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Canadian justice system punishments
Canadian justice system punishments
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For my court ethnography I observed plea, bail, and family court in the city of Milton. However, it was called the Ontario superior court of justice. When I first entered a court it looked exactly like what I had seen in movies. The court setup, the vernacular used, and the customs of the court employees were exactly like what mainstream media has displayed to the public over the years. Entering the court, symbols of justice were exhibited everywhere in the courtroom. In the courtroom all kinds of cases were occurring, and people from all types of backgrounds were involved. Observing the inner workings of our justice system gave me invaluable insight on how law and order is preserved in our society. Furthermore, I also got to witness the specific …show more content…
My observations were that both the prosecutor and defence had a certain sentence in mind, which they would present to the court, and the judge would deliberate over which lawyer he should listen to. However, I was surprised to see the amount of back and forth that went on between everyone. These events relate to the writings of Blumberg where he states, “However, lawyers… have close and continuing relations with the prosecuting office and the court itself through discreet relations” (Abraham, 1997: 20). During one case in plea court, one of the prosecutor stated that the defence and her had already agreed to a sentence. It seems that the backdoor negotiations that Abraham wrote about are true. The reason this is important is because it displays to the common folk that the legal system is not as cut and dry as it seems. It shows that a person’s fate may be determined based on the debating skills of a person’s lawyer, rather than our legal codes. Furthermore, using the term “game” to describe how a portion of our legal system is conducted would belie the beliefs of many on how justice is dealt in our country. When people think of lawyers and court they imagine people fighting for the rights of people, that the innocent are protected and the guilty are punished. The haggling nature of backdoor negotiation on what sort of sentence will be handed out sort of cheapen the image people have of
Maidment, M. (2009). When justice is a game: Unravelling wrongful convictions in Canada. Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
One of the fasting growing juvenile treatment and interventions programs are known as teen courts. Teen courts serve as an alternative juvenile justice, to young offenders. Non-violent, and mostly first time offenders are sentenced by their peers’ in teen courts. Teen courts also serve as juvenile justice diversion programs. Teen courts vary from state to state, and sometimes within the same state. With this program, all parties of the judicial setting are juveniles with the exception of the judge. Each teen court, is designed specifically to meet the needs of the community it serves. Teen courts were created to re-educate offenders throughout the judicial process, create a program with sanctions that will allow the youth not to have a juvenile record, and to also instil a sense of responsibility.
The job of a criminal lawyer is quite difficult. Whether on the defense or the prosecution, you must work diligently and swiftly in order to persuade the jury. Some lawyers play dirty and try to get their client off of the hook even though they are guilty without a doubt. Even though the evidence is all there, the prosecution sometimes just can’t get the one last piece of the puzzle to make the case stick and lock the criminal up. Such is the case Orenthal James Simpson.
Cole, D. P. (2008). A Day in the Life of a Judge. In Criminal Justice in Canada: a Reader (3rd ed., pp. 59-75). Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
USAID FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. (2005). Model Court Initiative Court Administration Reform Intervention Plan Annex 3.5 - Case Backlog Reduction/Purging Plans . Retrieved from http://www.usaidjsdp.ba/old_page/en/dokumenti/3%20Intervention%20Plan/Annex%203.5%20-%20Case%20Backlog%20Reduction%20Purging%20Plans.pdf
In the field of academia, ethnographic studies are often overlooked as a serious source and reviewed as literature for the mass populace. Because of the often common language, fluid writing styles, format, and production of typical ethnographies, it is much more appealing and attainable to popular culture than the research within a scholarly journal or anthology. Although, perhaps instead of deeming ethnographic work unworthy of a scholarly title due to the appeal it possess, historians should relish in this relativity new form of research for its popularity. Ethnographic studies provide readers with a rare and untarnished micro historic view of the customs of a particular culture or individuals within said culture. Opposing most academia, these studies can sometimes be void in political agenda and personal biases, providing the audience with more objective material. Ethnographies often allow readers to see private and intimate moments within the milieu of the subject which is not often reserved for public life, which is the typically sphere of scholarly study; because of this tendency, individuals and groups which lack a strong public voice are frequently the foci of ethnographic studies. Throughout history women have often been the victims of such marginalization, with a recent focus on Eastern and Islamic women. Considering the previous, Muslim women and gender have been the center of contemporary ethnographic studies, giving a voice to non-Westernized Muslim women and providing a natural research of gender relations with little bias or political agenda.
