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The failure of the American prison system
Strengths and weaknesses of the criminal justice system
Criminal justice system in the United States
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Recommended: The failure of the American prison system
U.S. Criminal Justice System In order to keep a safe society, it is important to establish a nation with good education to teach people judging from right or wrong , excellent police force to keep our street safe, and most of all, a good criminal justice system to carry out the justice. United States is a place with little crimes, a nation with nice houses, beautiful beaches, and expensive shops without property just like what I seen in the American movies in my opinion before I arrived here. The very moment I stood in my dream street, Hollywood boulevard, I was shocked at the scenario. I then realized that this is a place no different from other countries The United States has many problems too, especially in crimes and its criminal justice system. The major feature of the U.S. criminal justice system is the jury system which is found nowhere else in the world except here in the America. The jury system originally was designed such that a decision of whether a person is guilty or innocent will not fall only into one individual's hand but a group of people. This feature gives the U.S. criminal justice system a lot of strength in a way that in order for 10 people to agree on a person being guilty or not, the court must supply sufficient amount of evidence so that no one will be punished by mistake. Moreover, since the jury selection is done so secretly and strict that it is not possible to judge any one in court in the favor of any side, it is the de...
Guilty or not guilty? This the key question during the murder trial of a young man accused of fatally stabbing his father. The play 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, introduces to the audience twelve members of a jury made up of contrasting men from various backgrounds. One of the most critical elements of the play is how the personalities and experiences of these men influence their initial majority vote of guilty. Three of the most influential members include juror #3, juror #10, and juror #11. Their past experiences and personal bias determine their thoughts and opinions on the case. Therefore, how a person feels inside is reflected in his/her thoughts, opinions, and behavior.
jury of his peers. When the result of a trial is a guilty verdict and the
A jury is a panel of citizens, selected randomly from the electoral role, whose job it is to determine guilt or innocence based on the evidence presented. The Jury Act 1977 (NSW) stipulates the purpose of juries and some of the legal aspects, such as verdicts and the right of the defence and prosecution to challenge jurors. The jury system is able to reflect the moral and ethical standards of society as members of the community ultimately decide whether the person is guilty or innocent. The creation of the Jury Amendment Act 2006 (NSW) enabled the criminal trial process to better represent the standards of society as it allowed majority verdicts of 11-1 or 10-2, which also allowed the courts to be more resource efficient. Majority verdicts still ensure that a just outcome is reached as they are only used if there is a hung jury and there has been considerable deliberation. However, the role of the media is often criticized in relation to ensuring that the jurors remain unbiased as highlighted in the media article “Independent Juries” (SMH, 2001), and the wide reporting of R v Gittany 2013 supports the arguments raised in the media article. Hence, the jury system is moderately effective in reflecting the moral and ethical standards of society, as it resource efficient and achieves just outcomes, but the influence of the media reduces the effectiveness.
...a unanimous vote of not guilty. The final scene takes place signifying the "adjourning stage". Two of the jurors, eight and three exchange the only character names mentioned during the film. The entire process of groupthink occurs in multiple ways that display its symptoms on individual behavior, emotions, and personal filters. These symptoms adversity affected the productivity throughout the juror's debate. In all, all twelve men came to an agreement but displayed group social psychological aspects.
The day-to-day operations of police departments across the country are largely handled at the state and local level. The federal government does have a role in local policing, primarily through the provision of federal funding for law enforcement for a variety of programs such as crime deterrence initiatives, hiring of officers, purchasing equipment, training, and creation of cross-jurisdiction task forces (Jawando, Michele L. and Parsons, Chelsea). The Department Of Justice should take a more active approach in setting expectations for police conduct nationwide and ensure compliance with those standards by conditioning participation in federal task forces on the adoption of certain standards, policies, and training and through penalties in federal
The United States has grown as a society since the days as a colony of England, no longer is it a collection of small cities and rural towns. Urbanization has pushed the country into the next level as a society and the old informal watch and constable system are no longer an adequate method to control criminal disorder. Modern law enforcement shares many similarities with the law enforcement of the past but has also expanded and improved upon
The definition of justice and the means by which it must be distributed differ depending on an individual’s background, culture, and own personal morals. As a country of many individualistic citizens, the United States has always tried its best to protect, but not coddle, its people in this area. Therefore, the criminal justice history of the United States is quite extensive and diverse; with each introduction of a new era, more modern technologies and ideals are incorporated into government, all with American citizens’ best interests in mind.
The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.
Since the founding of this country, to the wild west, and up to the present, the agenda of the policing bodies have been clear: to uphold and enforce the laws of our society. Of course the way they do this today had undergone changes from the first police forces of early America, law enforcement has seen trends come and go.
The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” is popular among law enforcement and government employees but is not always upheld, as various errors, such as misclassification, are a major cause of false confessions. Misclassified
Twelve Angry Men is a film that exemplafies many aspects of social psychology. In it, twelve jurors are tasked with deciding the fate of a boy accused of murder. The initial vote is eleven to one in facor of guilty. Gradually, through much intense discussion, all the jurors are swayed to vote not-guilty. The film highlights some of the key theories in social psychology, including confomityprejudice, and group polarization.
In the United States, an accused person is believed to be innocent until proven guilty. The process to make a trial fair has been guaranteed to citizens of the United States through the constitution. Included in the process as a guaranteed right are jurors. A jury is a group of people, from the community, selected by the prosecution and the defense counsel, tasked with deciding if the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (Weigman, 2011). To make this decision, the pool of jurors will listen to opening statements, listen to witness statements, look at the evidence and hear closing arguments. The jurors will then be given instructions that include the explanation of their role, the law and what proof beyond reasonable doubt means. The
Today’s justice system is broken and flawed, with a history of falsely convicting innocent people due to a variety of things, including eyewitness misidentification, invalid or improper forensic testing, and even racial bias on the jury. Many wrongful convictions happen as a result of a combination of these things, and other causes can contribute in each individual case (“causes”). Countless people throughout history have been punished for crimes they did not commit, and with recent advancements in DNA testing bringing about hundreds of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted, one has to wonder how many innocents have languished in prisons throughout history. With all the flaws and potential for error in our courtrooms today, justice can not be brought about by our current system; in order to repair it, we need governmental reform to promote true equity and prevent future miscarriages of justice.
The criminal justice system is about how a society deals with people who violate criminal law. The criminal justice system has a lot to do with politics. Politics expresses what is and is not criminal, and what the consequences are. The community plays two important roles in criminal justice system. The community is responsible for reporting crimes they witness happening. Police depend on the community for this information as they can't always be there to witness a crime. Lastly, the community makes up the members of the jury who convict or acquit criminals.
There simply is no alternate system of laws that can maintain the calm and peaceful environment for people of the world besides “law”. One can easily see the need for each and every nation to enforce its own set of rules. While all of the countries of the world have their own individuality – they all have one considerable feature which is a system of law. It has no significance what type of government is the command, the rules are all appropriate to the people in their community.