One would be hard pressed to argue that the criminal justice system in America is perfect. Everyday, countless headlines can be seen nationwide about some perceived injustice within the courts. Our criminal justice system is no different than our society wherein special people get special consideration, men and women are held to different standards, and so forth and so on. As an American, I have accepted these facts of life. I am a father of two boys, a varsity baseball coach and a police veteran of 17 years. In my experience as a father, coach and police veteran, I have seen and heard it all.
There is little doubt that a male teacher having intercourse with a 14 year old female student would have had slightly different consequences than what Debra Lafave received as a result of her sexual relationships with a student. But what was the real reason she received no punishment. The answer is not singular but multi-faced. First, whether or not people admit it, the Mrs. Robinson or cougar relationship is not viewed as a crime of victimization in our culture.
Often joked or laughed about, the sexual exploitations of young men are often seen as a right of passage. A young man’s first experience maybe with an older woman and such encounters have been portrayed in American music, movies and glamorized in American pornography. There are those who will argue that the type of sexual relationship Lafave had with her student was wrong and disgusting, but there is also a gender bias for
Mass incarceration is an issue that defines us as a society. Today, the United States of America makes up about five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Also, one of every one hundred adults are locked up, and one in every thirty-seven adults in the United States is under some form of correctional supervision: in addition, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Young black people went through many difficulties; however, they are still called super predators by Hillary Clinton. One of many difficulties is the African slavery, although it was over a century ago, it left a scar and a horrible memory in everyone's mind. All the phenomenons that occurred in our country during the last century gathered thoughts and escalated the problem of mass incarceration which made the people including the police look differently at African American people. I am against the mass incarceration issue. Opposing Donald Trump, I think we should reduce the number of people behind bars with cautions, because It is a complex subject that has many causes and effects in the long term to the people inside and outside the prison.
The American Criminal Justice System are sets of agencies and process made by the government to control crime and to penalize those who commit it. The justice system is different based one’s jurisdiction, meaning city, state, federal or tribal government or military installation. The Criminal System is divided into two main parts, the state and the federal. The state portion handles crimes within its state boundaries. The federal portion handles crime committed on Federal property or in two or more states (“Criminal Justice” 1). The American Criminal Justice System needs reform because of its emphasizes on incarceration punishment rather than Rehabilitation. Our justice system especially enforces punishment on blacks and Latinos resulting of overpopulation of prisons like Rikers Island for petty crimes. Also, another reform needed the juvenile cases. For example, juveniles who commit petty crimes shouldn’t be sent to adult prison and shouldn’t be near more dangerous and serious inmates.
Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics in today’s world. Many people believe that it is morally wrong to have capital punishment as a sentence to a crime. People also do believe that it is morally permissible for a severe crime. Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty. It can be given as a sentence when somebody is convicted of an extremely violent crime. The biggest issue that can be seen with this is that somebody could be innocent and sentenced with the death penalty because of the nature of the crime that they have been accused of even if they didn’t commit it. I believe that there is a moral line between using the death penalty and using other forms of punishment.
The criminal justice system used today is to follow principles that protect and establish equality for all and while the United States criminal justice system may strive to follow these right of the people, but unfortunately, this is where the system falls short of fundamental American principles. Repeatedly the criminal justice system does the adverse of what it’s supposed to do. It does not protect the many liberties the people should have. Some may argue that the criminal justice system is indeed fair for
Today our Justice system is not perfect, but nothing is. Everything has its pros and cons, its ups and downs and its strengths and flaws. There are things that we can appreciate from how our Justice system is ran and of course there is some that we would like to change. I believe that our Justice system works but that there are things we could change or fix to make it even better.
In Bryan Stevenson's book “Just Mercy”, he discussed how many people are put on death row. He is a real lawyer who had to deal with inmates who were put on death row even if they said they were innocent. It made him realize how bad our criminal justice system is. Injustice, racism, and socioeconomic statuses were the main huge reasons why some were executed. Wealthy, poor, having no criminal records or having a few; there will always be discrimination towards those who are black.
A few stories from her book consist of young females, as young as fourteen, and their treacherous journey through adolescence with the title of “slut” weighing on their shoulders, when in reality it may not have been true or consensual sexual relations. Continued in her book, there are cases where women are asked about their sexual relationships and gynecology records when filing a lawsuit against people or companies for sexual harassment from males and payment inequality. When men were surveyed, 92% said that the double standards, that they themselves live up to, are unfair, but 65% said that if a woman they liked had slept with ten to twenty men the previous year, that they would not take them
Youth incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates facilities as well as ruins lives at an alarming rate. As a society we cannot expect our kids to be the future of this nation when we are placing them in facilities where they become victims of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that is far worse for them than adults. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Standford Law school. She states in her award-winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness "Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted once being placed into a facility" (Alexander,123). Adolescents being detained causes many problems that are much more detrimental to them than adults. Some of them will now have exposure to drugs and gangs. Others will become victims of sexual abuse from other older inmates or staff members and risk transmitting sexual diseases. Most young juveniles have a mental illness that has not been treated or they become suicidal when staying in a facility. These young people are still adapting to their environment and should not be treated as adults. They are unable to grow and develop when we are punishing them like adults and trapping them in the US justice system. The families of these children will now suffer knowing what their child faces in these facilities. As a nation we cannot consider ourselves civilized when we are placing these young people in facilities that punish them like adults.
