What is justice? To me, just doesn’t have to have this convoluted definition, justice is simply amending a wrongdoing, a crime for example. If justice is just fixing what was done wrong, how do you do that? Not with punishment; with rehabilitation. If you focus on punishing someone you can easily fall into the “eye for an eye” mentality which just creates a vicious cycle of suffering that you must avoid to make progress. In addition, you have to identify the root cause of the problem otherwise you're just wasting your time, and effort. Lastly, you have to take things on a case by case basis because the individual circumstances have a gigantic effect. I believe justice should focus on rehabilitation, not punishment because Justice is simply …show more content…
Simple black, and white punishment isn’t the answer. First off, when people follow the “eye for an eye” mentality, everyone ends up needlessly suffering without making any true progress. There is an excellent quote by Mahatma Gandhi that demonstrates this, “An eye for an eye will make the world go blind”. This quote shows the futility of just simply punishing someone for doing something wrong. If you simply punish a criminal, the criminal will continue to be angry, and consequently, want to seek revenge on you. This creates a cycle which only creates more problems, more wrongdoings, and more suffering. To further reinforce this idea there is a much simpler proverb taught; “two wrongs don’t make a right”. Image this hypothetical situation, someone broke into your home and stole from you. Just because they stole from you doesn’t give you the right to go break into their house, and steal from them. It doesn’t suddenly become alright, or legal for you to commit the crime that was committed on you because clear-headed people realize that nothing constructive will come from that. In fact, the most constructive thing you can do is to address the root cause of the
There is no simple right or wrong solution, there is simply choosing the best and most appropriate choice for the specific case. Choosing to use the combination of rehabilitation and deterrence is quite conflicting of one another. But some cases call for help and treatment, and so call for punishment. There are so many factors that contribute to a case, that the decision can be altered so fast by the smallest detail. The criminal justice system is complex, brutal, and sometimes unfair, but deciding on the right goal for the criminal can make all the
By definition justice means the quality of being just or fair. The issue then stands, is justice fair for everyone? Justice is the administration of law, the act of determining rights and assigning rewards or punishments, "justice deferred is justice denied.” The terms of Justice is brought up in Henry David Thoreau’s writing, “Civil Disobedience.”
Arguably, there are many reasons for punishment, including: retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, restoration, and rehabilitation. The main aim of criminal law is to punish anybody who does wrong to the society; however, it is clear that there are different goals and forms of punishment as listen above. Notably, these differences exist because of the severity of the crime and its punishment. A murderer can be sentenced to die but a shoplifter cannot face the same sentence. The first type of punishment, retribution, punishes the crime doer because the system believes that it is right and fair. Therefore, it looks back at the crime and matches it with the best possible punishment (Schmalleger, 2013). The second type, incapacitation, is forward
We are all faced with articles and news reports detailing crime occurring all over the world, crime that affects all types of communities, crime relating to religious, gender and age differences to name but a few. I have always paid close attention to the punishments handed out to criminals, in which I always seem to find myself debating on whether these punishments have been fair or are un just.
There are three types of Justice discussed in Book 1 of Plato’s Republic which are Retributive, Procedural, and Social Justice. Retributive justice is the type of justice that requires someone to pay back their debts if they took something. According to Cephalus, justice requires ‘repayment’ from those who have taken something. For example, The death penalty can be considered retributive justice because someone may have took a life and now their life will be taken from them in return. Procedural justice is doing good for someone that you are close with but doing harm to someone you do not get along with. Polemarchus believes that justice is doing good to good people and doing bad to bad people. For example, Giving your friend a ride to
America is home to the land of opportunity. Millions of immigrants come to the United States each year in pursuit of the American dream. Little do some know they are entering a more strict society compared to the one they left. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the word, with 716 per 100,000 people getting put behind bars (Wikipedia). How is a country that lives by the words of freedom, and integrity, have higher incarceration rates than the rest of the world? There are 36 states that have higher prison populations than the second leading country, Cuba (vice). There are so many reasons and flaws that can be pointed out
“Today we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world,” (Stevenson). The prison population in the U.S. has grown extremely fast over the past three decades. With almost “six million people on probation or parole,” it is clear that there is a problem with our prison system (Stevenson). I believe the prison system in the United States is outdated and unjust because of unfair sentencing, racial discrimination, and the privation of the prison system.
