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,” …show more content…
and “Central Park” you will see different paths being taken to achieve the justice that they want while facing the social constructs through criminal justice response to the crimes.
Throughout “Thelma & Louise,” many gender stereotypes and class status were being challenged. Thelma and Louise were labeled as outlaws because they broke many laws including killing a man, robbing money from a store, and even a high speed chase from the police. However, they felt this was the only way for them to achieve justice and freedom. Their gender had impacted the criminal justice response. This was shown in the beginning of the film when Thelma was being assaulted and attempted of rape. In response, Louise ends up shooting Harlan which kills him . Thelma wanted to go to the police and tell them she was raped and attacked in self-defense. However, Louise didn’t want to go because she believed that the cops would not …show more content…
believe her. Thelma quotes, “Who's gonna believe that? We just don't live in that kind of world.” The problem in their situation was that Thelma drank overly too much, engaged in conversations with Harlan, danced with him, and people even seen her leaving the bar to head to the parking lot. With this scenario and her being a woman, the court response would make it to out as if she'd asked for it. Thelma and Louise never felt that they could try to use the law to accomplish their goals. Louise was right that they would probably lose the case or that it wouldn’t even make it to trial. Since Thelma and Louise are working class status women, they didn't typically have the money to afford a lawyer so they could receive the guidance through the criminal justice system. If they were of a higher class status, they would have the knowledge of how the criminal system worked and they probably wouldn’t have ended up in their situations. Many woman have an issue with Criminal justice system. They have issues with the justice system because certain questions will be conjured up during the trial. These questions such as how were they conducting themselves at the time of the crime, how were they dressed, How much were they drinking, Or were they just asking for it, can sometimes be used against them during the trial. In the film “ The Accused,” Sarah Tobias was one of those women being characterized by these assumptions. Sarah went to the bar dressed in a very revealing outfit. She was seen as a drunk and she smoked marijuana., Therefore it would be very difficult to influence a jury that she was actually raped. The justice system would look at her as if “she was asking for it” just like the Thelma and Louise case. Sarah decided to take the route of working with her lawyer Kathryn to prosecute the men in the bar who raped her and also encouraged the crime. Sarah felt that the defense will easily destroy her character. Instead of risking that, Kathryn goes for a plea bargain that will grant the men who raped her a lighter sentence and exempts them from having to come clean that they have committed rape. Throughout history, stereotypes have been made against african american males.
African americans males where thought to be animalistic, sexually unrestrained, criminals, and rapists. These stereotypical characteristics of african american males were conveyed through the documentary “Central Park 5,” where five young men, in which four were black and one Spanish, were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman by the criminal justice system. These young men were also tried for rape, physical aggression, stealing, rioting, sexual abuse, and even attempted murder. They had to serve a time from six to 13 years in prison a serial rapist confessed to the crime. The myth of the bestial black man is used to impact the justice system on their decision towards these young men. Jeremi Duru explains, “The myth of the Bestial black man is as a myth, deeply imbedded in American culture, that black men are animalistic, sexually unrestrained, inherently criminal, and ultimately bent on rape.” Also, they were looked down upon because they were low class and they didn’t have the education and the money to get out of their situation. The criminal justice system used that to their advantage by interrogating these young men for over 24 hours without any food until they got a confession from them to use against them. They were treated like animals because of the color of their skin. Because of the color of their skin and stereotypes, they did not have justice. They served many years because
they were accused of a crime that they never committed. Thelma and Louise, The Accused, and Central park show positive and negative views of criminal justice professionals. These characters in the movie have similar messages intended to convey about the criminal justice system. In the film “Thelma and Louise,” Thelma and Louise are two best friends on a journey of freedom. They wanted to escape men and the law from the control they had on women. So they ended their lives by driving off the edge of a cliff. In their eyes, the only was to be free and flee from the criminal justice system was to commit suicide In the film “The Accused,” Sarah Tobias was not your average “good girl,” she was a drinker, used drugs, danced very sexual, and wore very revealing clothes. She was trying to convey that the criminal justice system shouldn’t base judgement by certain things woman do. They should base it on the evidence that is found. She believed that women shouldn’t be afraid of the criminal justice system and that they should tell their story to do what’s right for themselves. “Central Park 5” shows that the criminal justice system has a lot of unreasonable stereotypes that are linked with the extremity of their charges. Throughout “Thelma & Louise” and “Central Park” it seems as if there is no hope of achieving justice through the criminal justice system. However in the film “The Accused,” Sarah had received justice. Sarah knew that she was raped. She also knew that the lessened charge of reckless endangerment, which was given to her rapist, was not the crime that was committed. With the devastation of the rape that was brought into Sarah's life, Kathryn decided to go up against her bosses and continued to fight for justice. Instead of going after Sarah’s rapists, she was going to prosecute other men at the bar who witnessed and encouraged the rape that night. Kathryn also believed that a large part of justice for Sarah, would be telling her own story during the trial. Sarah received her justice after the outcome of this trial because her rape would go on their record and also the men who had raped her would be acknowledged as sexual assault and not just reckless endangerment. In the movies “Thelma and Louise” “The Accused” and “Central Park 5” you will see different paths being taken to achieve the justice that they wanted, while facing the social constructs through criminal justice response to the crimes. Social constructs such as race, class, and gender can make an impact on the criminal justice response to the crimes. All three films conveyed different messages and in the end, each case had different outcomes during the trials, where some received justice and some did not. Even though each movie had different people with different race, class, and gender, they should all have been treated equally. No matter what race, class, and gender an individual is, they should remain innocent until proven guilty.
