Mens Rea Essay

But society´s sanction against crime is its self only moral if the crimes are committed with free choice. This makes the sanction just. So laws are not rooted in some common morality, or indeed in any common political or religious foundation, but against a constantly moving social and economic set of conditions. So the test of a crime against immorality may be a helpful one. Some crimes are 'wrong´ as in murder or rape and theft, but lying, it may be immoral, but it is not a crime.

In both of these scenarios, justice was not done. The systems responsibility is to promote justice, equality, fairness, and protection. However, wrongful convictions have broken this trust and confidence between the system and the people. People look up to the criminal justice system but when that trust is broken; the system also crumbles. Wrongful convictions do not just harm the innocent alleged criminal.

The dirty means are a last resource in a situation where something greater than the law hangs in the balance. Revenge or punishment does not fit these criteria; Klockars says that some officers may use these ideals of dirty means in order to punish the guilty. This is not what the dirty harry problem is about, however it may be how some people view the subject. Klockars is correct when discussing, when only a dirty means will work. Departments must take some responsibility for the actions of the officers.

The illnesses such as psychotic disorders, dissociative disorders, impulse control and addiction disorders, are rarely properly dealt with. While most ingress of people into prison, are already ill, some prison conditions can onset mental illness. The closing of psychiatric hospitals has consequently led prisons to become major institutions for the mentally ill, which implement

We do not use these types of reports in criminal justice report writing. The reason is that subjective reports are biased because it is not based on facts. Typically, criminal justice agencies write reports that are objective in nature that are based on facts that describe the “who, how, what, when, and where.” Subjective reports can be a major setback, especially when trying to convict someone of a crime. It could lead to due process issues. The defendant could feel like he or she is not receiving an impartial trial, because it is based on personal opinion and not fact.

Jacobson was found guilty, but the Supreme Court overturned his conviction finding that the prosecution failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that Jacobson’s predisposition to commit the crime was “independent of government acts” (Lord,1998). In conclusion, the entrapment defense the Supreme Court recognizes that criminal behavior is no always due to a guilty mind, but may be the result of the individual reacting to the environment around them. Entrapment is often misunderstood and despite the previous Supreme Court there are some areas of the entrapment defense that are still cloudy and are not cut and dry. Therefore the application of the entrapment defense is important and necessary in ensuring and upholding fundamental fairness, protecting individuals from wrongful police conduct.

And these minor laws are transgressing are in fact created in order to balance society and make sure there is no disorder. The author cites examples of minor laws that are broken in order to emphasize the idea how careless Americans are. Trippett mentions the commonly held belief that. In other words people these days will not obey the rules, because they are lawbreakers. In his argument Trippett challenges the assumption that not only violent crime breaks the law, in addition small crimes could break the law as much as major.

In contrast, adaptation IV is the least common and gives rise to the rejection of both cultural goals and means. Those that adopt this culture pattern are societal misfits and usually include some such persons as psychotics, psychoneurotics, chronic autists, vagrants, and chronic drunkards or drug addicts. Sykes and Matza’s (1957) control theory postulates that acts of delinquency are generally not approved of even by the delinquents who commit such crimes. First, they don’t believe their crimes are “right”. Instead, they often show remorse or guilt when faced with the consequences of their crimes.

People who do bad things some of which are illegal and some legal for the purpose of accomplishing good ends are guilty of “Noble-cause corruption.” It usually occurs in circumstances where there is little chance of being held accountable. This happens most often with police work when people think that they can get away or hide these illegal This doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't laws against the action (though sometimes there aren't), but the individual who commits noble cause corruption either can't be held accountable or believes he or she won't be held accountable. Noble cause “is a moral commitment to make the world a safer place to live. Put simply, it is getting the bad guys off the streets. Police are trained and armed to protect the innocent and think about that goal in terms of “keeping the scum off the streets.” (Caldero & Crank, 2004) The noble cause in police ethics is a promise to “do something about bad people.” However, it can be corrupted “when officers violate the law on behalf of their own personally held moral values.” Noble-cause corruption is a way of thinking which promotes a belief that the ends justify the means.

An adult can help save a juvenile from making the wrong decision or can be the one to make the juvenile make the wrong decision. Any type of wrong decision can be counted against a juvenile or adult, but how they are charged should be completely different. Hamilton 2 Juveniles should not be charged like an adult is when they commit a violent felony. They do deserve some kind of punishment for their act, but nothing as severe as an adult ... ... middle of paper ... ... tried as adults.” Kids should know right from wrong. They should know that committing a violent felony is a bad thing and shouldn’t be done.