...Many citizens tend to overlook minor laws with the belief that it is ‘no big deal’. Frank Trippett in his passage from “A Red Light of Scofflaws” claims that social order is becoming lost due to the ignorance of many laws in place today. He starts by providing examples of common laws that seemed to regularly be overlooked in society. He does this in order to get his audience to realize that they too, may be breaking laws each and every day without even being fully conscious of it. He states that citizens find it to be a norm to ignore these rules. He continues by informing his audience that many people believe only violent crimes pose a threat or issue. He then explains that these minor breaks of the law lead to a breaking of social order as well so that his audience will consider the consequences of these actions. Trippett establishes a dissatisfied tone for his law-breaking...
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...1. No society has ever existed, as far as we know, which has not exercised some form of censorship over the conduct and opinions of its members… Good morning teachers and students. Censorship by the government infringes upon the rights of the individual and inhibits freedom of expression. Now, censorship is a broadly used term so what exactly IS censorship? Well, censorship is defined by the Australian Macquarie Dictionary as ‘the actions of a censor – that is, an official who examines books, plays, news reports, films, radio programs (and more recently the internet), for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military or other grounds’. Censorship has been around since the beginning of time. It has been used as a tool to control what others have access to. In Australia today, we are supposedly guaranteed the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press by our constitution. Yet censorship still exists. We are told censorship is necessary, but at what cost? National security and public interest, are these valid reasons? Why must the government decide what is best for me to read or watch in a cinema or in the privacy of my own home? Sure, we must protect our youth, but that is a parent's responsibility, not the government's. I can understand censorship based upon national security; we can't go around selling all of our secrets without a major threat to our government and our way of life. Censorship is a way of controlling the population...
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...thought about how harmful and damaging the influence of our justice system can be across the United States? How damaging is it to a community when someone is wrongfully convicted? In society, the system and law enforcement choose the incarcerees who are at risk of being punished if the incarcerees meet the requirements of being punished. This is done by the US’s justice system, called the retributive system. This system punishes and imprisons people without learning the whole story. In the book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson talks about how the retributive justice system attempts to portray that it is fair for all, yet we are far from having a fair system as the current legal work is short of being fair. To begin, the criminal justice...
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...rehabilitating juvenile offenders. Since the original enactment of the JJDPA in 1974, the periodic reauthorizations have been controversial, as the Act's opponents have sought to weaken its protections for youth, reduce prevention resources, and encourage the transfer of youth to the adult criminal justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act follow a series of federal protections, known as the "core protections," on the care and treatment of youth in the justice system. The four "core protections" of the act are, the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO), Sight and Sound separation, Jail Removal, and Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC). The "DSO" and "Sight and Sound" protections were part of the original law in 1974. The "Jail Removal" provision was added in 1980 in response to finding youth incarcerated in adult facilities resulted in "a high suicide rate, physical, mental, and sexual assault, inadequate care and programming, negative labeling, and exposure to serious offenders and mental patients." The "DMC" requirement was added in the JJDPA in 1992. Literature Review The compliance of states towards the requirements of the JJDP Act is monitored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. As of the year 2000, the...
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...Minorities in Prison, Why So Many? Jennifer A. Spry ENG 122: English Composition II Ava Hardiek January 7, 2013 Minorities in Prison, Why So Many? Introduction Racism has been a part of history for many years and is a very real problem in the world, not just in the United States. For example, New England colonists fled to a new land, later to be known as America, for religious freedom from European dictators, early settlers of the United States enslaved African-Americans, Adolf Hitler murdered millions of Jewish people, and Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists destroyed the World Trade Towers killing thousands. In the United States, before the Civil rights movement, African-Americans were severely discriminated against. They were not allowed into certain restaurants, they were given restrooms and water fountains that were only used by “colored people”, and they were forced to sit in the back of the bus. Schools and neighborhoods were segregated and interracial relationships were forbidden. Racism was considered socially acceptable and the judicial system upheld arrests and convictions of those that did not conform to the laws. It was impossible for a person of color to receive a fair trial. Today the judicial system is designed to punish criminals for the crime not their minority status, but the truth can still be twisted by racism. Some people argue that the law is flawed and the courts are biased because we are judged by a group of people who are randomly selected to decide...
