Criminal Law Essays (Examples)
Study Document
War On Drugs
Fighting the Drug War
What is the most significant problem facing the criminal justice system today? Why?
The fact that using recreational drugs is illegal in the United States has always been controversial from a civil … effect upon the electoral policy of the United States, given that one in 13 voters are denied their right to vote because of law that prevent individuals with felony convictions from voting (“Race and the Drug War,” 2018).
Instead of prosecuting individuals for drug crimes wholesale, a … War,” 2018).
Instead of prosecuting individuals for drug crimes wholesale, a more nuanced attitude to drug crimes must be adopted. First and foremost, criminal of marijuana should be a priority. Many states have already begun the process of legalization, and the fact that an African-American individual is … the drug war. (2018). Drug Policy Alliance. Retrieved from: https://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war
Resing, C. (2018). Marijuana legalization is a……
References
References
Race and the drug war. (2018). Drug Policy Alliance. Retrieved from: https://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war
Resing, C. (2018). Marijuana legalization is a racial justice issue. ACLU. Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/drug-law-reform/marijuana-legalization- racial-justice-issue
Study Document
Determinate Versus Indeterminate Sentencing Policies
Abstract
Indeterminate sentencing law allow judges to give convicted felons a window of time rather a specific sentence length. With indeterminate sentencing, the judge provides a minimum … a minimum and a maximum but defers authority regarding when a prisoner is released (or when probation ends) to other members of the criminal justice system such as parole board members and probation officers. Determinate sentencing is just the opposite: a procedure in which the trial judge … be deemed more fair overall.
Pros of Indeterminate Sentencing
Indeterminate sentencing has been hailed for its potential usefulness in promoting rehabilitative models in criminal justice. With an indeterminate sentence, the parole board exercises discretion based on multiple factors such as good conduct exhibited while the offender serves … professional discretion exercised by probation officers, judges, parole boards, and corrections officers (Tonry, 1999). Therefore, indeterminate sentencing works well from the perspective of criminal justice professionals.……
References
References
Allen, J. (2016). CU rape case sparks debate over Colorado’s indeterminate sentencing law. The Denver Channel. Retrieved from: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/colorados-indeterminate-sentencing-criticized
Baker, J. (2020, Aug 10). Davis sentenced to 15 years in 2017 Wheeling hotel killing. WTOV. Retrieved from: https://wtov9.com/news/local/davis-sentenced-to-15-years-in-2017-wheeling-hotel-killing
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (n.d.). Indeterminate sentence. Retrieved from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/indeterminate_sentence
Gant, J. & Hussain, D. (2020, 5 Aug). Hero PC Andrew Harper’s mother slams ‘unduly lenient sentences for her son’s killers. Daily Mail. Retrieved from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8592283/Attorney-General-review-jail-terms-handed-three-teenagers-killed-PC-Andrew-Harper.html
Green, S.J. (2020, Aug 6). Brothers sentenced to 40 years in prison for 2016 shooting at Seattle homeless encampment. Bakersfield. Retrieved from: https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/national/brothers-sentenced-to-40-years-in-prison-for-2016-shooting-at-seattle-homeless-encampment/article_5c5d040d-0e0c-532e-9fd7-794232746f5d.html
O’Hear, M.M. (2011). Beyond rehabilitation. 48 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1247 (2011).
Puzauskas, K. & Morrow, K. (2018). No indeterminate sentencing without parole. 44 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 263 (2018).
Rhine, E.E., Watts, A. & Reitz, K.R. (2018). Parole boards within indeterminate and determinate sentencing structures. Robina Institute of Law and Criminal Justice. Retrieved from: https://robinainstitute.umn.edu/news-views/parole-boards-within-indeterminate-and-determinate-sentencing-structures
Study Document
Private Prison Industry And Mental Health Of Inmates
My view of criminal justice has changed completely. Before this course, I was under the impression that the criminal justice system might be law—but what system is perfect? Now I have a much better understanding of the nature of that system and the reasons it is not … mental health issues are a big part of the problem. It is almost to the point where crime has really become not a criminal justice problem but rather a mental health problem, as nearly half of all crimes are committed by people with a history of mental … mental health issues (Evans Cuellar, McReynolds & Wasserman, 2006). Instead of getting the mental health treatment they need, these people become self-destructive, break law because they have no real social bonds (i.e., social bond theory) or because their lives have been so utterly derailed that they cannot … have no real social bonds (i.e.,……
References
References
Evans Cuellar, A., McReynolds, L. S., & Wasserman, G. A. (2006). A cure for crime: Can mental health treatment diversion reduce crime among youth?. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: The Journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 25(1), 197-214.
Pelaez, V. (2014). The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?. Global Research, 31, 1-2.
