Policing is the first step to take place inside the criminal justice system. After arrest, the prosecutor dictates whether to take legal action against the perpetrator or to drop the case. While these cases are historically posed as using hard evidence to convict offenders, is this all that truly influences the outcome of a case? Gender, race, and class constantly are involved in influencing case’s outcomes and has created an unarguable social inequality in today’s legal system.
Social class plays a large factor in deciding legal outcomes. Wealthy defendants are obviously more able -than poor defendants- to contest evidence because of their favorable ability to hire skilled attorneys, investigators, and other highly skilled experts. Even
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In the criminal justice system, studies found that women, on average, are 15% less likely, than men with similar offenses, to be imprisoned (Barkan 360). This is a concerning amount of men over women being punished and causes hot debate over the intentions of the legal justice system.
Deterrence has been the backbone of the United States justice system for a long time now, yet does deterrence truly work? When people plan, or commit violent crimes are they considering the immediate consequences of their actions? Offenders do not typically weigh the penalties they may receive after committing a serious crime. Keeping this in mind, increasing the severe ness of punishment, ultimately, will neither decrease or increase the amount of crimes committed in the United States. Death penalty does play a larger role in the deterrence of criminal acts. The death penalty has been a hot topic regarding whether it should be a legal punishment or not. Many arguments arise from this topic including: is it moral of the state to take a life? Or what act of crime is deserving of the death penalty? And how much of a role does religion play into the decision of the death penalty? Deterrence plays a major role in the discussion of death penalty. No one wishes death upon themselves nor would be satisfied with death by the justice system. The death penalty ultimately does deter major crimes in the sense that a
Capital Punishment, also known as the Death Penalty, has been a part of the United State’s justice system for the majority of the country’s existence. Today, 31 out of the 50 states still recognize the death penalty as a viable option when dealing with high profile crimes, most notably murder and sexual assault. While many people argue that the death penalty should be made illegal, there is also widespread support in favor of keeping the death penalty, leaving the nation divided on the issue. Both sides of the argument possess valid evidence that supports their claims, but in the end, the arguments in favor of the death penalty are noticeably stronger. The death penalty is an appropriate sentence that should continue to be allowed in the
The idea of capital punishment deterring crime is difficult to determine; some could rationalize that the death penalty should in theory stop potential murders from committing crimes. However, this rationalization has never been concretely proven. The research into capital punishment’s effect on deterrence is immense; however, the majority of research on this issue has differential findings. Although some research suggests conclusively that capital punishment deters crime, others found that it fails to do this. Understanding deterrence, the death penalty, and the results of
Those who believe that deterrence justifies the execution of certain offenders bear the burden of proving that the death penalty is a deterrent. The overwhelming conclusion from years of deterrence studies is that the death penalty is, at best, no more of a deterrent than a sentence of life in prison. The Ehrlich studies – which took
Another issue related to the subject involves whether or not capital punishment actually deters criminals from committing crimes. Most people think that the death penalties primary function is to deter others in the future from committing similar crimes. There is evidence that at times capital punishment does deter. However, there are those or cite evidence or opinion that the capital punishment does not achieve its desired effect. The majority of this paper will focus on whether capital punishment actually deters crime.
Since Walter McMillan’s exoneration, decades of efforts towards equality and affirmative action have systematically set up a society geared to help people from disenfranchised groups. True equality in the eyes of the law can be more important than in the court of law, and this fact begs the question, should race and class of an accused criminal be considered in a court
More than two centuries ago, the death penalty was commonplace in the United States, but today it is becoming increasingly rare. In the article “Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?”, Diann Rust-Tierney argues that it should be abolished, and Joshua Marquis argues that it should not be abolished. Although the death penalty is prone to error and discrimination, the death penalty should not be abolished because several studies show that the death penalty has a clear deterrent effect, and we need capital punishment for those certain cases in which a killer is beyond redemption.
In the article “Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System” by David Cole the inequality within the United State 's Criminal Justice System is summarized. David Cole is a graduate from Yale University where he has received his law and bachelor’s degree. He specializes in many different fields of Criminal Justice, and is a fairly well known writer regarding legal affairs and political actions like civil liberties and national security. David Cole writes the article “Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System” based on his views that the justice system to this current day, continues acts of inequality in every criminal case.
Besiki Kutaeladze, Vanessa Lynn, & Edward Liang (2012), Do Race and Ethnicity Matter in Prosecution? A Review of Emperical Studies. Retrieved from Vera Institute of Justice website: http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/race-and-ethnicity-in-prosecution-first-edition.pdf
cautions issued to women, and the lower rate of custodial sentences, reflect that women are less likely to commit serious offences and that past criminal records are also taken into account. Offences that are committed by females tend to be less serious than those committed by men, and fewer women have previous criminal records. This indicates that, according to Trueman and Bryant (2003), there is not any sympathetic bias towards women. 27% of the women who are in prison are first-time offenders, which is more than twice the figure for men. This suggests that men offending for the first time are treated more leniently than women. 63% of women are serving custodial prison sentences for non-violent crimes, in contrast to 45% of men in prison. This suggests that women are sent to prison for far less serious crimes than men. According to the 2001 census, women represented 51.3% of the population of England and Wales, but only 6.1% of the prison population were women. It states that more women are likely to be
Research shows that the gender of the offender does play a role in sentencing, and is more lenient towards a female offender. Furthermore the further along in the trial and sentencing
The authors of this study research whether or not being a women effects prison sentencing. They also delve deeper and see if gender effects minor, or serious crime more. They find for minor crimes women are less likely to receive prison time, then their male counterparts. In more serious crime they receive prison time on the same level as their male counterparts. However, women do receive a shorter amount of prison time, or less serious sentence.
With women being arrested at a higher rate than men, we have to look at how women are being treated in jails. “My research in local correctional facilities showed that women are often put into facilities where both males and females are held, but where females are isolated in one particular part of the jails”
According to Farrington and Morris (1983, P 241-243) the fewer crime rate among women as compared to males significantly influences sentencing decisions. There is a male dominance in major crimes such as murder, drug offences and sexual offences among others. From this fact, women are also likely to get noncustodial sentences as compared to men and
The first argument that I shall contend with is that capital punishment does not deter crime. Opponents of capital punishment say the death penalty is not necessary. Other countries that no longer have the death penalty have not experienced an increase in the number of murders. The idea is that the death penalty does not deter crime. Countries such as Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, and Belgium have not carried out executions since the early part of the century, yet these countries have not experienced a rise in crimr rates (Block, 1983). However, deterrence is not the question when you are looking at the retributive value of capital punishment. In short, deterrence can only work if the threat of punishment is combined with the conviction that the forbidden acts are not only illegal and therefore punishable but immoral. Without the conviction of morality, the easily frightened will not break the law, but the fearless will break the law, the irrational will break the law, and all others will break the law.
The feminist perspective later developed and contributed to criminology in order to give an understanding of gender and crime and to produce equality and social justice for women. Feminist criminology demonstrates how gender matters, not only in terms of why an individual’s path leads to crime but also in terms of how the criminal justice system manages the offender. Feminist criminologists suggest that in order to understand crime it is important to understand that gender shapes the experiences of men and women within the criminal justice system. Due to criminology being patriarchal this has caused a gender ratio problem. The criminal justice system pays very little attention to women as offenders and victims of crime (Flavin, 2001). According to the Ministry of Justice (2012) it is apparent that there is a substantial