I am very religious and a huge believer in God, since childhood. My grandma has played a big role making me religious person. I remember in my childhood my grandma used to take me to the temple with her every day. From that time, I am attached very strongly toward the god. There was temple close to my house in India. I used to go to temple with my grandma two times a day morning and evening. These two times in temple saints (Hindu monks) do the “Aarti” (Aarti is waving lighted wicks before the sacred images to infuse the flames with the Deities’ love, energy, and blessings). “Aarti” means get rid of the darkness from life.
The American Court System is an important part of American history and one of the many assets that makes America stand out from other countries. It thrives for justice through its structured and organized court systems. The structures and organizations are widely influenced by both the State and U.S Constitution. The courts have important characters that used their knowledge and roles to aim for equality and justice. These court systems have been influenced since the beginning of the United State of America. Today, these systems and law continue to change and adapt in order to keep and protect the peoples’ rights.
I think that they should ban court storming in sports. Court storming is when a top team losses to either a low ranked team or to thier rivals, when the underrated team wins thier fans jump over the barricade and rush on the court and end up lifting up the home team, the bad part about this is players can end up gettiing hurt or players could end up get agrivated at the fans for bumping into them, so at rare times a player will swing at the fan for pushing the player. People and groups are arguing towards the topic of court stroming,” fans pinned a coach in the corner and one of the fans elbowed a player” this is part of the problem with court storming, it is not only dangerous to other fans it can be dangerous twords players and
The criminal justice system in America is comprised of not just one but of a set of organizations and procedures that have been created by governments in order to mitigate crime and impose penalties for those people who choose to break the law. The United States has many individual criminal justice systems and each jurisdiction i.e. city, county, state, federal or tribal government or military has the ability to dictate how the system works as well as have different laws. With that being said, people in the United States rarely have contact with the criminal justice system and subsequently get much of their ideals and knowledge of what the criminal justice system is and how it works from the media, especially through entertainment television viewing. (Albany) Even though I have been to countless court hearings as a police officer, attending a jury trial as a student was different as I was able to step back and look at it through the eyes of a learner and not an agent of the government.
Some people say that by watching the court system in action, what once was very unknown and unfamiliar, has now become familiar and useful in helping people become more knowledgeable of what happens inside courtrooms. Most people have not been in a courtrooms and only have the perspective that T.V. gives to them. Now they are able to see what really goes on and now can better understand and relate.
The officers to the entrance of the Criminal Court are more aggressive than the officers at the Supreme Court; however, in Criminal Court the setting is almost the same but the first row in the audience is reserved for lawyers only. One of the case I witnessed, was a nineteen-year-old male defendant who was charged with Stalking in the second degree and it is a class E felony. I believe the woman in the audience who was crying is his because when he entered he was looking at the audience and after the bailiff took him away the lawyer came and sat next to her and conversed. Another case was called and the defendant left their significant other and accompanied the lawyer into the ‘well’, all questions was directed to the lawyer and the judge asked only one question directly to the defendant. The defendant was required to answer ‘Yes’ or “No”; after his answer the judge told the lawyer about the next court date and both the lawyer and the defendant walked out towards the audience and the defendant hugged his partner. I believe most case took five to ten minutes to complete and the total atmospheres aggressive and fast paced. The defendant in most cases hang their head low, and was not looking directly at the judge until their lawyer give them a touch with his or her elbow. When I entered the courtroom I sat in the audience section, I had to turn my phone of or put it on
When we are young, most of us are somewhat naive. We are inherently taught that
...rounding individual offender needs and courtroom management and organizational concerns. Although courtroom actor reliance on different focal concerns is theorized to be uniform across jurisdictions, the relative emphasis and subjective interpretation of these considerations is likely to vary across court communities (Ulmer and Johnson, 2004). This is because "the meaning, relative emphasis and priority, and situational interpretations of them is embedded in local court community culture, organizational contexts, and politics" that vary across courts (Kramer and Ulmer, 2002: 903). From this perspective, judicial departures can be understood as the result of the complex interplay between formally rational guideline recommendations and substantively rational sentencing concerns, based on varying interpretations of different focal concerns across courtroom communities.
Throughout the semester, I had the opportunity to interview people from all three components. As previously mentioned, a very important component in the Criminal Justice system is the courts. There are many different types of courts such as the Supreme court, local courts,