In many western democratic countries, maintaining public confidence in judicial administration is regarded as a critical issue across the whole of government, especially in the criminal justice system. The judiciary consists of many organizations, such as police, the courts, prison service and correlations, that is centrally concerned with controlling crime and protecting community by the exercise of power (Snowball & Jones, 2012). However, a system fails to command public trust may also fail to establish its legitimacy and function effectively (Hough & Roberts, 2004 cited in Jones et al., 2008). For witnesses or victims, they might not report crimes to polices if they feel that their report will not be acted upon or solved quickly. Accordingly, …show more content…
Prior research
It is indicated by Roberts (et al., 2003) that most research discussed public confidence through social attitudes of sentencing, while sentencing appropriately is only one of the public expectation. Publics also expect the government to deal with their matters expeditiously and reduce the crime rate and prevent re-offending.
Australian studies
It is indicated by Gelb (2011) that little research examines the problem of confidence in the courts in Australia. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes becomes the main national source of information, which is a biennial survey that asks respondents their confidence levels they have in ‘the police’ and ‘the courts’. The first study was conducted in 2003 by Indermaur and Roberts (2005). They found that 70 per cent of respondents reported that they had ‘a great deal’
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Since police, criminal courts and prisons are the three main organizations in the criminal justice system, the average level of these three could be seem as the confidence in the system. In the figure, it is clear that the mean number of the level of confidence in police, criminal courts and prisons are all above ‘2’ and under ‘3’, which means most people feel between ‘quite a lot of confidence’ and ‘not very much confidence’ in the criminal justice system.
Table 2 provides the distribution of participants’ responses about the level confidence in the criminal justice system. Responses to first questions about the confidence level in police to respond quickly to crime were 45.58 per cent of participants feel ‘quite a lot of confidence’, and a large proportion of respondents about 58.5 per cent and 39.83 per cent feel ‘not very much confidence’ in both criminal courts to deal with matters quickly and prison to form of punishment. By combining the frequency of level of confidence in police, criminal courts and prison, more than half of the participants (56.85%) reported ‘not very much confidence’ or even ‘not at all’ on the average
The Criminal Justice System and its agencies encounter challenges while trying to perform their daily activities. The system deals with laws involving criminal behaviour. It dwells on three major agencies: the police, courts, and the corrections. Each agency has its own specific and important roles to contribute to society. This paper will explain both the roles and challenges each agency unfortunately battles.
From ‘The public confidence in the Criminal Justice System report’ in 2013/2014 there was a report produced on whether the public believes in how well the system works and if it is effective and fair. The ministry of Justice (2015) argues that, “Levels of confidence in CJS in fairness and effectiveness have increased slightly from 2012/13 to 2013/14 (63% to 64% in fairness, 45% to 48% for effectiveness) (Ministry of Justice, 2015: 2). This shows that there has been an increase of 1% in the public opinion towards the CJS effectiveness, even though it is not much it still does show an increase on the previous year. However, it still does show that the CJS can do a lot more in order to gain more respect from the public in how it
Scales of Justice shows where corruption begins and allows us to see the many examples of the fine line our police must tread. The first act, “The Job” raises many issues. The issue of abuse of power and corruption is also shown with the politics of law enforcement. It shows the extent to which the Australian system of criminal justice conforms to our liberal democratic views of fairness, openness, accountability and efficiency. The discrepancy between the police image and police practice is shown by the act police put on in certain situations. Another issue is the paperwork load carried by the police officers and the effects that this has on their attitudes towards their work. The attitudes of male and female members of the police force towards alleged victims of rape is another issue which Scales OF justice rises in its portrayal of a corrupt police force.
How to appropriately and fairly carry out criminal justice matters is something that every country struggles with. A major reason for this struggle is the fallibility of the justice system. It is acceptable to concede that the possibility of human error in every case and investigation may lead to a wrongful conviction. In the case of David Milgaard, however, Canada's Criminal Justice System not only erred, but failed grievously, resulting in millions of dollars wasted, in a loss of public confidence in the system, and most tragically, in the robbery of two decades of one man's life. Factors including, but not limited to, the social context at the time of the crime, the social perception of deviance, the influence of the media, and the misconduct of investigating police and prosecution played a substantial role in the subsequent miscarriage of justice.