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...Social Justice and Equality: Racial Profiling Galina Shlikht, Nicole Gordon and Becky Overstreet City University of Seattle Author’s Note Galina Shilkht, Student, City University Nicole Gordon, Student, City University Becky Overstreet, Student, City University Social Justice and Equality Team Outline (All) Conflict and Solutions 1. Faulty communication Sometimes criticism can be given inappropriately. This can result in hurting the feelings of group members leaving them feeling devalued. When this happens, we as a team believe the first thing that must be done is to be honest and let the group know how you feel. So we must acknowledge the conflict. The next appropriate step would be to discuss the conflict with all of the team members. After this, we should try and understand the situation and reach an agreement. One of the agreements could be that criticism be given appropriately and constructively. 2. Time management With work, kids, and living in different time zones it can be a challenge to find the time that works best for the three of us to discuss the details, questions, and/or concerns about our essay together. Our solution to this is to set up exact times and day, sort of like an online appointment, for when the three of us can be available via Facebook group message. 3. Personality clashes We all have our own way of doing things. Our styles of working might be different and sometimes this can cause a conflict with each other...
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...instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.” Americans are often locked up for things such as using drugs or writing a bad check. Sending someone to prison should be our last resort because it’s expensive and can increase risk for future criminal behavior. Yet, even as the crime rates decrease, prisons are still overcrowded. The reason for this, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council in the article “Prison Overcrowding,” is: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, state and local governments passed tough crime legislation. For example, California passed the “three strikes and you’re out” law which called for mandatory sentencing of repeat offenders, and New York adopted the “Broken Windows” strategy that called for the arrest and prosecution of all crimes large and small. Policy such as this led to reduced crime rates, but increased populations in jails and prisons. While mandatory sentencing laws are being passed, laws criminalizing an increasing number of behaviors are also being passed. The result is that, not only are judges forced to send people to prison in cases where it might not be necessary, but they are forced to do so because there are more activities which come with mandatory sentences than ever before. overcrowding in California was so bad in California that the Supreme Court declared it to...
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...SMOKING BAN? As the years go by and society changes new laws surface to protect us from harm. Or do they? The laws today compared to the laws from decades ago have morphed and changed dramatically; some for the good and others for the worse. For example, in today’s day and age it is hard to discipline children and give a little tough love when they misbehave in public places. If a parent is caught in the act of spanking their child due to disciplinary reasons the parent can be fined, jailed, or even worse, have social services called on the parent or parents and have their children stripped from them. There is a major difference between abuse and a subtle smack on the wrist or behind and most parents understand the difference. Twenty years ago seeing a child get their behind busted would of been no big deal. Today’s new laws seem to be all or nothing in the aspect that there are hardly few reasonable limitations and boundaries. These new laws may be about protecting our safety and well-being, but if we look behind the curtain some of these new laws are starting to represent how far the state and or federal government will go to the extent of controlling how Americans should live. A state wide law that seems to be becoming popular in the United States this past couple decades is the smoking ban. Over half of the United States contains these laws and the 100% smoking ban law prohibits smokers from smoking in any enclosed establishment as well as some outdoor establishments...
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...control side of the current debate. In his Federalist Papers James Madison said, “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms” (Raymond). Madison may be right about our citizens having more rights than those in other countries, but our government places too much trust in the American people. If you take away privately owned guns, it does not solve anything because doing so would consequentially create a communist or police state. Instead of taking away the guns, a better solution is to control who buys guns and for what purpose they should be used. Opponents of gun control may say that a seven-day waiting period before being able to buy a gun does nothing to help fight or prevent crime or to save lives, it is needed to keep more people from dying, to keep people from being robbed, and to keep guns out of the hands of known criminals. There are over 283 million licensed guns in the U.S. (Herbert 1), and that does not include unregistered and illegal weapons that people own, sell to and buy from unlicensed or criminal sources. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants Americans the right to “bear arms,” but when they kill innocent people or even themselves, should all Americans have that right? More than 50% of U.S. homes own one or more guns (White 1). The question becomes: Why? It is not necessary for so many to own firearms, and have concealed weapons prepared...
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...Each day Americans are bombarded with media messages, it could be through TV, radio, or internet. We can see headlines walking by a store, or at a checkout racks. Fear is a powerful tool. It has been used by military to slow down enemies, Law enforcement use it on criminals to reduce crime, parents use it on their kids to keep them in control. When fear is use there is someone that gains something from it. Some societies incite fear in the public to attain political goals or economic goals. Two fears that have come about in the past few years are the fear of terrorism and the fear of TV and Video games lead to violence. These fears have because much panic in the public leading to new policies being made and control over the public. As you continue to read, I’ll go over the facts about these fears and what kind of gains have come of it. Over the past few years there have been a string of violence in today’s society involving kids and guns. It has been suggest that Teens who watch too much violent shows are prone for more violence. Political groups have stated that we need to control what our teens watch, if we don’t, if not there would be more violence. After the tragedy of Newtown, Conn a bill was passed the impact of violent video games on children. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has introduced one of Congress' first pieces of legislation. Even after bills have passed and policies have been made, like California made a law banning sales of violent video games to minors. Supreme...
