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Fairness in the criminal justice system
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A victim is a person harmed, injured, or killed caused by a crime. A victim impact statement is a paper made by the victim taken into the court room which provides details of the harm caused by the offender. This statement does not allow the victim in indicate a preferred sentence for the offender. I strongly agree with this. The victim should not have a preferred sentence because their judgment would be based on their emotion and will interfere with the principle of equal justice for crime as all similar crimes must have similar punishment.
Many victims suffer from trauma after they have been harmed resulting to their judgment for sentencing will be based on their own personal trauma and emotions and will not show justice for the offender
Victim Avina also audio recorded a recent incident which Suspect Avina was yelling and using profanity. I listened to the recording and heard Suspect Avina yelling and using profanity toward Victim Avina. While I was listening to the recording, I saw that Victim Avina became upset and began
Stevens, Mark. (2000). Victim Impact Statements Considered in Sentencing. Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, 2(1), 3. Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=bjcl
Umbreit, M. & Bradshaw, W. & Coates, R. (1994) Victims of severe violence meet the offender: restorative justice through dialogue. International Review of Victimology, 6, p321-344.
Instead, these individuals are subjected to the structural violence of the system, and are largely given “life without possibility of parole” sentences. No matter how remorseful they are, how much they have learned, or how young and naive they were when the crime was committed, these individuals will never get the chance to live a different type of life.
It's January 11, 2016 and I am getting ready to attend the victim impact panel. My thoughts going into this event are filled with uncertainty. I suspect, I will hear many things that will hit home and cause me to reflect on my personal situation. As I look back, I consider myself very fortunate. I was not in a car accident. I did not hurt anyone or myself. I thank god every day for that fact. As I approached the justice center, I suspect the story I am about to hear will have a very different ending. I clear security and proceed to the third floor. My initial thoughts as I sit with the attendees is that I am surprised by the number of young people and women attending the meeting. Shortly after checking in, the probation officer informed the group that the speaker had to cancel.
There are always those moments when we make decisions that affect the rest of our lives, turning left when we should have turned right. The difference is that most times we live to regret those decisions unlike Carla and her ill-fated jog to her death. There have been throughout time theories as to why offenders commit crime and what drives them to go against all social norms, but now the discussion in the last 50 years, or so, has been what and how much responsibility the victim has in what makes them an attractive target and how their daily routines can even make then more susceptible to crime. The three theories of victimization I found are the Victim Precipitation theory, the Deviant Place theory, and the Lifestyle theory. Each theory has
Wrongful convictions are a growing trend amongst the Criminal Justice system. Justice can never be served completely to the extent of the victim but starting off with a proper conviction is a start. Eyewitness misidentification is one of the main causes for wrongful convictions. We should focus more on identifying victims through reforms and procedures that could help narrow down the perpetrator. Without these solutions there are bound to be consequences. These consequences are posttraumatic stress and the inability to cope to normal society. We need to follow these steps in order to lower the rate of wrongful conviction. I truly believe wrongful conviction can be prevented.
The staggering truths about domestic violence are evident in every town, city, state and nation! Furthermore, it is a criminal offense that does not discriminate against color, creed, gender, or socioeconomic status! Marcy was all too familiar with the horrific dangers of this crime. In fact, domestic violence took Marcy through her own private hell and learning the difficult lessons of life, including the ones that no one discloses. At the budding age of nineteen, her first true love, Barry, was promising marriage with the hopes of starting a family. Barry was charming, romantic, and completely devoted to Marcy! He seemingly was the perfect man, the man of her dreams, and the man who evolved into a monster. Marcy was criminally beaten and mentally broken! Moreover, Marcy is one of the millions who have fallen prey to these devastating and horrendous acts of violence. The following research will inform you of the staggering statistics, the predicting indicators, including battered women’s syndrome, the tactics of abusers, and the laws against domestic violence.