When examining criminal justice systems it is important to note two important criminal justice models, the due process model and the crime control models. Most governments function based on several aspects from each criminal justice model; these crime models were initially introduced by Herbert Packer in 1968 (Cole, Smith, & DeJong, 2014). The due process model in the criminal justice system reflects the formal decision making process and highlights the importance of ensuring the criminal justice system works upon reliable knowledge (Cole, Smith, & DeJong, 2014). The crime control model is based on efficiency and ensuring crime is repressed as much as possible; this model promotes bargaining and often encourages defendants making deals with
This research paper will be used to acknowledge the trending factor in our criminal justice system of wrongful convictions. Wrongful convictions socially can be defined as convicting the innocent and punishing the not guilty. In other words, wrongful convictions play a huge part of our flawed Criminal Justice system. In order to fix and come up with a solution, we will have to first come to basis of first understanding the issue, then using this information to gain ideas to which we can apply to access better results to the issue of wrongful convictions. Once we come up with a reasonable solution to this problem then we can conclude that the data will show an eminent decrease in this trend. The causes of wrongful convictions include the “Snitch” Testimony, Eyewitness misidentification, false confessions and much more that I will add during the readings of this paper.
We are not all treated equal where equality is required to assure the law is upheld. One of the flaws in our criminal justice system is how prejudice is often present in trials, and prevents suspects from having a fair trial. In “Serial”, a podcast about a first generation American teenager of Muslim religion named Adnan who was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend, prejudice is shown very strongly. At his bail hearing the prosecutor led the court to believe that Adnan 's extended support from his Muslim community would do anything they could to help Adnan escape the country and the justice system, ultimately getting away with murder. She furthered this claim with a report that there was a
In conclusion, either while watching television or listen to the news you hear of how certain things are tainting our criminal justice system or that certain things or people are being corrupted in the system.
Over the next 10 years the criminal Justice system could entirely change with the passing of a major law, epidemic, or failed service. Consequently, every since 9-11 our justice system has become much more open minded. Therefore, resulting in the strict enforcement of laws to protect its citizens. Nothing ever stays the same for too long. New developments related to science, technology, DNA analysis, and countless other tools and other factors are changing for the better in solving cases, prevention of crimes, and aiding in investigations. Where there is change there will be changes in the way we handle everyday processing. For example, booking a criminal, acquiring evidence, and interrogation. This also results in the field of criminal justice having no choice but to adapt to the slowly changing times or else be left behind.
The individuals within our society have allowed we the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflict with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, resides in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order.
Conscious efforts to critique existing approaches to questions of crime and justice, demystify concepts and issues that are laden with political and ideological baggage, situate debates about crime control within a socio-historical context, and facilitate the imagination and exploration of alternative ways of thinking and acting in relation to crime and justice. (p. 3).
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
Roberts, J. V., & Hough, M. (2005). Understanding Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice . : McGraw-Hill
While the study of criminal justice and the formation of criminal justice theories are largely molded by several other disciplines such as psychology and sociology (Wellford, 2007), the study of criminal justice has grown and it is time for it to stand alone as its own scientific discipline. Crime theories are developed through studying individuals and assessing as well as their environment and other social aspects. These theories are then used to help form policies in order to deter the individual or group from committing further crimes. Criminal justice theories are not only used for crime but there are also theories which aid criminal justice personnel in the application of the practices that they use. The criminal justice policies are implemented
In today’s society there is a high fear of crime by society. Society actions show that there is anxiety and fear about crime. Therefore, anxiety and fear about crime has placid our cities and communities. Society express fear of being victimized by crimes, criminal activities, and behaviors. Therefore, according to, (Crime, 1999) states that “ the level of fear that a person holds depends on many factors, including but, not limited to: “ gender, age, any past experiences with crime that a person may have, where one lives, and one’s ethnicity.” All of those factors have a huge impact on one’s fear level.