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...Discussion about The Juveniles Law: Abolish vs Maintain As Juveniles crimes are increasing, there is criticism that the punishment for juvenile offenders is too soft. In recent years of Korea, juvenile crimes has proved that juvenile offenders became crueler than ever. The case of Busan juvenile violent crime was committed by five middle school students. The victim was their friend. They beat her six hours and threaten her with scissors. However, this is not only big problem in the South Korea, but also in the United States. According to the research of Police Department, between 1980 and 2005, 43,621 juveniles were arrested for murder in the United States. The picture is just as bleak with respect to arrests for 109,563 rapes, 818,276 robberies,...
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...prosecution of adults not children. Both state and federal legislative have responded to juvenile crime by focusing on sending more and younger children to adult criminal court. How and where do we draw the line between adults and children? Where do we draw the line between justice and malice? Juveniles that commit crimes should be punished for the crimes that they commit, but they should not be tried as an adult. This paper will offer information on why there needs to be changes in the juvenile justice system, and it will analyze why the increased prosecution of juveniles in adult court is disastrous and nothing but a threatening policy. This policy is unjust, harmful to children and does nothing to increase public safety; consequently punishing adolescents as adults does more harm than good. Thomas J Bernard a professor of criminal justice and sociology at Pennsylvania State University explained how psychologists and sociologists saw young offenders. Bernard’s (2010) book The Cycle of Juvenile Justice recognized that minors are children and not adults. (p. 45) Bernard (2010) further explains that during the 18th century children were tried as adults. Juveniles as young as the age of seven could be tried and sentenced in criminal courts. (Bernard 2010) His research expounds on the Society for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and their role as “child savers.” A child savers movement resulted in the first juvenile court. The child savers group was opposed to the confrontational...
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...used for various reasons. Many people in California are beginning to buy or receive medical marijuana prescriptions to avoid serious consequences. “In 1996, California voters passed position 215, the Compassionate Use Act, legalizing marijuana for medical use. Proposition 215 permits ill Californians to use marijuana, provided they first obtain a doctor’s recommendation. Proposition 215 also give doctors legal defense against professional or legal sanctions for recommending use of marijuana” (Berkeley.edu 1). There is so much conflict between proposition 215 and the federal law. The federal law says that marijuana use is illegal anytime, for any purpose at all, but proposition 215 says it can be used under certain circumstances such as a medical marijuana issue (Berkeley.edu 2). The federal law and state law need to come to an agreement or conclusion. The federal law should leave the state law alone or realize that medical marijuana is a good thing and is treating and helping...
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...believe this issue doesnt affect you think again. According to the 2010 US consensus, there are 274.5 million americans us the internet. That means 87% of the nation uses the it daily. Now that we are all on the same page together we will look at the fact that freedom of speech would restriced by cencorship, parents responisibilty over thier childern, and previous laws have failed. The internet alows us to inform others According to google, censorship is defined as the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government. The first words of this definaition alone go against the words of out founding fathers. ACLU professor David Goldberger states that, “Free speech, is communication that flows into the marketplace of ideas that allows us to decide what we think is right and wrong, and truth is and how to best govern the country” So why would we let the governement decide what we can and cant see? It should anger every American that our government would so publicly try to abridge our freedom. The freedom of speech has been a symbol of American society since it was first established in 1776 with the approval of the Declaration of Independence. We condemn other countries for oppressing their citizens’ freedom of speech. We shouldn’t allow our own government to do the same thing to us. The Internet can be freely accessed by anyone, where we want to or not. Im sure we have...
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...Thesis: Canada's criminal justice system, specifically laws dealing with punishment, is far superior to that of the United States Canada and the United States of America are two neighboring countries who besides the border share numerous other key aspects. Though similar in beliefs and culture the two countries are far from alike. Their legal structure particularly the penal system is one of most significant boundaries between Canada and the United States. Though not perfect, it's absolutely clear that Canada has the far more superior legal system. Unlike the United States, Canada no longer practices capital punishment which is barbaric to say the least. Furthermore Canada's belief in conjunctive punishment is better with dealing with offenders than America's consecutive punishment. Finally Canada's goal to concentrate more on rehabilitating and educating criminals is far more effective and efficient in eradicating future crime then just incarcerating them. There are two main types of law, Substantive and Procedural. Substantive law creates, defines and regulates rights and obligations of citizens; in contrast procedural law prescribes the manner to enforce rights and obligations. (Dickson) Substantive law divides into Public law which in turn breaks up into four other laws including criminal law. Criminal law outlines all the acts that are regarded as offences to society and it consists of the penal system. The penal system is comprised of sets of punishments and sentences...
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