...02/23/2024 Wrongful convictions affect everyone involved. According to the National Institute of Justice, being wrongfully convicted means that “the person convicted is factually innocent of the charges” (Wrongful Convictions, n.d.). They have been around since the beginning of the criminal justice system, and the numbers continue to grow. Eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, and flawed forensic evidence are the leading causes of wrongful convictions, which result in detrimental consequences for those involved. The purpose of this report is to analyze the main causes of wrongful convictions and to propose potential solutions. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS Problem Defined Wrongful Convictions are when the person convicted of a crime is...
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...Guilty Until Proven Innocent: False Allegations of Domestic Violence Brian Burwell 0481195 Tesc; Oct 2011 AOJ-102-OL009: Intro to Criminal Justice 609-367-4317 bluntreality@gmail.com Abstract This paper examines the prevalence of false allegations of domestic violence within the criminal justice system; detailing how the accused are often viewed as guilty until they are proven innocent. In Part I, I will reveal the problems associated with false allegations of domestic violence, and why this topic is of importance to me. Part II will examine the flawed responses to these accusations that pervade the criminal justice system. Part III will explicate the incentives by vindictive people to make such claims – e.g. winning a divorce case, or receiving custody of the children. Part IV will review the statistical analysis of false domestic violence claims, and outline the cost to not only the accused, but the government as well. Lastly, in Part V I will summarize the topic by arguing that laws should be changed to reflect that some individuals use false allegations of domestic violence in a malicious...
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...The Criminal Justice System American InterContinental University CRJS101 - Criminal Justice 3 May 2013 Abstract The Criminal Justice System is an unchanging organization that has been established from the dawn of times to guarantee the wellbeing, and civil liberties of society. Our economy would have ended, if there were not a Criminal Justice System set into place. The Criminal Justice System observes the social order in ensure its wellbeing. The Criminal Justice System is made up of numerous special main branches. Lacking these branches functioning as one the Criminal Justice System would have an arduous moment supporting itself. This paper will elaborate the different tasks related to different sections inside of the Criminal Justice System. The Police officers tasks are to apprehend the accused, and receive warrants and seek out those that are being indicted. They are the first line of defense within the Criminal Justice System. Police are to ensure the well being of society and to aid society at all times whether it is minor offenses like jay walking and major offenses like rape. Varying on the gravity of the offense, the police officer may issue you a warning, or read you your Miranda Rights while taking you into custody. There are in some instances where a police officer may be called in to testify on a situation that they were involved in. A prime case of a police officer having to testify...
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...Forensic Pathology and Miscarriages of Justice: a Journal Article Analysis Merlyn Arostegui Prof. Sigal CRJU 443 | Forensic Pathology and Miscarriages of Justice: a Journal Article Analysis The article chosen for analysis is titled “Forensic Pathology and the Miscarriage of Justice” written by Michael S. Pollanen of the Centre of Forensic Science and Medicine, University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. The article was published in Forensic, Science, Medicine, and Pathology in 2012. The main purpose of the article was to present the fact that in order for the criminal justice system to operate in a safe and fair manner, any evidence presented in the duration of a prosecution must be accurate and objective—especially medical evidence. If either the accuracy or objectivity of evidence presented is compromised, there lies the possibility of unsafe prosecution which can lead to wrongful convictions or other forms of miscarriages of justice. Main Purpose There has been an increased awareness in the number of cases that have experienced a miscarriage of justice due to compromised medical evidence being presented during trial. Although there are legal tools available to regulate the types of evidence admissible in court as well as the “experts” allowed to present said evidence [such as Daubert hearings], these tools are only partially effective because forensic pathology is a discipline that grows and develops over time. The accepted view in pathology [or any field of science...
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...Ashford Writing Center located in Constellation. Click on Ch 7 -Sample Paper with Formatting Instructions. [Jayno Aki-Siler (TA)] The Death Penalty: Is it a Flawed System? PHI103 Informal Logic – Week 5 Final Paper Instructor: Galen Johnson December 16, 2012 -1- 2 Death Penalty The Death Penalty: Is it a Flawed System? People have many arguments against the death penalty, and most citizens do not believe that it is a discouragement for the crimes that it punishes. American societies that use capital punishment do not find that they have lower crime rates than those that don’t 1 use capital punishment. Most people would still not accept capital punishment even if it did reduce the crime rate. This indicates that capital punishment is focused on the financially deprived, and targets those who can’t afford to pay for a good lawyer. Research shows that people with little or no money get the highest penalties in society. A lot of people have no respect for what they do and care very little about their jobs as well as other people. A lot of these same people are running our criminal justice system. This same racial discrimination in the United States has entered into our legal system making capital punishment a mistaken and flawed program. If these kinds of people are to continue to operate our criminal justice system, then the death...