Over the years, the traditional criminal justice system has emphasized offenders’ accountability through punishment and stigmatization. The emphasis on the retributive philosophy made it challenging for the system to meaningfully assist and empower crime victims. In the criminal justice system, victims often face insensitive treatment with little or no opportunity for input into the perseverance of their case and report feeling voiceless in the process used (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:114). Crime victims, advocates, and practitioners have called for an expansion of victims’ rights and community-based alternatives, rather than punishment-oriented justice policies. What victims want from the criminal justice system is a less formal process, more information about case processing, respectful treatment, and emotional restoration.
This approach has introduced a criminal justice policy agenda. In the past, victims to criminal activities have been outsiders to the criminal conflict. In recent times, many efforts have been made to give the victims a more central role in the criminal justice system. Some of these efforts were introduced a few years back, though even at that time, these efforts were seen as long overdue. Some of these efforts include access to state compensation and forms of practical support. For advocates of restorative justice, crime is perceived primarily as a violation of people and relationships, and the aim is to make amends for all the harm suffered by victims, offenders and communities. The most commonly used forms of restorative justice include direct mediation, indirect mediation, restorative cautioning, sentencing panels or circles and conferencing. In recent...
In recent years the role of victims in the criminal justice system has risen into prominence, inspiring much research into victim experience and possible reform. There are a multitude of factors that influence policy makers in relation to reforming the criminal justice system, one of which is victims. However, victims while they can be catalysts for reforms such as the case of James Ramage among others, they still play a relatively minor role in influencing policy change.
Parris serves as an investigator for the Floyd County police department. Clemones used to serve as a lieutenant at the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, but has since left the role of a police officer and now serves as a bondsman for A Bulldog Bail Bonds. In both cases, I started the meeting time by telling the individual that we would be talking about restorative justice and that I would give them a chance to evaluate how it applies to cases they each had experienced. Then, Parris and Clemones were both asked to explain a case in which they believed justice had been served. In the examples that both Parris and Clemones gave, a prison sentence is what caused them to believe that justice had been served. They both mentioned prison time as being what the offender deserved (personal communication, September 23, 2015). It is obvious that both Parris and Clemones have been taught to operate under a highly retributive system, which has caused bias in their views of justice. After they had both mentioned the offenders deserving prison time, I knew persuading them to see the benefits of restorative justice would be
Pros of the restorative justice system are that it brings parties together in crime. Instead of a short term goal, the restorative justice system takes a long-term approach to reducing crime and violence using different kinds of methods. In restorative justice programs, offenders work with others affected by their criminal actions. Restorative justice promotes instilling positive behaviors in young criminals and teaching long-lasting changes in behavior to prevent future crimes. There also could be negative consequences from the restorative justice system. For restorative justice to work, criminals and their victims must communicate about the crime and its consequences. Since violent crimes often leave victims feeling helpless and vulnerable, encouraging communication can result in increased anxiety and fear. Additionally, communication might breach confidentiality for victims of violent crimes, such as rape and assault, because they must discuss the outcome of the crime and how it has impacted
In life, many things are taken for granted on a customary basis. For example, we wake up in the morning and routinely expect to see and hear from certain people. Most people live daily life with the unsighted notion that every important individual in their lives at the moment, will exist there tomorrow. However, in actuality, such is not the case. I too fell victim to the routine familiarity of expectation, until the day reality taught me otherwise.
In order to define what victim’s facilitation, precipitation, and provocation terms; therefore, there would have to be some explanation as to who is considered a victim of crime. A victim is a person who suffered from a crime directly, mentally, physically, and financially. Anyone can become a victim or an offender of a crime. Victims were rarely recognized in the laws and policies that the governors of our nations fail to realize until 1970's. (Schmalleger & Smyklar, 2015) The legislation was too busy trying to make out if victims had rights in law as it relates to crime. Like always the government does not enforce or pass new laws unless someone petitions to sue. Consequently, victimologists and criminologists researchers suggest that specific