The Central Park Five, a documentary released in 2012, follows the lives of five Harlem teenagers who were convicted of the assault and rape of a white female jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film details the events preceding the discovery of said jogger and the boys’ association, as well as the trials and tribulations that followed. Within days, all five boys were brought in and coaxed into a confession. Antron McCray, 15; Korey Wise, 16; Kevin Richardson, 14; Raymond Santana, 14; and Yusef Salaam, 15, were not only victims of a malicious profiling scandal but were also subjected to hours of aggressive and subjective interrogations leading to the misappropriation of evidence and written statements suggesting malpractice within the precinct and among the “seasoned” homicide detectives involved. "These young men were convicted long before the trial, by a city blinded by fear and, equally, freighted by race. They were convicted because it was all too easy for people to see them as violent criminals simply because of the color of their skin."(Burns, 2012). Unfortunately, these means of coercion are found all too often in America. Anything from trauma to
With this in mind, it is clear that the crime control system has changed throughout recent decades, and one can easily identify these changes by drawing from situations that involve race, gender, and two theoretical perspectives. Firstly, the problems with crime control are not nearly as bad as they once were; however, one can see that some issues still exist by examining crimes that deal with the race of an offender. With this in mind, the main objective of the criminal justice system is to establish the factual guilt of the accused, which means that it was also designed to protect society by vindicating victims’ rights. Although this may be true, it does not change the fact that prejudice does exist in the justice system, and this occurs because judges are given a certain amount of discretion when deciding on the outcome of a case. For example, Katz (1988:177) states that, a white man by the name of Bernie Goetz shot four black men in a New York City subway train, and was acquitted for all charges in 1987 because he was able to manipulate the system to his advantage by claiming that they approached him in a threatening manner....
The film continues with the bar scene. We saw the feminist After some drink thelma ends up with, as such flirtations sometimes tragically do, an attempted rape in the parking lot. Louise kills the man with her gun and they start to run away because they think that can’t expect fair treatment from the criminal justice system, since Thelma had been flirting and dancing with the guy all evening. They know that nearly everyone would say that what happened to her is her own fault.
When the criminal justice system was established, one of the goals was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. However, during those times, women were not known for behaving in such manners. If a woman did in fact take part in any criminal activities, those crimes would have been blames on an individual that could of not fought for themselves. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being looked down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can behave like men. Society stereotypes women; and, the criminal justice system is no different. When it comes to the stereotyping of women in the criminal justice system, society presents women who are indeed capable of committing such crimes as victims because by doing do they can achieve a lesser sentence or if necessary a longer sentence that will protect them from any harm.
