender inequality in the system. For example, the early theories of criminal behavior largely ignored gender all together and as a result the field has become largely male dominated and males have also been shown to commit more crimes than women on average.