...Punishment and Sentencing Philosophies Punishment and Sentencing Philosophies Chandra Walker Axia Online-UOP Abstract In this paper we will discuss the various punishment and sentencing philosophies that are used within the criminal justice system. The process that is used to apply justice is determined for the most part by punishment philosophies. These philosophies are used to express a variety of different concerns and arguments regarding the use of appropriate sentencing and treatment. Rehabilitation is a philosophy that predominantly rues the juvenile justice court system, but do not carry as much weight and is widely scrutinized within the adult courts sector. Rehabilitation may be scrutinized in the juvenile justice court system when the criminal behavior of the juvenile continues to escalate, but when rehabilitation is successful then it can be both beneficial for the criminal and society. When the appeals process is exercised it provides the fair practice of law, ensures those at trial the rights of due process, and gives clarity and provides full understanding of justice and the law. Punishment and Sentencing Philosophies In any nation that strives for great democracy, the major concern is the guaranteed universality of justice. For the US this is an ongoing process that is pursued largely in the court systems on an ongoing basis. Many criminalists state that if it the general basis for an action to constitute a crime really...
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...Criminal Justice System Criminal Justice System Introduction Criminal justice changes in rules, procedures, and terms from state to state. However, the punishment exercised on criminals cannot vary from the standards established by the United States. A crime is classified as an act that violates the federal laws of America. Consequently, all the violations are subject to different severities of punishment. Crimes in particular can be as minimal as a traffic violation and become as severe as homicide. The severity of the crime will determine the severity of the punishment. The criminal justice system is designed in order to standardize a level of punishment to appropriately fit the crime committed. The criminal justice system is largely affected by constitutional law and has evolved significantly over time. Currently, the criminal justice system maintains itself to helping the process of reprimanding criminals. There are three elements of the system and there all valuable in the criminal justice system. The primary element is the police force. Police officers have the responsibilities to capture criminals, investigate, and testify in court based on what actions were witnessed. In some situations, police officers have the obligation to jail criminals directly from street while they await their trial dates. The second element is the court system. The court system is generally composed of a prosecutor, judge, and suspect who is referred to as the defendant in court...
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...Introduction The criminal justice system is a necessary aspect of the American society that includes the Constitution and the bill of rights. The value of the laws is to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, to ensure safety, and equality treatment for all. In protecting the society, the criminal justice system has evolved with society when making changes in technology; this change is to detect growing trends. When changes takes place criminal justice system is keeping up with the society as a priority because society is always changing. Criminal Justice Trends Evaluation Most everyone has different views or opinion of the criminal justice system, such as harsh, too lax. favor one side, or the other. Trends have been there for many years but the main issue has been the capital punishment. Capital punishment has been around for centuries but was cheap in those days where they use an axe or a sword to behead a criminal, and this was the method used, and the tools used were always readily available. Throughout the history capital punishment has been an aspect within the criminal justice system, but not accepted by many. Capital punishment is still used but there has been so much controversy, different methods has been used in the past and present, and have advanced with technology, with lethal injection and electrocution. When creating the new method, there were many items being viewed to forbid cruelty and barbaric. Today these methods are used in certain...
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...SOCIAL JUSTICE This is a sample paper for Dr. Matthew Robinson’s class … CJ 5150, “American Justice System and Social Justice” at Appalachian State University The paper is not be used for any purpose other than illustration for students in the class!!! Social Justice versus Criminal Justice Appalachian State University Social Justice versus Criminal Justice In this paper I will discuss how different aspects, policies, and procedures of the United States criminal justice system are inconsistent with the principles of social justice posited by John Rawls and David Miller. The criminal justice system does not promote socially just outcomes or practices. First of all, the criminal justice system is not really a system at all; it is a network. Second, criminal justice places greater emphasis on crime control, rather than due process rights. Our system encourages punishment rather than rehabilitation. Finally, criminal justice policies such as the death penalty and the war on drugs reflect prejudices within the system, resulting in unequal treatment. Before beginning to explain these flaws within criminal justice, I will first define social justice and explain the essential social justice principles suggested in Rawls and Miller’s theories. Social Justice Justice is based on two supposedly equal conceptions. First, guilty offenders are held accountable for their actions and second, that criminal justice processes...
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...Victim and Crime Evaluation Larry Fulse CJA /354 May 5, 2014 Joeseph Caulfield The Criminal Justice system today is our scale of judgment. It plays a major part in how we live and how we continue to live among all the dangers, evil and corruption that surrounds us. Without it there wouldn`t be the fine line of right and wrong, there wouldn`t be justice. Those that are considered victims in our criminal justice would turn and become the aggressors and the criminals if we didn`t have a Legal System, and we would live in a world of chaos. Many individuals each have a role to play in our Criminal Justice System; there are the criminal and the victims who create the unfortunate events to which justice has to be served and then there are the defense attorneys and the prosecutors who do their best to upload the justice system and make sure that justice is served. What are the goals of sentencing associated? A defense attorney is a hired contractor, charged with representing individuals or entities in criminal or civil matter. People and organization facing criminal charges or being sued civilly hire a defense attorney to ensure their legal rights are properly protected and guide them through the legal counsel, is ethically and professionally required to watch over only the interest of his clients, within the boundaries of the law. He is legally and morally considered an “officer of the court,” and is required to refrain from lying or misrepresenting the facts of the...