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...Introduction to Corrections November 13, 2014 When I look at our justice system and how it works, I cannot help but perceive the death penalty’s main function is retribution. The punishment as a whole is flawed and there will always be a substantial risk of executing an innocent person. This negative aspect cannot be overlooked. Furthermore, the cost of this farce is completely appalling and we should not continue to irresponsibly waste crucial funding of the criminal justice system in this way. Capital punishment is hurting our government more than it is helping. Unless the research proves that it is an effective form of deterrence, we should abolish this form of punishment outright. I do not see how the death penalty would deter anyone from committing a heinous act. This is because someone in the commission of a crime is not thinking about sitting in a court room and being sentenced to death. Many people use the term “eye for an eye” but is this the right way to uphold justice? For the reasons of lack of substantial evidence of capital punishment being an effective deterrent, the wasteful spending of valuable funds, and the potential death of innocent people, I do not support the use of the death penalty. For centuries, governments have tried to utilize the death sentence for deterrence and to keep the crime rate lowered. We must ask ourselves, does executing wrongdoers actually lower the rates of crime punishable by death? In my research, I have come to the conclusion...
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...showing that democracy denied morals and ethics, examining the weakness in the system of democracy, and demonstrating a flawed system. Democracy has not worked in the past because although it holds up its idea of justice, it denies the basic morals and ethics of human rights. “Think not of life and children first, and justice afterward, but of justice first” (Document 2), is the message that was set out by the laws of democracy. These same laws are what failed Socrates in the end. He was a “victim, not of the laws, but of men” (Document 2). In the end, it was the laws set up by humans themselves that truly brought out the worst qualities in human nature. While philosophy focused on the rights of man, democracy focused on the rights to govern man. In order to create a form of government that benefited the people as well as morals and ethics, “a love of truth and hatred for falsehood that will not tolerate untruth in any form” (Document 3) was needed. According to Socrates, “there is nothing more closely akin to wisdom than truth. So the same nature cannot love wisdom and falsehood” (Document 3). The problem with democracy is that it denies truth in order to justify its means. Referring back to the example of Socrates, who was failed under the system of democracy, it is seen that although democracy justified his punishment because he was seen as treat to their democracy. Athenians under this system overlooked the basic human freedoms. In truth, although Socrates’ death was justifiable...
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...that make up the murderers in In Cold Blood; Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, we are left with this very same question as to whether or not they deserved the death penalty. A person’s first reaction of what a murderer’s punishment should be is typically the death penalty for the purpose of finding closure/justice but in all reality, revoking someone’s life doesn’t solve anything at all in the long run. All things considered, various articles mention how even criminologists have noted that capital punishment does not effectively deter murder rates. For this reason, the death penalty should not be imposed on anyone for how barbaric and inhumane it is, as well as how there is no deterrent factor and...
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...“So, is there life after democracy?” -Arundhati Roy Arundhati Roy starts her collection of essays ”Listening to the grasshoppers” with a remarkable and intriguing question that makes us stick with her way of thinking and look forward to startling revelations throughout the book. To her the democracy that’s been lauded as the largest democracy of the world, is a hoax, a sham. She draws reference in the earlier part of the book to the tagline in one of the posters of a Kashmiri protestant stating ‘Democracy without Justice = Demon-Crazy’, skilfully setting the tone for the detailed description of the ‘cunning, Brahmanical, intricate, bureaucratic, file-bound and apply-through-proper-channels’ style of governance. “Right now we’re sipping from a poisoned chalice- a flawed democracy laced with religious facism. Pure arsenic” The raw description and writing by Roy is the blatant truth or at least her version of the truth of the failure of India’s democracy. She sounds the warning bugle of the rise of the so called Hindu nationalism that’s trying to cast Islam as our national enemy. The most important example that she puts forward to support her claims is the massacre of perhaps 2000 muslims in Gujarat in 2002, in which the state government was allegedly complicit. She provides a shocking analysis of the riots of Gujarat and the fact of it being orchestrated by Hindu nationalist stalwart, Mr. Narendra Modi. In three nifty articles, she cuts open all the questioning method the police...
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...| Law Summative Essay | Does the Canadian System of punishment meet the needs of society? | | Vincent Ng | 5/4/2012 | | The Canadian system of punishment does not meet the needs of society. Our justice system is sentencing criminals very few years in prison for outrageous crimes. Criminals who are sent to prison are actually getting more violent because of the conditions of those prisons. In addition, society gets very upset when sexual offenders are given anonymity or when the most dangerous inmates are given the chance of parole. The Canadian system of punishment is typically going to court and if determined guilty by the court, a sentence will be given by the judge and jail time will follow depending on the severity of the crime. The Canadian system of punishment does not meet the needs of society because of how upset society gets when criminals are sentenced to very few years in prison for the most outrageous crimes (Cowie). “Judges are not supposed to levy the maximum penalty unless it is the worst example of that particular type of offence. While there is nothing to stop a judge from giving the maximum sentence for every offence, most judges fail to see the point of rendering a sentence that is inappropriate or that is destined to be overturned by the higher courts” (McCrimmon). This shows how flawed our Canadian system of punishment is because judges cannot give out deserved sentences that the public feels is right....