Every year, innocent people are given prison sentences to crimes they did not commit. Statistics are kept by the Criminal Justice Department on the number of wrongful convictions but according to research, it has been estimated to 5% of the cases tried have resulted in a false conviction. Reasons due to false convictions are misidentification from a witness, false confessions, forensic mistakes, DNA testing, coercion, and more. A number of ideas will be argued as possible solutions to help lower the number of wrongful convictions that are given the innocent people who fall trapped to this system. A study by Barry Scheck [2008] on forensic evidence revealed that not more than 20% of the felony cases involved biological evidence [Scheck, 2008, p.4]. Although the number seems low, the proper handling and testing of biological evidence can offer some hope to an innocent suspect. Other variables that lead to wrongful convictions are false statements and confessions. Which that can be taken from suspects through questionable actions of methods. [Leo, Ofshe, 1998] or that pooled from jailhouse snitched, informants, or cooperators. Many people believe that the use of evidence has been corrupted in the system while others believe that cases where evidence is used are deviations from the typical process. “Eyewitness misidentifications were a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions.” The knowledge that a free citizen could be unreasonably sentenced to prison or executed by the State is totally opposed the thought of shrewd treatment likely in the United States. DNA is the leading cause to wrongful convictions. If the problem is to be talked and fixed, it must first be understood; not as it is seen, but as it is. It is difficult to express...
Does justice exist in America? Yes, justice does exist in America, but for whom is the question real question. In America all citizens should feel equal to one another but that is not the case. Rather than feeling equal to one another, the blacks and whites of the country feel hatred to one another. In American justice is served but it is mainly for whites and not blacks. The word justice is defined as the quality of being fair and reasonable. Unfortunately in America, justice is not always equally served due to racism in the modern society.
Revenge is medicine to most people or it is an ongoing circle. When a person is betrayed or inflicted pain it is a natural reaction to think of a way to cause the same pain back. Revenge is part of everyday life and many find pleasure through it. Although it may be the natural reaction and could be someone’s gut feeling that is telling him or her to do it is almost never right and does not pay off in the end. Revenge is a ongoing circle due to the fact that when someone does something wrong to a person that person will want to do it right back and keep going back and forth until justice intervenes or someone realizes it is morally wrong. Just like the saying “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” is the
There are several types of punishment that can be inflicted upon an offender including, fines, community sanctions and imprisonment (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007). Punishment is described as a sanction which inflicts a certain amount of pain and loss on the offender, used for payback and deter (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007; Carlsmith, Darley, & Robinson, 2002). There are three ways society justifies punishing offenders, through the
Adilia Mira CRJU 555 Thinking about Social Control Many people believe that punishment is the proper way to deter individuals from committing crime. Some theorists argue that punishment should fit the crime. For example, cases in which people run a red light should receive fines or tickets for their violation, whereas individuals who commit severe crimes such as murder or rape should receive life imprisonment or the death penalty. Victims of crime are the main supporters of imprisonment because they believe that incapacitation will leave a criminal unable to commit more crimes.
How many of you have every been arrested? Hopefully none, but how many of you have seen those online videos of American Citizens or even Legal Aliens from across the country getting pulled over and asked a series of question with trying to prove their citizenship and being asked to where their final destination is? Some reply with “Am I free to go,” or even “If I’m being detained what law do you suspect me of breaking or committing?” These traffic stops or police checkpoints have been a controversy in today’s society for quite a while and have yet to be completely figured out by today’s justice system. When Thomas Jefferson said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that
The criminal justice system is the system of law enforcement that takes an extensive position in prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. It is essential to know the many theories of punishment that the justice system has created in their minds that eventually became a part of society. This paper will analyze the theoretical explanations of punishment and their effect on society by generating an opinion of how each type of punishment deters crime the best and if punishment provides any benefit to the offenders and to society.
Punishment, the word has brought fear to men and children alike, leaning towards adult offenders it tends to take on deeper connotations. As a child you would be punished by your parents, school leaders and other parental figures, and mostly under not so serious circumstances, usually requiring very little corporal punishment and/or separation from entertainment devices. As we get older the offenses tend to be greater and therefore demand greater punishment, despite having histories involving death sentences and hard labor, some methods have done little to deter some offenders. The question this raises of course, should we focus more on punishment or on rehabilitation, concentrating on punishment some would say stricter… while many will say we can’t be too strict. We have way of punishment that delves from corporal to separation, extremes that favor either or, and then extremes that bring them together. “Those in favor of Judicial Corporal Punishment argue that corporal punishment is a quick and effective method and less cruel than long-term imprisonment; adherents to this viewpoint think that corporal punishment should be re-considered in countries that have banned it as an alternative to imprisonment; some even want corporal punishment to replace fines for such minor offences as graffiti.” (K, 2013)