Study Document
The Juvenile Justice System And Status Offenses
Ethical Issues in criminal Justice
The juvenile justice system has a unique position in the American justice system as a whole. Its function should be to rehabilitate … the American justice system as a whole. Its function should be to rehabilitate the juvenile offender before he or she becomes an adult criminal. Juvenile records are expunged when the individual becomes an adult. There are, of course, some exceptions of when a juvenile who commits a … when a juvenile who commits a very serious crime and is charged as an adult, but for the most part, in theory, juvenile criminal have a unique status. Juvenile offenders also are unique in that because of their age they may be guilty of particular crimes that … Offenders, 2015, par.…[break]…the greater likelihood of curfews being imposed in urban areas where minority youths live, as well as the greater presence of law enforcement in……
References
References
Rovner, J. (2014). Disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system. The Sentencing Project. Retrieved from: https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/disproportionate-minority-contact-in-the - juvenile-justice-system/
Status offenders. (2015). Development Services Group, Inc. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved from: https://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/litreviews/Status_Offenders.pdf
Study Document
War On Drugs
… Is it effective? Quantify the deaths related to the WOD, as well as the social entropy in communities, families, and within individuals
2. criminal distracting attention from more central concerns linked to capitalism, psychological wellbeing, and healthcare.
3. National sovereignty issues and global perspective
II. Theoretical Discussion
… healthcare.
3. National sovereignty issues and global perspective
II. Theoretical Discussion
A. Race, class, power perspectives
B. Government, public policy, global affairs
C. criminal, justice
D. Other sociological issues
1. Organized crime and terrorism
2. White collar crime (tobacco and pharmaceutical industries)
III. Literature Review
A. Balancing … collar crime (tobacco and pharmaceutical industries)
III. Literature Review
A. Balancing public health/safety with personal liberty/self-empowerment
B. Alternate strategies, pilot projects
1. Cannabis law reform
2. Psychedelics
IV. Discussion
V. Conclusions
A. The war on drugs is a human rights issue.
B. The war on drugs is … illogical and empirically proven to……
References
References
ACLU (2020). Against drug prohibition. Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/other/against-drug-prohibition
“America is At War,” (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html
Bambauer, J. Y. (2012). How the war on drugs distorts privacy law. Stanford Law Review 62(2012). Retrieved from: https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/how-the-war-on-drugs-distorts-privacy-law/
Benson, B.L., Kim., I., Rasmussen, D.W., et al. (1992, 2006). Is property crime caused by drug use or by drug enforcement policy? Applied Economics 24(7): 679-692.
Best, D., Irving, J. & Albertson, K. (2016). Recovery and desistance: what the emerging recovery movement in the alcohol and drug area can learn from models of desistance from offending. Addiction Research & Theory 25(1): 1-10.
Coomber, R., Moyle, L., Belackova, V., et al. (2018). The burgeoning recognition and accommodation of the social supply of drugs in international criminal justice systems: An eleven-nation comparative overview. International Journal of Drug Policy 58(2018): 98-103.
Coyne, C.J. & Hall, A. R. (2017). Four decades and counting. CATO Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/four-decades-counting-continued-failure-war-drugs
Farabee, D., Prendergast, M. & Anglin, M.D. (1998). The effectiveness of coerced treatment for drug-abusing offenders. 62 Fed. Probation 3 (1998).
Study Document
Race And Incarceration Rates
Introduction
Race has always been a cultural factor in the U.S. and it is certainly a factor in today’s criminal justice system. James (2018:30) has shown that current “research on police officers has found that they tend to associate African Americans with threat” … land, and lord it over them. This worldview became so ingrained in American culture that it led to the spirit of Jim Crow law being put in place—such as the “separate but equal” clause of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)—segregation and more oppression. The Civil Rights Movement drew … 2012).
The Root of the Problem
Alexander (2012) notes that the mass incarceration of African Americans is because of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system (informed by the same culture that promote Manifest Destiny nearly 200 years ago): she points out, for instance, that 50% of … years ago): she points out, for instance, that 50% of……
References
References
Aguirre, A., & Baker, D. V. (Eds.). 2008. Structured inequality in the United States: Critical discussions on the continuing significance of race, ethnicity, and gender. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Alexander, Michelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow. New York: New Press.
Davis, Angela. 2012. The Meaning of Freedom. San Francisco: City Light Books.
James, Lois. 2018. The stability of implicit racial bias in police officers. Police Quarterly 21(1):0-52.
Lopez, German. 2018. There are huge racial disparities in how US police use force. Retrieved July 30, 2019 ( https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/8/13/17938186/police-shootings-killings-racism-racial-disparities ).
O’Sullivan, John. 1845. Annexation. United States Magazine and Democratic Review 17(1):5-10.
Pettit, Becky, and Bruce Western. 2004. Mass imprisonment and the life course: Race and class inequality in US incarceration." American sociological review 69(2):151-169.
Plessy v. Ferguson. 1896. Retrieved July 30, 2019 ( https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/163us537 ).
Study Document
The US Sentencing System Disparities And Discrimination
… have their sentence determined and read out by a judge at the sentencing hearing. The sentencing hearing can only take place after the criminal conviction. During the sentencing hearing, the judge will have to decide on a sentence or a punishment based on the maximum and minimum … get different punishments. More specifically, a disparity exists when judges impose the same punishment/ sentence on offenders who have very different crimes and criminal histories and when judges impose different punishments on offenders who have carried out identical crimes and have identical criminal past. Sentencing discrimination is a bit different from sentencing disparity, and it exists in several ways. First, sentencing discrimination exists when legally irrelevant … offenders for similar crimes (Spohn, 2008).
