The Deterrence Theory By Thomas Hobbes

I agree with the speaker that the criminal justice system in America treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. I believe that in not only in American society but also around world, wealth has a major roll in the outcome of a situation. Money does what money does best, it buys. Unfortunately, money can buy you your freedom and a judge. With money people look up to you, but without money people look down on you.

However, statistics have shown that the death penalty is applied racially and discriminatorily. Three out of five murder cases in which the victim was white and the defendant was black resulted in the defendant receiving a death penalty. Professor Katherine Beckett of the University of Washington reechoed this fact by stating that, jurors in Washington “were four and a half times more likely to impose a sentence of death when the defendant was black than they were in cases involving similarly situated white defendants.” So where is the justice that advocates of the death penalty are imploring? Moreover, the rich are more likely to escape a death penalty than the poor. The DPIC has reported that most defendants in capital cases cannot afford an attorney. Thus, if equal justice for all is anything to go by, then justice should be equally distributed regardless of race and economic

The Justice system seeks to prevent crimes and to capture those who have committed crimes. But what are the causes of crime, maybe poverty, or greed, or is sometimes caused by the system. Is the risk worth the reward and is reward the worth risking the punishment? Power and influence is threaded deeply into the Criminal Justice System. Are all offenders caught and processed with the same demeanor and given the same punishment? The system needs to be impartial to all offenders regardless of the offender’s social position, job or yearly income. The general punishment for most crimes is incarceration in most states with a difference in duration to adjust per each crime. This is the deterrent against crime. This is what should be keeping

It has been brought up that certain race and ethic affects a person’s sentencing. Many studies have addressed the question are African Americans treated more severely than similarly situated whites? (Mitchell, 2005). Observers had indeed noted that black defendants get more severe sentencing than white defendants do (Spohn, 1981). For many years’ social scientist has examined this theory and came up with three explanations, racial discrimination, Wealth discrimination, and legal factors (Sellin, 1928). These three explanations all direct back to blacks because blacks are more likely to be poor, so they are wealth discriminated. Also, legal factors point to blacks because black defendants are more likely to have a serious charge or criminal record than whites do. Some researchers examine whether race has an impact on juveniles being convicted in the adult system (Howell, 2012) as well.

The question of fairness and equality in the criminal justice system has its original roots dating back to the Magna Carta in 1215 AD. The latest document to define the criminal justice is the United States Constitution which specifically in the 14th amendment which states ”no state can make or enforce laws on its citizens, nor shall they deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor will they deny equal protection of the laws”. Section one of the fourteenth amendment means that the states cannot make any laws or enforce them on any person without due process and makes it illegal to deny equal protection. The founding fathers envisioned a justice system that is blind as evidenced by the

There are many factors that influence or have a bearing on the sentencing of an individual after the acknowledgement or conviction related to one’s guilt. Factors such as, prior criminal history and severity of the crime, but the factors that should not determine the sentence imposed are ones of race or ethnicity, gender, among others. It is clear to anyone associated with the criminal justice system, from law enforcement personnel, to the judicial system, that sentencing of some individuals has shown a disparity regarding gender, and ethnicity. Now this is not to say that there is an intentional outright decision to sentence these groups to a more extensive sentence or sentence at all, just based on their race or ethnicity.

The Unites States is the most diverse country in the world. In this very culturally diverse nation one would automatically think that equality would exist. Realistically it does not, particularly in the Criminal Justice System. Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System results from the disparate treatment of correspondingly situated people grounded on race. The history of racial inequality in the Criminal Justice System in the United States has been age-old. With this country 's dishonorable past of slavery, the Jim Crow laws, and plentiful other racially established injustices, it seems apparent that race plays a factor in many aspects of the criminal justice system, such as who is more probable to come in contact with it and who is more likely to be incarcerated.

Many minorities are convicted more often and more severely than white defendants for the same crime or even for a less severe crime as seen with James Banks. Studies agree with this as well, according to the NAACP “5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites”, this illustrates the wide disparities in sentencing. If more white people use drugs then why are black people still being charged more as a group for the same crime? Black people are sentenced 10 times more for the same crime and they commit the crime less. A large difference such as this one cannot be avoided because it truly means there is a problem. Small differences in data are understandable but astronomical numbers such as theses should raise a red flag that there is injustice in are criminal system being done every day to

First, a sentencing structure should be rational. The sentence should be proportional to the severity of the crime as measured by the harm to the victim and to the offender’s prior record. One of the things I would do to ensure rationality to a sentencing structure is eliminate mandatory minimums. Mandatory minimum sentences don’t serve to eliminate sentencing disparities because they do not eliminate sentencing discretion - they merely shift that discretion from judges to prosecutors.

Did you know that a black man born in 2001 has a 32% chance of spending a significant portion of his life behind bars? This is a fact that cannot be avoided any longer. Most of the population argues that the American Justice system is not fair because juries are often uninformed and there is too much racial, cultural, and religious prejudice.

Cesare Beccaria is known as the father of deterrence theory. He suggested that there were three characteristics of punishment that make a significant difference in whether an individual would decide to make the decision to commit a crime. The three characteristics he suggested were swiftness, certainty, and severity. Beccaria said there were two reasons why swiftness of punishment was important. One reason was because there were some offenders spending more years awaiting trial than they would spend for their sentence. He said the faster the offender gets punished for the crime that was committed, the more useful it would be. The second reason he emphasized a swift sentencing was related to deterrence. If people are awaiting their trial for a

The archaeological record suggests that humanity’s (Paleolithic) origins were violence, they had evidence such as bones and mummies. Life back then humans lived in anarchy without a central government to help make rules or prevent violence from occurring. Life back then you were either a hunter or gatherer. This relates to Hobbes because Hobbes stated “ The life of man: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Violence is known as these things such as nasty and brutish which leads to short lives being lived.

A state is sovereign when its magistrate owes allegiance to no superior power, and he or she is supreme within the legal order of the state. It may be assumed that in every human society where there is a system of law there is also to be found, latent beneath the variety of political forms, in a democracy as much as in a absolute monarchy, a simple relationship between subjects rendering habitual obedience, and a sovereign who renders obedience to none. This vertical structure, of sovereign and subjects, according to this theory, is analogous to the backbone of a man. The structure constitutes an essential part of any human society which possesses a system of law, as the backbone

In today’s society we see all kinds of unfair cases coming in and out if the courtroom. People who have enough money to go hire a top of the line lawyer to protect them from being accounted guilty. All the while in the poor community people struggle to survive just to pay their rent, and when they commit a crime it’s hard for them to afford a top of the line lawyers. Every day you turn on the TV or the radio and hear about these celebrities that constantly get in trouble for drugs, guns, and fighting but yet when the judge sentences them it’s like they get a smack on the hand or receive the minimum sentence available. This even happens in a

     “The principle of least eligibility says that, the prison inmates should have no more than what the poorest citizen has.”(Jenne, lecture) This principle doesn’t benefit the inmates and in no way is it going to better them as an individual. If the purpose of corrections is supposed to, “correct the problem,” it should be done accordingly depending on the crime they have committed. Non violent offenders should not be treated as severely as serious offenders such as murderers and rapists. This does not mean they should be treated like they’ve done nothing wrong, but there is clearly a difference in the severity of certain crimes.