Pleading guilty reduces charges. The question then becomes, is someone who pleads guilty really a criminal, or agrees to be a criminal to reduce time? On November 2, 2017, the Augusta Chronicle posted an article about one of the many offenders of domestic violence who plead guilty. 15% of the violent crimes committed are domestic violence. 15% out of 100% isn’t a big consumption, but the amount of people that are affected by this matter makes this subject a social problem. 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victim of domestic violence. On average, 1,500 Americans women are killed each year by their husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend. The individual in the article, Clarence Dunbar, was facing his fifth trial for domestic violence.
On October 31, Dunbar plead guilty to reduce charges of felony family violence batter, and the misdemeanor offenses of simple battery and obstruction of an office. In November of last year, Dunbar and his wife got into an argument. He was seen punching and kicking her. Two witness tried to separate the two, but Dunbar kept attaching the victim. After failing to separate the two, the witnesses called 911. Upon the police arriving, Dunbar was caught in action by officials throwing a space heater hitting the victim in the head. Dunbar also has records of the same offense. Back in June of 2013, the individual was sentenced to six years in prison for felony violence battery, but made parole in May of 2015. Three months later, he was sentenced to 24
The criminal justice system is a used to protect our society from those who try to harm it. Departments such as courts, and police officers study the behavior of criminals; they want our communities to be safe. When a crime is committed these departments work together to protect the rights of our society and our own. As stated in the textbook, a crime is the “Conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or a local jurisdiction for which there is no legally acceptable justification or excuse” (Schmalleger). Our system is a balanced system, there are times where have to think about our own rights as one person, but there are also times where we have to include other people. We must think of our society and
The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.
Over the years plea bargaining has become the way for the Administration of Justice in America and Canada’s criminal trials. Accused criminals are giving up the rights to a fair trial, to indeed plead guilty, in order to receive a much lesser charge, more comfortable prison, or even to agree to testify against someone else. Fewer than ten percent of criminal cases brought up by the federal government even make it to the federal courts to be tried before juries each year. “According to one legal scholar, every two seconds during a typical workday, a criminal case is disposed of in an American courtroom by way of a guilty plea or nolo contendere plea” (Lynch, par. 1). Which ultimately means more than ninety percent of criminal cases are
Criminal justice is defined as the system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of Committing a crime. Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between GOD and humans. Criminal justice is a process, involving a series of steps beginning with a person committing an alleged crime, a criminal investigation and ending with the release of a convicted offender from correctional supervision. Rules and decision making are at the center of the process.
More than 90 percent of criminal convictions come from negotiated pleas, also known as, plea bargaining. Plea bargains are used every day at both the federal and state court level. They certainly have their “proponents” as well as their “opponents”. A plea bargain basically is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. That agreement is usually in the form of a defendant pleading guilty to a “lesser” crime with a reduced sentence in return for the prosecuting authority not having to expend the time, energy, expense and manpower in seeking a conviction in a trial of a more serious charge. An evaluation of the evidence against the defendant is usually a significant factor by the prosecutor in determining whether or not a plea bargain should be offered. If the prosecutor’s case is strong, the chances of a plea bargain being offered to the defendant are lessened. While at the same time, if the prosecutor feels that his evidence is on the weaker side, the probability of a plea bargain being offered is enhanced.
