Victim's Rights: Why Do Laws Protect the Criminal More than the Victim?

The criminal laws of the United States are more intent on protecting the rights of criminals than penalizing them. Today’s inmates live better off than most American citizens who are often working two jobs just to meet paying their taxes. A criminal can literally get away with murder because of a technicality, police can barely interrogate suspects without the suspects’ lawyers stating some legal issues that prevent further investigations. It almost seems that the very people who do not respect the law are above it.

A criminal is obviously an individual who commits a crime, but what is crime? A crime is any act or omission of an act in violation of a public law. Though most laws are common throughout America, some laws are also established by local and state governments as well. Criminal laws and penalties vary from state to state. Crimes include both felonies and misdemeanors. Felonies are serious crimes like murder or rape and are punishable by imprisonment for a year or more. The consequence for felonies such as murder and treason can be the death penalty. Misdemeanors are less serious crimes like petty theft or speeding and are punishable by less than a year in prison. Fines are also punishments of both misdemeanors and felonies. The fine’s amount is determined by the seriousness of the case. However, no act is a crime unless it has been stated as such by an American law or statute.

Why do criminals have rights in the first place? The laws of the United States were created to protect the rights of all individuals, even the ones that break the laws. Many of these laws are made in order to uphold the rights established in the Bill of Rights. When the United States was still developing, many states refused ...

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...t to aid their client. Lawyers are by no means evil. They are simply doing their job. Unfortunately, the majority of them do it very well. And so long as criminals break the law, there will be lawyers to fight for them and defend them.

It is very interesting to see that even though when someone breaks the law in the United States, they will still be protected by that very law. Even as one violates the rights of others, the law will make sure that their rights are protected. It almost seems that has more rights by breaking the law instead of following it. Police are prevented from using extreme force against them and lawyers are at the ready to serve these criminals. Criminals have forfeited their rights when they have violated the rights of others. Why should the law be so intent on protecting their rights, when they have no intent on following the law?