CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal Justice System



Criminal Justice System

Introduction:

The criminal justice system is a network of agencies that responds to crime, including police, courts and prisons. It has come a long way since the medieval period where torture was commonplace in the pursuit of justice. It is a well thought out system, but like other organizations, it has flaws. One of its major flaws is discrimination, on the basis of ethnicity, gender and class (Walker, 1992).

With 5.5 billion dollars being spent on the criminal justice system every year, it can be considered “as enormously expensive, overly adversial in nature, disempowering, and customarily ignoring the rights of victims.” Is this because they may conflict with the rights of the defendant? (Walker, 1977)

In determining how fair and effective the criminal justice system is, all aspects in relation to discretionary powers, discriminatory behaviour and procedures, police, the judiciary, corrections, Juvenile Justice, Indigenous issues, victims rights and offender rights need to be scrutinized and evaluated.

Discrimination:

Indigenous people, the unemployed, low-income, and the poorly educated, appear to be the main targets in law enforcement, they also constitute the main proportion of our prison population. When comparing the legal treatment of conventional and corporate offenders, it would seem that they are also treated harsher than middle class offenders. White-collar crime may be “non-violent and sophisticated,” but it can have a life long impact, yet the 'get tough' policies are rarely used for this type of crime. Moreover, the wealthy have greater access to legal advice. The social standing of the judiciary may also be a relevant factor here; after all, how many judges are “women, Aboriginal, working class people?” Do they reflect their values and attitudes of their age, class, race and gender in their “legal decision making,” Moreover, “a communities sense of justice can be violated “ (Schmolka, 2007) if everyone is not treated equally. Considering the criminal justice system is supposed to “look after everyone's interests without fear or favour,” this could compromise the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.

Irrespective of being the victim or offender, women appear to be treated unfairly and inequitably. This is not surprising, considering our laws and institutions are dominated by males. Moreover, facilities available for women are inappropriate, lacking programs and services. However, Queensland had taken measures to address this problem, by establishing a women's unit to “explore problems” relating to female prisoners. If incarcerated, they also spend most of their sentence in maximum security despite being imprisoned for less serious or violent offences than men (Wolfgang, 1990).

Discrimination against Aboriginal people is evident, resulting in them being disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. However, this is discussed in more detail later in the paper.

Discretionary Power:

Discretionary justice allows officials of the criminal justice system to incorporate extenuating circumstance “to make a choice on possible action or inaction.” This can result in inconsistencies, and is open to being compromised by emotions, bribery, political favroutism, racism and other forms of prejudices.

Police have enormous discretionary powers. Having the power to either charge or divert ...