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...Criminal Justice System Paper CJA/204 8/2/2011 Criminal Justice System Criminal Justice is known as a system of rules and institutions of governments focused on upholding social control, deterring or reducing crime, or dealing with subjects who violate laws with penalties and rehabilitation efforts. In order to have a system in place to counter crime and those who commit it, we must first understand what crime is. According to Eagle Systems Home Security (July 10, 2006), “A crime is an act that violates law of any person or social grouping. It is a violation of criminal law, which is the standard of bad behavior”. Subjects accused of crimes have certain protections against abuse of power during investigation and prosecution. The United States Criminal Justice System is broken down into three sections; Police, Courts, and Corrections. Each component is critical in achieving the goal of protecting individuals constitutional rights through enforcement of standards of conduct. The first component in the Criminal Justice System is Policing. The Police are at the tip of the spear in the system. Police are the first entity in the criminal justice system that an offender will come into contact with. Officers will conduct an investigation into suspected wrong-doing and make an arrest of the suspected offender. Police Officers in America are tasked with a wide-ranging mission that grows increasingly more dangerous. Never before in the history of the United...
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...Capital Punishment and Crime Deterred Should capital punishment be used in a justice system to deter the level of serious crimes in a society? There have been arguments that capital punishment is the best way to deter crime and arguments that say it is not all over the world. The justice system is in place to keep societies functioning proper, and punish those who hurt that goal, capital punishment is one of the ways that have been aiding in the success. If capital punishment does act as a deterrent for crime, shouldn’t a society use it as a tool for the justice system? However, if capital punishment does not act as a deterrent for crime, then should it be scrapped by the justice system and emphasis be placed on looking for a new way to deter crime? This is more than just a crime deterrent issue because it involves taking a life to save a life. This is an ethical issue of whether capital punishment is the best way to solve the problem, and this has been argued by millions of people all over the world for decades and it is still a highly debated topic to this day. Capital Punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the practice of sentencing a person to execution as punishment for a capital crime after a proper legal trail. It is typically only used as a form of punishment for people who commit serious types of murder. It may not be known, because many countries never actually use it, but there are 58 countries that currently have a form of the death penalty (Unknown, 2010)...
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...Running head: DETERRENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE 1 DETERRENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE 2 Deterrence in Criminal Justice The theory of deterrence says that punishment for a crime will dissuade people from committing crime. There are two types of deterrence : general deterrence and specific deterrence. General deterrence is defined by Siegel (2011) as “a crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties, convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh it's benefits.” (p. 95). In other words, general deterrence uses the punishment of one person's crime to teach the rest of society that this is what will happen to you if you commit this crime or any crime like it. It is meant to scare others so that they will not commit crime. Siegel (2011) defines specific deterrence as “the view that criminal sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their criminal acts.” (p. 99). This form of deterrence is geared at stopping the offender from re-offending by making their punishment as harsh and unpleasant as possible. Today in society, the main concern with the criminal justice system is deterrence. The question is, what types of deterrence do we currently use and do they work? In this paper, we will overlook a few forms of deterrence that are currently used in the American Criminal Justice System. The most frequently used form of deterrence is imprisonment. This is also the oldest form of deterrence...
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...Criminal Justice Trends Evaluation University of Phoenix Contemporary Issues and Future in Criminal Justice People in society continuously change therefore people continue to evolve as our perceptions change. In this paper the student will assess the past, present, and future trends in the interface between elements of the criminal justice system. In the assessment the student will evaluate the criminal justice connections with surrounding society. The student will identify the recent and future trends affecting the criminal justice system. Last, the contemporary issues and the value of the criminal justice system in a changing society. Interface between Components The American Justice in the 1800s was quite different in the aspect of how the laws have changed. In the 1800s there were not enough law enforcement officers to enforce the laws. Therefore, many people believed it necessary to take the law into his or her own hands. An example of vigilante justice in the 1800s was the lynching of Henry Smith. This is a sad example of how people were treated; in 1893 Henry Smith was tortured and burned alive in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. People were executed for crimes not committed and trials were not an option (Keene, 2012). In the 18th century B.C.E. the first know death penalty was in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. A person could have 25 crimes before the sanction of the state for the death penalty. Capital punishment in the 18th century...
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...Restorative Justice vs. Retributive Justice Can restorative justice be utilized more often than retributive justice? Restorative justice is a concept that is not fully accepted in the field of criminology. The theory presents an alternative way of reviewing criminal justice procedures. The main issues are repairing the harm done, and building relationships between the victim and offenders, rather than strict punishment of the offender. Restorative justice is an excellent concept. However, it is an substitute process which the criminal justice has at its disposal. The premise for retributive justice is the punishment of the offender, resultig in jail and/or imprisonment. There is no consideration given to repairing the harm caused by offender...
