CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Good Morning Reader;

Criminal Justice Essay

In the beginning, there was to some degree chaos in the disputes of all things human. We have our own opinions, desires and wants. We needed a system to look at the many ways offenses against us occur, both bodily and of personal property, along with ways to confront and understand both sides of the issue. Allowing us to make decisions regarding if either party had been wronged. Creating a system to decide what the damages to the wronged individual would be, in both areas of actual damage and punitive damage. (Additional punishments for morally wronged or particularly heinous offenses.)

As a new country, we adopted what we knew, English Common Law. By the end of the 19^th century we had divided our legal system into CRIMINAL and CIVIL jurisdictions with our Criminal laws dictated by “Penal Codes”, subjectively run by our US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and ultimately determined by our Supreme Court Justices. In some cases, we abandoned the common law practices altogether.

There are many things about the way we administer criminal law in the US, it has a very broad scope of outlined ways to handle any given area of crimes against a person or their property, wherein both the Victim and the Alleged perpetrator of the crime have rights and responsibilities under our criminal statutes. 

There are limitations, ambiguities, personalities of particular judges, and different ways of interpreting our laws, Making the reading of judges opinions and decisions not only interesting and educational but telling as to the social climate and popular opinions of the citizenry of the US at the time of the decisions rendering.  

We can also see that there seems to be no one-right-way or one particular decision that “fits all” and this is as it should be. There are many factors that can sway a judicial decision, for or against the crime or the criminal in question. This gives us great latitude in the administering of our laws, and greater perceived fairness.

I believe working in the criminal justice system is a great way to explore the many facets of human nature and behavior. It gives us a good understanding of the basic human personality and struggles for survival, proactiveness, and benevolence as well as greed, wants and dominance over others. These basic premises can be applied to almost all areas of criminal behavior encompassing a large variety of personality types and social norms, inside of learned or inherent behaviors. Because of these factors not only is criminal law about the law itself but also it is about the human condition as a whole. We can observe a great many diversities and prejudices as well as commonalities among our fellow man, by looking at how we as a society handle and administer our criminal element and the offenses they commit.

We have tried, I believe in vain and without merit, to offer fairness in the judicial processes. I believe that we are still seeking ways to find some common ground for the ability to allow for all alleged criminal to have fairness, but at the same time remembering that the victim is not the one on trial, and should not be treated as if they are.

Any individual interested in an Administration of Justice degree and criminal law in particular, could lead to new ways of interpreting our Bill of Rights and the general verbiage of the Constitution, by them becoming an attorney in the criminal area. Leading down the road to being a justice, giving them the ability to render their own decisions, create new ways of working with the legal system as a whole and allowing for  “New Eyes” so to speak, to see innovative ways to succeed where others have not.

In conclusion we as a society run by human minds that can and do falter, need to adopt a vision of seeing the crimes against us in ways other than that of the criminal being non-productive and bad individual. To seeing them as broken in some way in need of addressing a solution to allow them to be whole and healed. While at the same time using great discernment in this same area, so as not to allow the habitual offenders, ones that seem not to be able to be healed, back into society to inflict more damage. While keeping in mind that we really do have finite resources to deal with incarcerated individuals.

We have a fine line to address here, one that requires a broad understanding of human nature, behavior, and mental capacity, coupled with a sense of justice and fairness for all involved.  Looking at new and different ways of working with those that commit crimes against us.