Historically, criminology was significantly ‘gender-blind’ with men constituting the majority of criminal offenders, criminal justice practitioners and criminologists to understand ‘male crimes’ (Carraine, Cox, South, Fussey, Turton, Theil & Hobbs, 2012). Consequently, women’s criminality was a greatly neglected area and women were typically seen as non-criminal. Although when women did commit crimes they were medicalised and pathologised, and sent to mental institutions not prisons (Carraine et al., 2012). Although women today are treated differently to how they were in the past, women still do get treated differently in the criminal justice system. Drawing upon social control theory, this essay argues that nature and extent of discrimination
When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years
Feminist criminology is a relatively new field that addresses the issue of gender and crime. Since its inception it has tried to address issues such as the disparity in the treatment of women within the criminal justice system and society. It has raised questions about the differences in the frequency and nature of female and male offending, the neutrality of theories in regards to gender, and the contributions of the media to the gendering of crime. Candace Kruttschnitt is a leading criminologist and gender scholar who gave a presidential address at the American Society of Criminology in 2015. She discussed the applicability of mainstream theories that she believes should be more gender inclusive, examined the prominence of females as victims
From an equal justice perspective, “all people should be treated equally before the law and equality may best be achieved through individual discretion in the justice process” (Siegel and Worrall, 2013, page 20). Through this perspective, all criminals who commit the same crime would be equally subjected to the same form of punishment. Thus extralegal factors, which include the person’s gender, age, race or previous criminal activity, would not be considered by the judge, when they sentence the severity of the punishment. This limits the injustice within the system and any unfair treatment an offender a may receive while in the system. It also sets clear and rigid guidelines for judges to uphold during sentencing.
Thelma comes across as the more docile, feminine of the two. Seemingly over-dependent on her over-controlling husband and a complete pushover, she’s unable to see the consequence of her innocent but foolish decisions. Louise appears to be the stronger of the two, more adept at taking care of herself, more assertive, more of the “modern” woman. Initially, it is clear that Thelma leans more on Louise for strength and guidance, but, eventually, their roles will reverse. Louise will be taking instruction and looking for support from Thelma, as is the teeter-totter of any lasting
Society subscribes to a value system to focus on the concepts of justice and equality. Justice which is used in a legal system can help determine whether an individual’s act was wrong or right and it helps other make a fair judgment among individuals equally. George Cole, Christopher Smith and Christina DeJong (1984) discuss how individuals will go through the process of the justice system to determine whether they are found guilty or not guilty, in their book, “Criminal Justice in America.” They clarify that less punishment can be offered to middle or upper class by a systematic bias that works to the disadvantage of the poor. When comparing the treatment of blacks and Latinos to whites, black Americans and Latinos are disproportionately poor
The dialogue after the attempted rape between Thelma and Louise shows the views of many people in the 1990-1980s on rape, which they women were at fault. After the two women flee the scene of the crime they discuss why they cannot go to the police:
The selected topic for this research is inequality and criminal justice. Inequality is widespread in the western society because of the history of slavery and white domination. Criminal justice, on the other hand, aims to resolve equality. However, criminal justice has different several flaws that require analysis and evaluation. Numerous studies show the challenges faced by the minorities during trial. Most of the minorities are convicted of crimes, especially if their opponents are white. This problem is a common scenario in the American society since the time of slavery—and unfortunately, until today. This topic is selected because the issue of inequality can be found anywhere—and inequality is connected
One of the most persistent and influential conclusion that was drawn in the field of Criminology is that men commit crimes at higher rates than women. While this statement represents one of the least disputed facts among criminal discoveries, it became now a central and much-debated issue among researchers. These statistical differences, known as the gender gap, were explained by a consistent number of researchers in the last century.
Women today make up about 17% of all offenders in the United States. There have been issues that regard meeting the needs of women when it comes to the criminal justice system. In the areas of arrests, sentencing decisions, and incarceration, women are being treated differently. Due to the overwhelming amount of male offenders, women’s needs are often overshadowed and the criminal justice system does not know how to handle the rise of female crime rates. When it comes to policies and laws, they are based off the male offender, so when a female commits the same crimes, they are often being over classified and receive harsh penalties. Women’s drive to commit crime is mostly driven by economic issues, whether it is poverty or alcohol and drug
Cases that involve filicide tend to grasp the attention of the entire nation. The idea that anyone would want to kill their children not only makes people very upset, but it influences how cases like this are handled in the criminal justice system. Men often times tend to be less vilified that women when it comes to committing crimes. Society expects violence and aggression from men, so when women exhibit these behaviors, people tend to be disgusted by their behavior. In the media and in the courtroom, women are treated more harshly that than their male counterparts because their behavior is unexpected of them. However, it is not just gender expected differences that cause women to be more harshly critiqued when they commit crime. There are