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Technology in the criminal justice field
Technology in the criminal justice field
Impact on technology in criminal justice
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Right off the bate, the title of this book is called City of Order, which as reading through its entirety is a huge contradiction in itself as the author focuses a lot of his attention on the disorder and instability in the city between the years of 1915 to 1935. In his book Michael Boudreau pieces together, with the use of case profiles; a depiction of the citizens; policy makers; and enforcement officials, a picture of the criminal justice system and its influence on the city of Halifax during its period between the two world wars. Boudreau emphasises on the modernization of Halifax and how changes in ideas and technologies impacted the justice system and its effectiveness in maintaining security and order in Halifax. Boudreau clearly discusses the struggle to adopt to the new ideas and technologies …show more content…
which prompted a raise in insecurity, levels of poverty, unemployment, and outmigration by the people of Halifax, who were divided in their opinions of the image of the city in its shifting modernity and the city’s response to it. The predominant view was that modernity unleashed the corruption of public morality and revealed and intensified an array of social problems including and especially criminality. In attempts to fight against the negative impacts of this shift on the city, officials sought to modernize the city’s machinery of order including the courts, prisons, and police force to heighten the emphasis on crime control in the city. According to Boudreau, citizens of the city supported a tough-on-crime modernism, which has compounded rather than resolved social inequalities and dislocation in the city due to the fact that this view, gave birth to the constructed vision of the “criminal class”. The criminal class and those which supposedly fit into it provided police officials with a convenient target in maintaining order in the city of evolving modernity, a class which consisted of ethnic minorities, working-class men, and female juvenile offenders. In Boudreau’s book he argues the maintenance of a comfortable level of security and order in the city and amongst its residents required the operation of the judicial system and the rule of law which held the theoretical premise that all who came before would be met with fair and equal treatment.
For the purpose of this paper, the most intriguing point about this is what Boudreau further argues in his book, which is that these formal judicial incentives contradict the rule of law by propagating already existing socio-economic inequalities as well as inequalities within class, gender and ethnic relations (p.8). In the following essay I will discuss Michael Boudreau’s argument and his ability to accurately and sufficiently demonstrate the existence of this contradiction in the rule of law within the city of Halifax from the years of 1915 to 1935. I will do this by analysing the effectiveness of demonstrating what I took to be the premises behind his argument which is as follows. That in interwar Halifax, to respond to increased criminality brought about by a prompt shift in modernity, the city required the justice system and the rule of law to function without due
crisis. The justice system and the rule of law holds a theoretical principle to treat all who come before it fairly and equally, although, formal judicial systems systematically construct an opinion amongst the public about criminality. This construction shapes the image of crime and the criminal, which in turn perpetuates existing socio-economic inequalities and inequalities in class, gender and ethnic relations. In my overall opinion, I feel that Boudreau was successful in convincing me of the argument of this contradiction in the rule of law. Michael Boudreau addresses these premises first by presenting an outline of the socio-economic ambiance of the city of Halifax and provides statistics regarding crime in the city (p.14). For the purpose of this paper this section should illustrate the existing socio-economic inequalities as well as inequalities within class, gender and ethnic relations in the city of Halifax in the years before the “the shift” we will discuss later on in this analysis. Boudreau starts off by painting a picture of how Public Gardens represented a model of order and continuity during the city’s battle to maintain general stability through the shift. Boudreau goes on to explain that when it was first created in 1841, the Public Gardens for some was an oasis, a “Victorian sense of peace” (p.17). On the other hand, when thinking of the Public Gardens, others members of the community remembered it as the place that symbolized the juxtaposition between the wealthy and poor in the city (p.17). This was supposedly due to unfavourable visitors such as vagrants, impoverished mothers of infant mortality to dump the bodies of their babies, and the Poor Asylum that once was located there (p.17). Discussing the aura around the Public Gardens was a useful tool for Boudreau to use in illustrating the existing socio-economic inequalities in the city prior to modernity. This image is strong because it illustrates the mash-up of wealth and poverty in the city from a central location. The author claims that the contrasting opinions of the people in the city about the Public Gardens underscores the social and economic contours of Halifax during this particular period. These particular opinions of the Public Gardens were supported by claims from the Halifax Herald, the local news paper which Boudreau relies heavily on throughout the book to support his claims including its influence on public opinion about the issue of crime and order in the city. Throughout the book I noted Boudreau’s heavy use of the Halifax Herald for reference and back-up for his argument. This constant use of the media newspaper stood out to me as a representation of one of the ways the police and the courts molded the public definition, responses, and