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What Are The Arguments Against The Abolition Of Criminal Justice

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In the summer of 1996, a black man named Rodney Roberts was arrested and charged with the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl. Proposed with two negative options: a plea deal of nine years in prison and a trial that could result in life imprisonment, Roberts took a plea deal offered to him knowing fully well of his own innocence. More than nine years later, the proposed victim stated in an interview with reporters that she never knew that anyone had been sentenced for her rape and denied ever having identified Roberts as her attacker from a mugshot or lineup. Soon after, in May of 2006, the Essex County prosecutor’s office ordered investigators to look for missing evidence involved in the Roberts case and found the original rape kit still sealed. Upon testing, it was revealed that Roberts was innocent. …show more content…

However, the real question of debates lies in whether or not the criminal justice system’s primary purpose is efficiency or justice. Is time and money saved more valuable than truth and human life? Even if abolition can’t be implemented entirely, is it not worth implementing at all? For example, current US alcohol laws dictate that people must be twenty-one years or older to drink, however, young people still find ways to obtain alcohol. Even if young people can obtain alcohol, does that mean our system shouldn’t try to restrict it at all and provide it freely? Likewise with plea bargaining, even if in cases such as Alaska, prosecutors found loopholes against abolition, does that mean the US should make no attempt at restricting wrongful convictions and racial inequality? Littering, human trafficking, murder, theft, and discrimination are all aspects of human life that can’t be eliminated entirely; however, the United States still seeks to prevent them through legislation and law

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