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...Crime and Its Relationship to Law Mitch Jones CJA/204 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE 6/3/2014 James Smith Crime and Its Relationship to Law Crime is conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a federal government, state regulation, or local jurisdiction for which there is no legal justification or excuse. Crime has been around since the beginning of human civilization, from when one caveman bashed another caveman for any reason, originally crime was any action deemed immoral or against the decisions of a collection of people, which usually included the elders. Since then laws have been written to define criminal activity, as well as, the attempt to keep said crimes and criminal activity away from the good citizens of any given civilization. Many theories have been born from the attempt to combat crime before it occurs, and one such theory explains people commit crimes when they consciously decide the benefits of committing the crime outweigh the risks of punishment. The structure to combat crime has been evolving as much as the definition and ways crime can be committed, from the middle ages and the conduct of ordeals to heretical laws from the church and the punishments that were included to modern times of specific written laws, their interpretation, and the attempted rehabilitation of criminals to be functioning members of society. Modern structure of the criminal justice system include the police, courts, and corrections to provide a continuity to the system...
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...Criminal Justice Paper Ayana Chambers CJA 224 July 7, 2014 Tasha Hibbert In the United States justice system there are many different level of punishment depending on the type and severity of crime. Its main objective is to impose sentencing as a guideline for punishment in a criminal case. Punishment can be very severe for example the death penalty, but also can be less stringent in many criminal cases. Punishment does not essentially connote to physically punish, but could have significant ramifications in ways such as retribution. Retribution may be in the form of financial payments (restitution) and the lost of free will. Deterrence is an objective of punishment to discourage society from becoming repeated offenders. Its aim is to sentence an offender with short custodial hold in the prison system in hope that it will discourage other criminal activities. Punishments also boast the objective to rehabilitate, transform or hinder an offender. It also applies to the general criminal justice system that is considered to prevent criminals from committing more crimes. This will prove to potential criminals that the criminal justice system is severe and to society that they are safe from offenders. Punishment is also projected to recuperate offenders from their past life and prevent the criminal justice system from having continuous association with rehabilitated offenders. By reducing...
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...Objectives of Punishment 1 Check-point: Objectives of Punishment Robert J. Nicol CORRECTIONS: A WORLD APART/CJS/230 November 2, 2011 Larry Doyle Objectives of Punishment 2 Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person, animal and/or society in concern to the behavior or act considered wrong and/or illegal by a single entity or society as a whole. Punishments account for their degree of severity of their unpleasantness, and may include punishments such as reprimands, restrictions of privileges and/or liberty, fines, incarcerations, ostracism, the infliction of pain, and the death penalty. * * There are five main objectives to the punishment of criminals within the criminal justice system. 1) Incapacitation: if the criminal is in jail or prison then society does not have to be concerned that the criminal will commit...
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...The whole criminal justice system is based on one basic principle, that if you commit a crime you will be punished for that crime in one way or another in an attempt to deter you from committing that or any other crime ever again. The whole reason for this type of system is to reprimand an individual for things that we have ruled illegal or not socially acceptable, and therefor we have developed a system of punishments in order to combat all that is wrong with society. You could argue whether this is an effective system though, for the fear of punishment is not always an effective deterrent and therefore has no effect on the future criminals mind. The fear of punishment is something that we have been threatened with ever since we were a kid, I truly believe that all we have learned since then is how to better attempt to get away with doing something wrong, and not be afraid of the punishment that will follow if caught. We use punishment in all facades of the criminal justice system, whether it helps us achieve are desired goals, or is just what we feel to be are only effective option is, this is always debatable, but answers to these questions need to start coming soon, for changes must be made in order to make are criminal justice system the well oiled machine it needs to be. When it comes to the practical use of punishment, there are five recognized philosophies, there are, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and restoration. The goal of each one of...
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...Criminal Justice Trends Erin Berger CJA/394 Monday, March 5, 2012 University of Phoenix, Troy Hokanson Criminal Justice Trends The criminal justice system is set within our society as a means to protect those individuals that are innocent from those who intend to harm him or her. The purpose of a law is meant to protect a person from a person who could intentionally or potentially harm them. The two, work together to try and meet with the same results, to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. We as a society are full of people whom choose to continuously evolve. We are changing and as we change our perceptions change and as our perceptions change our society changes. This is responsible for the trends that take place in our society and inevitably within our criminal justice system. In this paper we will endeavor to assess previous, current, and imminent trends in the boundary amongst mechanisms of the criminal justice system and criminal justice associations with adjacent society. In our assessment we will also attempt to evaluate and identify recent and future trends and contemporary issues that affect our criminal justice system and try to determine the value of the criminal justice system in a changing society (University of Phoenix Student website, 2010). Many have viewed the criminal justice system as simply presenting a harsh existence. Some have viewed it as being too lax. There are many individuals that could agree that at one...
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