Our criminal justice system has over time implemented and changed the means of sentencing and punishment for crimes. In the United States plea deals are accountable for 90% of criminal cases. A plea deal is an agreement between prosecutor and defendant in whom the defendant accepts a guilty plea to a charge and in return receives some type of concession from the prosecution. As we have moved forward in the judicial system and now have the ability to look back on previous cases, plea deals have become more controversial. The majority of awareness in this area has been used to look deeper into false confessions, grazing right over the fact that false confessions are a large part plea deals. A controversy arose when many refused to believe that situational factors during interrogations and dispositional factors inherent to the suspects could result in false confessions. (Redlich, 2010)
In conclusion, leader’s use the term “war” as a reason to pass laws that otherwise would not be acceptable to the American public. Our history is riddled with actions that violated the individual rights of our citizens. The decimation of the American Indians, Slavery, separate but equal, Jim Crow laws and the killing of civil rights leaders in the South by police. The McCarran Act clearly violated the First Amendment. The Comprehensive Crime Control Act provides a constitutional loophole that allows law enforcement agencies to violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendment with regards to property. The Patriot Act violates the First, Fourth and the Fifth with regards to the criminal process. So how do we get our rights back? The Supreme Court is the avenue, but there are limitations. Political influence: the court is affected by the political climate as in the case of the prosecution of the eleven Communist members during the red scare of the 1950’s (Union 1952). Time: it takes months or even years for the Court to review and decide during this time the citizen is subject to the punishment or loss
Our criminal justice system has become dependent on processing cases of serious crime through the non-trial procedure of plea bargaining. Saving time and money has become the interest of our court systems, not fairness. Without plea bargaining our courts would be more overcrowded than they are now. Plea bargaining is spreading into an increasing number of countries in spite of criticisms of scholars around the world. Plea bargaining is the notion that with our ever-growing crime rates and limited court resources, conducting a full criminal trial for every defendant would be impossible (Rauxloh, 2011). Practitioners even claim that without plea bargaining the criminal justice system would collapse (Rauxloh, 2011). One must not forget that every trial carries the risk that a guilty person might be acquitted because the prosecution could not prove their case, however; plea bargains secure an admission of guilt for a conviction (Rauxloh,
During this essay, I will be discussing recorded crime statistics and victimisation surveys as they are our primary techniques of measuring levels and trends of crime. After briefly explaining what is meant by these terms, I will seek to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in order to question the extent to which they are reliable resources that provide us with accurate information.
Part 1: Nature, Extent, Impact of Crime Policy on Crime & the Administration of Justice in the U.S.
a. Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal. Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in this video.
The effects of crime on victim can have a mixed feeling about making a victim impact statement. They may want to tell the judge or parole hearing officer how the crime affected their life and yet they may be anxious because you don't know how to prepare an impact statement or you don't want to bring back bad memories by describing how the crime has hurt you. The victim impact statements may include descriptions of:
is fenced in, any other structure inside the fence is considered an extension of the dwelling, even if those buildings are not used as living quarters. If there is, for example, a farmhouse, a barn, and a tool shed that all sit within one large fence, the barn and the tool shed are considered part of the dwelling even though they are not used as living quarters and, if a defendant breaks and enters into the barn or the tool shed with the intent of committing a felony, he can be convicted of burglary.
As the nineties began, the general theory of crime became the most prominent criminological theory ever proposed; furthermore, it is empirically recognized as the primary determinant in deviant and criminal behaviors. Known also as the self-control theory, the general theory of crime can most simply be defined as the absence or lack of self-control that an individual possesses, which in turn may lead them to commit unusual and or unlawful deeds. Authored by educator Michael R. Gottfredson and sociologist Travis Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime (1990) essentially “dumbed down” every theory of crime into two words, self-control. The widely accepted book holds that low self-control is the main reason that a person initiates all crimes, ranging from murder and rape to burglary and embezzlement. Gottfredson and Hirschi also highlighted, in A General Theory of Crime (1990), that low self-control correlates with personal impulsivity. This impulsive attitude leads individuals to become insensitive to deviant behaviors such as smoking, drinking, illicit sex, and gambling (p. 90). The extreme simplicity, yet accuracy, of Gottfredson’s and Hirschi’s general theory of crime (self-control theory), make it the most empirically supported theory of criminal conduct, as well as deviant acts.
Crime and violation are growing problems in all countries nowadays. Engagement in crime means that a person has committed an illegal activity such as murder, human trafficking, drug trafficking and a lot of other things. Crimes are committed all over the world everyday by either men or women. The rate of crime activities committed by men and women have been fluctuating over the past years. Nowadays the changes happening all over the world from the economy to politics has made human-beings more prone to accepting the frequency of crimes. The fluctuation in the economy changed people to being depressed and not in control of what they are doing due to survival needs which lead them to committing crimes. The gender of people committing crimes has divided people into 2 groups, some of which believe that crimes are more likely committed by women and the other group believe that they are more likely by men. Studies have been done to prove both point of views. Women and men are very different in how they perceive the world and what motivates them and demotivates them, which is why it has divided the opinion and studies. Crimes are easy to commit these days because people are no longer being monitored as they once was due to the events happening all over the world involving different countries, so the crimes committed such as robbery seem trivial. Although many women are engaged in crime, crime is most likely committed by men.