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...The Criminal Justice System The United States criminal justice system is perhaps the most intricate process in the developed world. It consists of three parts; the legislative body (responsible for creating laws), corrections (responsible for imprisonment) and the court system. The legislative body is self-explanatory and the bulk of the legislative process is through Congress. The corrections division of the justice system is vital as it facilitates the punishments of the accused who are found guilty. Typically this is comprised of a sentence determined by the court system and varies depending on the severity of the crime. Not all punishments lead to imprisonment however, as there are other means of rehabilitating a criminal such as house arrest, community service and mandatory drug rehabilitation of the situation calls for it. The court system facilitates disputes between individuals and is the administering body for justice. While the system is mainly comprised of the three aforementioned components, the police force is typically considered the face of the criminal justice system and is the basis in which citizens form their opinions of it. The police force is comprised of empowered civilians who are tasked with upholding the law, mitigating crime on a micro-level and are authorized to use force if necessary to carry out their goals. This has often caused an alarming degree of controversy regarding the use of excessive force by the police. The combination of the legislative...
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...Supreme Court justices are given term limits. Fundamental rights could be taken away with term limits because term limits could have the primary effect of creating a Supreme Court composed entirely of republicans. Term limits are a bad idea because judicial rulings would be based more on political ideology than on constitutionality, there is no unanimous theory as to how the transition would work, and the old age decline argument is flawed. One of the main reasons why term limits should not be put in place is because it would increase the likelihood that justices would make decisions based on their own political ideology and less on constitutionality. For example, if the Supreme Court were debating the constitutionality of a law that would repeal Roe v. Wade, a Republican term-limited justice may feel pressured to rule in favor of this stance simply because a majority of the justice’s political...
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...The President of the United States of America is responsible for the most powerful military, laws and their enforcement as well as an arsenal of apocalyptic amount of weapons that can end civilization and who ever makes world changing decisions should not be elected through such an outdated system. This election should not be taken lightly. Although it may seem dramatic, The Iraqi war and its expenses along with major cuts to the government's revenue, hostility to anything regarding climate change, the cost of health care near doubling and nearly crippling the economy. Although while in office Bush did implement Education programs which increased scored and a HIV relief program saving millions of lives (Matthews, 2013), and like any human being put under the stress of the most demanding job in the world, will make difficult choices and some have good results and others have horrendous consequences, but in the end he was elected by the majority of the american...
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...Hermesmann 1 Anna Hermesmann Nothing From Nothing: Concepts of Justice in King Lear Ex nihilio nihilfit—“nothing comes from nothing.” In the pre-Christian world of Shakespeare‟s King Lear, this doctrine rules as the actions of the characters prove futile and tragedy results. Lear fails to maintain order in his kingdom and his family; Gloucester loses his sight; and Cordelia, the only one who really loves her father, dies. Critics such as Samuel Johnson have argued that because of Cordelia‟s death, Shakespeare‟s ending is flawed, that he fails to follow the “natural ideas of justice” by allowing “Cordelia to perish in a just cause.” In 1689, approximately eighty years after Shakespeare completed the first text of King Lear, Nahum Tate published an alternate ending to the play in which Cordelia lives and eventually goes on to rule in her father‟s place. While this “happy” ending was performed as if it were Shakespeare‟s original for decades afterwards, it actually runs contrary to the original version of King Lear by applying Judeo-Christian human concepts of justice to a world that is not governed by a just God. In the nihilistic world Shakespeare creates, there is no just force to establish an objective morality, and therefore, the rules of right and wrong, and the consequences of each, are obsolete. Thus, because King Lear is set in a world in which the generally accepted rules of justice do not apply, Shakespeare‟s ending, including the death of the only truly virtuous character...
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...Criminal Justice System Paper According to the dictionary, Crime is “An action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited. (Lexico Publishing, 2012) ”. Any act that is considered to be unlawful and where society has agreed upon a just punishment for such actions when these acts have been performed is considered to be a crime. These crimes may be violent crimes, white collar crimes, motor vehicle violations, even jay- walking or littering. One of the most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal is the crime-control model, which is a perception that stresses the efficient arrest and conviction of criminal offenders. In the late 1960’s, this model was first brought to the attention of the academic community in Stanford University law professor Herbert Packer’s incisive presentation of the state of criminal justice. This model is sometimes referred to as Packer’s crime-control model. The other most common model of how society determines which acts are criminal is the due process model which is a criminal justice perspective the stresses individual rights at all stages of justice system processing. This process is intended to make sure that innocent people are not convicted of crimes. This is an essential part of the justice system in America. Facts are individually and carefully considered for each case to be determined. The police are required...
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