Perpetrators of statutory rape were not being pursued vigorously, as the concept of rape based on presumed inability to consent to sex had fallen out of favor. ... As conservative commentators decried the harmful public and financial consequences of the rising teen birth rate, a handful of social scientists devoted their efforts to learning more about the relationships and behaviors that led to births among teenagers: they studied the youth population and their sexual partners looking for clues to explain changing patterns of behavior. ... Pursuant to changes in the SRVPP Guidelines, California's statutory rape enforcement policy grew to encompass all forms of non-pregnancy-inducing sex between adults and minors (including sexual behavior short of intercourse, acts between adult women and teen boys, and acts between same sex partners), as well as crimes involving multiple victims, pimping/prostitution, the provision of alcohol or drugs to minors, acquaintance rape, and rape of disabled minors. ... These same themes emerged in the early 1990s, when a new set of fiscally and morally conservative policymakers became concerned about rising welfare costs and the demographics of the populations receiving welfare; like their predecessors, they constructed statutory rape as antithetical to the social norms of financial and sexual responsibility and dangerous to society's welfare
Statutory rape refers to the act of sexual intercourse in which one of the participants is below a certain age, as defined by law, at which they are deemed incapable of being able to consent to such behavior. The age of consent varies between states and has been altered over time and the history of such laws will be discussed later on. But this paper will know discuss the concept of sex being a social construct based upon rates of sexual activity in adolescents and behavioral problems that have resulted from sexual relationships. So what factors influence society’s perception of sex? Age, and age difference between partners is certainly a major component, being one of the most significant aspects of what is considered statutory rape. From the play, we know that Li’l Bit was 11 years old when she was first sexual assaulted by Peck, who is significantly older than she is. Harold
Recent cases of police brutality have triggered nationwide protests over the past several years. These protests are held in a variety of ways--marches, sit-ins-etc. One recent protest took America by storm: over 100 NFL players refused to stand for the National Anthem on several different occasions. Many people, including President Trump, are pushing for owners of the teams to fire the NFL players that participated. However, doing so would be unorthodox, as Americans have a right to peaceful protest by the First Amendment. At the same time, the First Amendment gives those who make such claims the right to do so.
Imagine you are a teen walking down the street with a friend. Now imagine being surrounded by police and getting searched for something that is not there. Since the item in question can not be placed the accuser changes their story; After multiple versions of what allegedly happened the police arrest you and your friend. Due to having a history of theft, a judge charges you with second degree robbery, even though there is no evidence to prove any wrong doing. Thinking the justice system will come through, and knowing your innocence, a trial is requested. Bail is set and cannot be paid due to economic hardship. Another consequence of not having money for bail, is there is also no money for a private attorney. A public defender, who has to many cases to keep straight, is assigned to help defend in court, yet he is trying to lessen his load and recommends several times that a plea deal is the best option that should be taken, even in the case of innocence. Picture holding out hope that if the case could just go to trial all would come to light. Four years pass by, mostly spent in solitary confinement, where the harsh circumstances begin to take a toll, mentally and physically. Imagine conditions so horrible, death seems better than enduring another day. Now picture the day for “justice” is finally here. No sooner does court get started it ends. The case gets thrown out due to the person who started all of this not being present. All the suffering that has been endured,
As of the constitution in regarding of how it explains the legal system there could be different explanation but in combining three articles like 1,2 and 3 what they have in common is its either the congress, executive, or legislative that have power and it’s established by courts. But also look at how not just articles have similarity but also amendments have similar explanation like 1,2,4,5,6,8,10 and 14 where in regard of the legal system people have the rights in their favor and could not be forbidden in any punishment of an unusual way.
In America, the justice system is flawed and biased in most cases. Many cases are overlooked and have exaggerated sentences that sets a person’s fate in stone. In the documentary, Time: The Kalief Browder Story, Kalief Browder was wrongfully put in Riker’s Island Jail for three years. He endured beatings, starvation and torture without ever being convicted of a crime. He spent most of his time in solitary confinement and it drove him to the brink of insanity. His whole life changed the night he got arrested for supposedly stealing a man’s backpack. Without having the funds for bail, Kalief stayed in one of the most violent prisons in the country and it affected him immensely. He was paranoid and did not trust anyone around him because he thought they were the police. No matter what he did to try and work through the suffering, he still ended up in a psychiatric hospital on a couple occasions after his release. And because of the effects, he committed suicide at his mom’s home only a few years after he was released from prison. The justice system is fatally flawed and needs to be revised for the fact that Kalief’s story is not so unusual. Although the justice system was made to protect the innocent and reform the guilty, it failed to provide justice because of the inconsideration of bail, mistreated and abused while incarcerated, adaptation after jail, and the not so speedy trial.
Nevertheless, sexual abuse has always been biased towards women relative to men for as long as we can remember. Considering the fact that sexual abuse can occur to both genders, it is mostly known to victimize women. One of the most common environments for sexual abuse to take place is in academic domains. In the view of society, men are above women; in consequence, women portray a weak image, hence making easier casualties of sexual abuse in the educational field. Due to the fact that students may need guidance to better excel in their career, some professors begin treating it as an opportunity to gain sexual access from the student. To better illustrate the idea that sexual abuse makes its way through into academic environments, take the word from the victims themselves. “I was naive enough to think that we would talk about Wittgenstein, but after he flopped over me a few times, telling me that I had to have sex with him... I made my escape” (Whitley 39). Moreover, another victim said “I couldn’t say ‘no’ because he would have responded with rage and revenge. He would have ruined my career”(Whitley 39). In both cases, these women were attacked by the professors for being of lesser status; they were manipulated to remain silent by fear, threats, and their dependence on the professor for academic help. Due to the idea that women are viewed lesser than men, inflicts professors’ to