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Ethics in criminal justice
Ethics in criminal justice
Ethics in criminal justice
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The justice system has changed for people that has excessive wealth and those who are less fortunate. Those that are more privileged take advantage of the justice system instead of setting the example for those who can't afford paid lawyers or lawyer at all. Richer people have the intentions that they can get away with crimes because they can afford the bail they know their going to get. People that have higher income are capable of getting off on their cases faster than somebody that is lower class or middle class, there is many example cases that somebody that is rich got getting off earlier.
Rich people are capable of getting off easier and in the Ethan couch case you could see that wealth was the main reason he wasn’t convicted when the crime was first committed. Ethan couch is was about 16 years old when he was in a car crash that ended 4 innocent lives. Ethan couch was sentenced to 720 days in jail and probation. His psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller arrived on the stand to testify the reason for on Couch's behalf. Miller had a supported a claim that Couch's wealthy upbringing and a lack of consequences for his actions caused him to suffer from "affluenza." This is a prime example of rich people getting off easier Couch was released with less time and blaming his
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In the Kate Meckler case she was only sentenced to 5 days of community service after stealing $2,000 in clothes in Saks. Kate Meckler comes from a particularly wealthy family, her father is the CEO of mediabistro.com and grandfather Herman Meckler was an actor who had movie roles in hit movies such as “Amadeus” and “Hair”. So why was she stealing out of Saks? The answer is Kate Meckler knew she would be about to get off earlier than anybody that is in the lower class. Since that are within the higher class are exempt from rules and/or laws that is imposed on
1. Reiman explains that the idea that white collar crime is taken less seriously is because it protects the elite classes. For example, if the public believes they should fear the poor more than the rich, the rich can commit more crimes and go unnoticed because the population is focused on the poor Reiman explains that that the way crime is explained does not exactly fit what we think crime is. He explains that the notion that white-collar crime being harmless is based on the idea that white collar crimes do not end in injury or death is false because more people’s lives are put at risk than “lower class” crimes. Reinman thinks it is necessary to re- educate the public on white-collar crimes for economic
In the excerpt from King Lear by William Shakespeare, Lear states that there is a relationship between one’s wealth and justice; where the richer are given more leniency when it comes to justice, while those who are not as wealthy receive less grace from the law. Lear argues that the wealthy are virtually above the law when tried for a crime, while the poor are unfairly tried and even receive the harshest of punishments. Though there have been many cases of many celebrities and million-dollar bigwigs being found guilty and lawfully punished, there have been many other cases where they do not receive proper justice and have been acquitted of the most heinous of crimes.
In recent times, it has become very evident that wealth plays a major factor in the judicial system. There have been many cases that display the wealthy being given less of a punishment than the lower classes. In one particular case a teen, Ethan Couch, was driving under the influence after stealing beer from Walmart and he swerved off road, killing four pedestrians. The judge sentenced him to 10 years’ probation; this outraged many people because the usual punishment is a life sentence. Mr. Couch claims he suffers from “Affluenza”, which is a psychological problem that is caused by children being extremely privileged. Ethan Couch should not have received probation because of his family’s status, because he was driving under the influence,
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
For a majority of the 20th century, sentencing policies had a minimal effect on social inequality (Western and Pettit 2002). In the early 1970s, this began to change when stricter sentencing policies were enacted (Western and Pettit 2002). Sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three-strikes laws were enacted with the purpose of achieving greater consistency, certainty, and severity in sentencing (National Research Council 2014). Numerous inequalities involving race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status have generated an unprecedented rate of incarceration in America, especially among minority populations (Western and Pettit 2010). With numerous social inequalities currently
This is particularly relevant for misdemeanor offenses such as smoking a joint or jumping a turnstile. Research demonstrates that keeping and destitute person in jail before their hearing not only damages their capacity to fight the charges, but also causes subjective hardship for that person (Huppes-Cluysenaer and Nunno, p. 142). It also affects their psychological state thus reduces their ability to defend themselves. Furthermore, a people entitled to bail reduce their chances of earning freedom because they shift power to the prosecutorial arm. While in jail, the prosecutorial arm can force an individual to plea as opposed to when that individual is out of jail. It is critical that research shows that the probability of dismissing cases when a bail is posted is fifty percent. Therefore, the economic status of an individual affects jail sentence when that person affords or fails to afford
Generally, class means where a person is ranked in society. If Brock Turner was poor and was a minority, his sentence would have been more severe and wouldn’t have been able to get off so easily. Same goes with the Central Park Five case where if the kids were in a higher class, the accused wouldn’t have been treated so harshly and trialed unfairly especially since they didn’t even the do the crime. Looking at the articles, “Teaching Literature at the County Jail” by Christina Boufis shows individuals who things because they had no control over situations and this might be due to their class. The women in jail in the “Teaching Literature at the County Jail” were in jail because of their backgrounds and their particular circumstances like class. In the article Christina Boufis says “Many were homeless before incarceration; few had support from parents, friends or partners. For Tanya and some of the others, Sula has become a talisman of security, something they can rely on in a constantly shifting world.” The girls here came from poor families making them from a lower class. Class is a huge a factor that show stereotyping in a criminal justice
People that commit this kind of crimes walk out the door with millions of dollars in their pockets without returning a penny back. This points out that if an individual has a high profile standing and is wealthy they can do almost everything without getting busted and put into jail. It is unfair that they put other people in jail for minimal cases like having marihuana with them, or being out there by mistake just because they discriminate their race and think that just because they look a certain way they are guilty and make them plead guilty to get a deal for less years in jail. People like this that really do commit a crime are the ones that should go to jail for stealing and having the audacity to even say that they didn’t know about the situations and not respond the questions they are being asked specifically.
