Acts of vigilantism, though being around many years, have no place in a modern society of today. In our society there are laws put into place for the local law enforcement to enforce and protect, so when people in our society go outside of these laws to get what they feel is justice, they become vigilantes committing acts of vigilantism. There are some groups that people call vigilantes like Neighborhood Watch programs and the Guardian Angels. These groups are not created to take the law into their own hands, but they act within the laws working with police officers and their communities to help make them safer. The Neighborhood Watch programs keep a watchful eye for crimes committed in their neighborhood and report to the police, and the Guardian Angel chapters are endorsed and supported by local law enforcement agencies (Bajandas). Both groups work with the police staying within the boundaries of the law helping to reduce crime. There are many reasons that show how acts of vigilantism are dangerous and illegal.
The country and states we live in have laws that have been put into place to protect the people and their freedoms. Without the laws put in place by government, there would be chaos and confusion. If these laws did not exist then everyone would exercise their different ideas on how these laws should be enforced in their own ways. We can see this in the way people react differently towards criminals, and how they should be tried and punished when they commit an act of crime. According to the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training Policy, policing agencies that are put in place to protect and enforce these laws also have to follow the same laws they protect. This policy states; “The purpose of the Use of For...
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...s us from becoming part of the problem and allowing the law to work. Staying within the conforms of the law we eliminate the chances of becoming the criminal and creating more victims, for instance or family’s that have to deal with our actions and burden of us not being there for support that is needed and becoming part of the judicial system that no one wants to be part of thus effecting our lives and everyone else’s lives around us.
Works Cited
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"Special Weapons & Tactics Unit (SWAT)." Bend Oregon. City of Bend, 2007. Web. 9 May 2010.
...prevent harm and set peace for society. So by looking at this theory, we can prevent those who are being deprived of their rights in an unconstitutional manner and are of no harm to society, thus preventing them from uneccessary punishment.
Jacobs, David, Jason T. Carmichael, and Stephanie Kent. 2005. “Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat and Death Sentences.” American Sociological Review 70: 656-677.
No societal foundation links citizens so in depth to the government such as police. This limb of government defends against total chaos and maintains something such as the order of laws and due process in the democracy that is the United States is.
The document is a document. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 30 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard Moore, Claire. A. To Teach or Not Teach Gun Safety in School?
Peak, K. J. (2006). Views. In K. J. Peak, Policing America: Methods/Issues/Challenges (p. 263). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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The basis of criminal justice in the United States is one founded on both the rights of the individual and the democratic order of the people. Evinced through the myriad forms whereby liberty and equity marry into the mores of society to form the ethos of a people. However, these two systems of justice are rife with conflicts too. With the challenges of determining prevailing worth in public order and individual rights coming down to the best service of justice for society. Bearing a perpetual eye to their manifestations by the truth of how "the trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both" (Hitchens, 2003, para. 5).
America is looked upon by other countries as the land of the free. However, it is disappointing that the people who is responsible for protecting our freedom, are now feared and despised because of the discriminatory crimes they have committed. Instead of protecting our society, police are abusing their power. In order to put a stop to this; the government needs to create restrictions, provide more training for officers, and set forth more consequences when they take someone’s life.
The main purpose of the police is to protection, and force should only be use to promote the safety of the community. The police have been charged with the one of the greatest responsibility in the world, and that is with safeguarding the domestic well being of the public. My father was a New York police officer for 20 years, and I know firsthand that this job is not an easy one. The polic...
They open up the doors to a new discussion that explores the idea of not punishments for crimes they commit, but preventing them before they take place. Staying after school, involved in productive activities seems to help students stay out of trouble. Curfews are imposed in some states, preventing juveniles from being out past a certain time until a time early the next day. These curfews are said to be in place in order to prevent crimes, but there are no statistics to back this up, as there are for the crime rate dropping with kids staying after school. Regardless, these are matters of precaution taken in order to attempt to prevent crimes from happening at the times in which they’d be anticipated to. If things are in place in order to prevent juveniles from committing crimes, the crime rate will drop, and many people will be saved from entering a world unknown to the world that is prison. Stopping juveniles from committing crimes would maybe them cause adults to not commit crimes as well, since in essence, these juveniles will indeed one day be adults. By implementing laws, states and law makers understand that there will always be people that don’t follow them. By stating programs, allowing juveniles a place to reconcile with small mistakes they make, or creating a safe-place where they can seek help from
and prevents the government from exerting their brute force to bully a conviction of an innocent
Nothing does more to tear our families apart than violent crime, guns, gangs, drugs, and the fear that walks alongside those terrors. Violent crime and victim rights have become a major concern for most citizens in the United States of America. Statistics indicate a decline in violent crimes in our country and an increase in our national prison population. Released prisoners commit most violent crimes. Gun control legislation, reform programs, victim rights awareness, and other programs are abundant in our country, but do little to alleviate violent crime. In this paper I will try to present the liberal and conservative views on this issue as well as my own views.
In every society around the world, the law is affecting everyone since it shapes the behavior and sense of right and wrong for every citizen in society. Laws are meant to control a society’s behavior by outlining the accepted forms of conduct. The law is designed as a neutral aspect existent to solve society’s problems, a system specially designed to provide people with peace and order. The legal system runs more efficiently when people understand the laws they are intended to follow along with their legal rights and responsibilities.
Potter, G. (2013, June 25). The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1. Online Police
Oliver, W. (2006). The Fourth Era of Policing: Homeland Security. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 20(1/2), 49-62. Doi: 10.1080/13600860600579696