The Supreme Court Building has a phrase engraved on it. The phrase reads, “Equal justice under the law.” However, for the poor, for persons of color, and many……
References
References
Daly, K., & Tonry, M. (1997). Gender, Race, and Sentencing. Crime and Justice, 22, 201-252. Retrieved May 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/1147574
Farrell, A., Ward, G., & Rousseau, D. (2010). Intersections of gender and race in federal sentencing: examining court contexts and the effects of representative court authorities. Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, 1, 85.
Hessick, C. B. (2010). Race and gender as explicit sentencing factors. Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, 1, 127.
Mauer, M. (2010). Justice for all challenging racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Hum. Rts., 37, 14.
Smith, D. (2006). Narrowing Racial Disparities in Sentencing through a System of Mandatory Downward Departures. The Modern American, Summer 2006, 32–37.
Spohn, C. (2008). How do judges decide?: the search for fairness and justice in punishment. Sage Publications.
Yang, C. S. (2015). Free at last? Judicial discretion and racial disparities in federal sentencing. The Journal of Legal Studies, 44(1), 75-111.
Study Document
Criminology Theory
Criminology Theory
Answer A:
The documentary showed how the criminal justice system is biased towards the whites while having a huge number of African-American imprisoned. This documentary revolves around the racial injustice that … biased towards the whites while having a huge number of African-American imprisoned. This documentary revolves around the racial injustice that happens within the criminal justice system, incarcerating many African-Americans on petty crimes, filling most of the prisons with them. This is shown as just an extension of … of slavery, which was abolished in the 13th amendment. However, this amendment has a loophole as no Americans can be slaved except for criminal, which was excessively exploited by the whites to get them to labor on small crimes. The perspective that Blacks are criminal was ingrained within the society through movies, which gave birth to public lynching and hanging of African-Americans based on the idea of them……
Study Document
Solitary Confinement And Mental Health Issues In Corrections
… mind as when Pennsylvania instituted the reform-minded approach to corrections. This paper will look at the functions of the state correctional system, analyze criminal justice issues, examine the impacts of incarceration and social justice issues for one correctional institution and one private institution, identify cultural sensitivity and … practices and chances for improvement like what the Florida corrections system has done as opposed to placing an all-out emphasis on punitive practices.
criminal Justice Issues for Corrections Personnel and the Rights of Offenders
Corrections personnel have to be mindful of prisoners’ rights today, as the case … support as they shift their lives from prison to the community, and the supervised release programs facilitates that goal as well as the criminal justice objective of rehabilitation.
Another example of social justice among correctional institutions is that of the Florida Department of Corrections (2020), which offers … 2019). Thus, this is a……
References
References
Clemmer, D. (1940). The prison community. New Braunfels, TX: Christopher Publishing House.
Compton, M. T., Anderson, S., Broussard, B., Ellis, S., Halpern, B., Pauselli, L., . . .Johnson, M. (2017). A potential new form of jail diversion and reconnection to mental health services: II. Demonstration of feasibility. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 35(5–6), 492–500. doi:10.1002/bsl.2319
Corrections Arizona Department. (2020). Retrieved from https://corrections.az.gov/location/110/kingman
Dryburgh, M. (2009). Policy implications of whistle-blowing: The case of Corcoran State Prison. Public Integrity, 11(2): 155-170.
Fantel, H. (1974). William Penn: Apostle of Dissent. NY: William Morrow & Co. Florida Department of Corrections. (2020). Retrieved from
https://twitter.com/FL_Corrections/status/1234884340296843266
Hensley, J. & Rough, G. (2011). Kingman prison still under scrutiny. Retrieved from http://archive.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/30/20110130kingman-prison-still-under-scrutiny0130.html
HIV among Incarcerated Populations. (2015). CDC. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/correctional.html
Study Document
Why Social Justice Matters In Corrections
… (Seiter, 2014), but there is almost certainly bound to be a conflict of interest between the private industry and the mission of the criminal justice system. If the corrections industry is profiting from incarceration, how can there not be a conflict of interest? Thus, my big problem … of interest? Thus, my big problem with privatization of prisons is that it presents too many opportunities for private wealth to exploit the criminal justice system’s vulnerabilities and undermine the social justice it is meant to uphold.
References
Seiter, R. P. (2014). Private prisons: Myths, realities & educational … social justice it is meant to uphold.
References
Seiter, R. P. (2014). Private prisons: Myths, realities & educational opportunities for inmates. Saint Louis University Public law Review, 33(1), 415–428.
Peer 2 Akayla
I think the privatization of prisons is not necessarily a good thing, and I would take issue … social justice and rehabilitation here……
References
References
Johnson, T., Quintana, E., Kelly, D. A., Graves, C., Schub, O., Newman, P., & Casas, C. (2015). Restorative Justice Hubs Concept Paper. Revista de Mediación, 8(2), 2340-9754.
Seiter, R. P. (2014). Private prisons: Myths, realities & educational opportunities for inmates. Saint Louis University Public Law Review, 33(1), 415–428.
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