perception of crime and criminals. Overall I feel Boudreau was effective in demonstrating an accurate idea of some of the existing socio-economic inequalities formal justice is argued to propagate, thus contradicting the theoretical premise of equal treatment for all who come before it under the rule of law. Boudreau continues by discussing the emergence of Halifax as the province of Nova Scotia’s military, administrative and commercial centre and how it served as a major shipping port for regional, national and international trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century (p.17). According to Boudreau these changes prompted a mindset geared towards progressiveness among the people of the city, particularly the middle class who saw this progressivism as an effort to restore the social cohesion lost through advancements brought about by modernization (p.18). Boudreau argues that by the 1910’s, people were much less enthusiastic in their hopes for prosperity in the city as Maritimers began to feel the impact of economic recession and social dislocation (p.18). I feel Boudreau did a good job in discussing how people’s lives changes, including their social lives. Due to the First World War, the explosion of 1917, and massive factory closures in the city, Boudreau explains this period as the socio-economic transition period produced by modernity which fostered the atmosphere of social alienation, fragmentation, and anxiety, thus paving the way for crime which then took a serious role (p.18). Boudreau effectively made the connection between the impact modernity had on the city of Halifax and how this impact led to the rise in criminal activity: modernity unleashed the corruption of public morality and revealed and intensified an array of social problems including and especially criminality. This rise in criminal activity, according to Boudreau is the fundamental purpose for the rule of law in the city. With this Boudreau is effective in describing this period as a time of crisis- revealing the society’s struggle with socio-economical development due to modernization. This further supports his premise that the city required the justice system and the rule of law to function without due crisis to responding to the increasing crime rates brought about by a prompt shift in modernity. The modernizing of the city’s law forces and order was key at this point in coping with and if at all possible eradicate crime in the city (p.7). Boudreau continues by explaining how the social and economic times experienced by the city were direct indications to the authorities to sharpen their sense of responsibility in restoring and maintaining law and order in the community (p.1). It is here that Boudreau explains how with the rise in criminal activity in the city a campaign arose to modernize also the criminal justice system. This campaign was set out to emphasize law official’s duty and goal to create a city of order in the midst of the struggle through modernity, and dedication to social order and restructuring the city as a “legal environment” (p.4) to settle the community after the crime surge. Boudreau demonstrates sufficiently the importance of the definition of what law and order is as very important in achieving it by giving explanations as to how this determines limitations of social acceptance with the rule of law as a rubric (p. 9). According to Boudreau, restructuring the judicial system to more efficiently tackle crime in the city was met by conflicting views as to how this should be done: through classic liberal (traditional) tendencies or through modern tendencies (progressive). This is an important distinction as Boudreau successfully explains that the definition of what is the law is essential to the legitimacy of it (p.9). In attempts to fight against criminality in the city, officials sought to modernize the city’s machinery of order including the courts, prisons, and police force to heighten the emphasis on crime control in the city. Boudreau gives a sufficient analysis of the machinery of order in Halifax which shaped the incentives to reform and restructure the image of order in the city (p.40). Improvements in judicial processes included more elaborate police presence on the street, the support of the 1892 Criminal Code of Canada, the establishment of juvenile court, and a renewed interest in penitentiary reform (p.39), all underscored by technology, urbanization, and social reform movements. Advancements to the police department also included patrol cars, fingerprint technology to apprehend criminals, and most importantly more effective training for police officers (p.73).
The MOVE Organization surfaced in Philadelphia in the early 1970’s. The MOVE movement was one of “back-to-nature,” which was poorly understood by their urban neighbors and the local government and possibly by the organization itself (McCoy). John Africa, who is said to have been illiterate, founded MOVE. It was a loosely organized and sparsely populated organization. I argue that the failure of MOVE to “bow to the man” and the lack of police and government self-control, led to the abuse of power and police brutality that culminated on May 13, 1985 of which the magnitude Black’s theories fail to predict. Black’s theories on law, specifically “Socio Economic Status” and “Organization” and its bearing on the application of law, will be used to analyze the MOVE II incident.
With reference to the orthodox and revisionist perspectives, assess the statement that ‘the establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 was a rational solution to changes in society and the associated challenges of crime and disorder’. Use a contemporary example to demonstrate how these perspectives can be useful in interpreting modern policing activities.
We can conclude with her analyses that the criminal justice in America is biased an even though I don’t agree with the suggestion Alexander has heard from other people that mass incarceration is a “conspiracy to put blacks back in their place” (p.5). It is clear that the justice system in the US is not completely fair, and that collective action must arise to struggle it.