Saint Augustine once said, “In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?” The criminal justice system in America has been documented time and time again as being a legal system that borders on the surreal. We as Americans live in a country where the Justice Department has failed to collect on $7 billion in fines and restitutions from thirty-seven thousand corporations and individuals convicted of white collar crime. That same Justice Department while instead spending more than 350% since 1980 on total incarceration expenditures totaling $80 billion dollars. America has become a place where a 71-year-old man will get 150 years in prison for stealing $68 billion dollars from nearly everyone in the country and a five-time petty offender in Dallas was sentenced to one thousand years in prison for stealing $73.
issues in the court system. Studies show that most victims in the criminal justice system are poor
Reiman, Jeffrey. 2000. The Rich Gets Richer And the Poor Gets Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Washington, D.C: Allyn & Bacon.
Racism within the Justice System. Living in the twenty first century, Americans would like to believe that they are living in the land of the free, where anyone and everyone can live an ordinary life without worrying that they will be arrested on the spot for doing absolutely nothing. The sad truth, with the evidence to prove it, is that this American Dream is not all that it appears to be. It has been corrupted and continues to be, everyday, by the racism that is in the criminal justice system of America. Racism has perpetuated the corruption of the criminal justice system from the initial stop, the sentencing in court, all the way to the life of an inmate in the prison.
The criminal justice system is defined as the system of law that is used for apprehending, prosecuting, defending, and even sentencing people who are guilty of criminal offenses. In many cases, race, class, gender, and even sexuality can impact due process and fairness within the criminal justice system. Sometimes if people don’t think they have a choice to receive justice, they may want to take law into their own hands. Whereas Others will try to get a lawyer so they can take it to court and follow the judicial systems laws to try convict the criminal. In certain situations as a defendant, your race, class, and gender can make a negative impact on the criminal justice response to the crimes. In the movies “Thelma and Louise,” “The Accused,”
Crime and criminalization are dependent on social inequality Social inequality there are four major forms of inequality, class gender race and age, all of which influence crime. In looking at social classes and relationship to crime, studies have shown that citizens of the lower class are more likely to commit crimes of property and violence than upper-class citizens: who generally commit political and economic crimes. In 2007 the National Crime Victimization Survey showed that families with an income of $15000 or less had a greater chance of being victimized; recalling that lower classes commit a majority of those crimes. We can conclude that crime generally happens within classes.
In Griffin v. Illinois, the late Justice Hugo L. Black wrote: "There can be no equal justice when the kind of trial a man gets depends on how much money he has in his pocket." If two suspects, one wealthy, one poor, are charged with a capital crime, the standard of justice changes. The rich defendant will post bail, preserve attorneys of choice, hire investigators and hire experts who will give psychiatric testimony for the defense. (Dispoldo, Nick.) The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCAB) wrote in its fact sheet “Death Penalty Overview: Ten Reasons Why Capital Punishment is Flawed Public Policy” published on its website (accessed Aug. 19, 2008): ): “Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases. There have even been instances in which lawyers appointed to a death case were so inexperienced that they were completely unprepared for the sentencing phase of the trial. Other appointed attorneys have slept through parts of the trial, or arrived at the court under the influence of alcohol.”(procon.org.) The death penalty shows discrimination. The more money people have in their