How to appropriately and fairly carry out criminal justice matters is something that every country struggles with. A major reason for this struggle is the fallibility of the justice system. It is acceptable to concede that the possibility of human error in every case and investigation may lead to a wrongful conviction. In the case of David Milgaard, however, Canada's Criminal Justice System not only erred, but failed grievously, resulting in millions of dollars wasted, in a loss of public confidence in the system, and most tragically, in the robbery of two decades of one man's life. Factors including, but not limited to, the social context at the time of the crime, the social perception of deviance, the influence of the media, and the misconduct of investigating police and prosecution played a substantial role in the subsequent miscarriage of justice.
Winder, Gordon, Trouble in the North End: The Geography of Social Violence in Saint John, Acadiensis, University of New Brunswick, Volume 29, 2000, 30 pages.
Hulbert, M. A. (2011). Pursuing justice: An introduction to justice studies. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.
The individuals within our society have allowed the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflicts with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, reside in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order. The governance of our present day public and social order co-exist within the present day individual. Attempts to recognize the essentiality of equality in hopes of achieving an imaginable notion of structure and order, has led evidence-based practitioners such as Herbert Packer to approach crime and the criminal justice system through due process and crime control. A system where packers believed in which ones rights are not to be infringed, defrauded or abused was to be considered to be the ideal for procedural fairness.
Quinney subscribed in part to Marxist ideology (Mutchnick et al., 1990). Quinney’s views on criminality and social inequality are rooted in the belief that class conflict creates an environment favoring those with greater means of accumulation over those with lesser means of accumulation. The resultant interpretation by Quinney followers is greater means to wealth equates to lesser involvement in criminal activities. This thought is well told in Quinney’s works on white-collar crime. It is the writer’s assertion that minority communities seem largely superficially impacted by white-collar crime as a means of exploitation upon them, rather than originating within them. Ruddell and Thomas (2010) state policing agencies within in areas with larger populations of minorities employ more law enforcement officers and spend more of their annual budgets on enforcement activities. This is largely a representative of Quinney’s theoretical examination on social conflicts using Marxist theory to explain how social structural impacts on crime leads to the eventuality of developing systemic support by way of law and policy used to oppress the poor to keep class divisions structurally intact (Mutchnick et al., 1990). The law serves to benefit the interests of one group over another. Policing’s role as an instrument of the system, is
In the featured novel “Crimes of colour: racialization and the criminal justice system in Canada” the authors, Wendy Chan and Kiran Mirchandani illustrate their view points of Canada`s Criminal Justice System and how race and crime are connected. The first chapter, “From Race and Crime to Racialization and Criminalization,” addresses the connection that ‘race’ in Canadian Criminal Law is not really defined but rather it is viewed as a ‘trait’ possessed by individuals and groups (12). The authors want to argue the shift from “race” to racialization and “crime” to “criminalization”. They want to focus on the process of race and “highlight the historical influences of colonization and conquest in shaping the ideological frameworks developed around categories of race” (12). This concept of racialization allows one to understand racial meanings and other social forces like political, economic, religious factors. Also defines groups that were not previously defined as ‘races’ are now are able to consider the various
Moulds, E. F. (1978). Chivalry and Paternalism: Disparities of Treatment in the Criminal Justice System. Political Research Quarterly, 31(3), 416-430.
Welsh, B., & Irving, M. (2005). Crime and punishment in Canada, 1981-1999. Crime and Justice, 33, 247-294. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2063/stable/3488337?&Search=yes&searchText=canada&searchText=crime&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcrime%2Bin%2Bcanada%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=18&ttl=33894&returnArticleService=showFullText
To look closely at many of the mechanisms in American society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. Several of these contradictions exist in the realm of racial equality. For example, Black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In The Real War on Crime, Steven Donziger explains,
McCormick, C. (September 17,2013). Crime Matters: The Criminological Imagination and Public Criminology. Public Lecture. Brantford.
Mauer, Marc. "The Race to Incarcerate." The Case For Penal Abolition. Ed. W. Gordon West and Ruth Morris. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars? Press, 2000. 89-99.
Offenders are protected today by both the rule of law, ensuring that all offenders are treated equally, regardless of their age, sex or position in the community, and due process, which ensures that all offenders are given a fair trial with the opportunity to defend themselves and be heard (Williams, 2012). Beccaria’s emphasis on punishment being humane and non-violent has also carried through to modern day corrections. It is still the case today that offenders must only receive punishment that is proportionate to the crime they have committed and the punishment is determined by the law. The power of the judges and the magistrates to make decisions on punishment is guided by the legislation and they do not have the power to change the law (Ferrajoli,