5. Public trials and executions serve as a deterance of deviant behaviors. These sanctions act as a way to set an example and for people to see what will happen to them if they do the same thing, These sanctions can also be seen as reinforcing boundaries. Although public executions and trials in “town square” are not as common in most countries today, the media is utilized to fulfil the same purpose. When there are high profile cases going on in the United States often tmes the full trial and sentancings are televised so that much of society can see what the repercussions are for defying a social norm.
We want our freedom and we want it now. We do not want to go to jail—but we will go to jail if this is the price we must pay for love, brotherhood, and true peace” (Lewis and Aydin 170). Of the experiences and sentiment John Lewis delivered within his words the usage of ethos, logos, and pathos becomes clearly visible. Lewis uses ethics and logic when he expressed a bill was needed to ensure equality. The examples used to explain police brutality and abuse of authority conceive an emotional visual inflicting the audience to personally feel it.
This year at Elon University, all first-year students were given a summer reading. The author Bryan Stevenson, a gifted attorney, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative; fights to raise awareness about the injustices in the United States legal and social systems. Just Mercy, his book magnifies his early career, where he fought for people on death row. This book talks about the injustices that happened back in the 80’s and 90’s but, these same injustices by the police are still around today, but justified by law now.
In the book Just Mercy, by Bryon Stevenson, he shares the story of his upbringing as a lawyer and company Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Through his career, he was able to understand the full extent of mercy and its ability to bring out people’s humanity. Additionally, Stevenson argues how people who act upon prejudiced beliefs are just as broken as those who have been condemned to life in prison without parole and on death row, because they have all been defeated by a sense of hopelessness and animosity within their own lives. In my critique, I describe my new found understanding of the cruelty behind the death penalty. Moreso, the trauma and brutality it brings to all the players involved, especially to those who are placed on death row.
The criminal justice system may be more corrupt than the people who fill our prisons. It is amazing to see the many ways that certain parts of society actually benefit from the current system we support. This book,The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison, by authors Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton, has open my eyes to a very corrupt idealism. They are very precise in their supporting examples as well by walking the reader through each step and analogy.
In schools across the world, children learn that, despite rampant injustice committed by a few, there is still good in the honorable majority of mankind and the promise of righteousness under the law. These children mature idolizing both superheroes in society and those existing on the big screen, teaching that right will trump wrong and that good will prevail over evil. Unfortunately, however, this is not an all-encompassing theme outside of the fictional realm. In Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, Geraldine Coutts, a rape victim on a Native American reservation, finds only injustice in the very judicial system that sought to protect her.
He believed that this would put his family at ease and that he would benefit him greatly. Many people criticize him for his kills but according to him, “I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job” (Kyle, 4). These huge numbers made him have an immense $80,000 bounty over his head. Being the loyal man that he was, he wore the punisher logos. Instead of the enemy killing other troops to get the bounty he made himself obvious of who he was making him a very loyal and well respected man in the force.
Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo revolves around the life of Pedro Páramo. Juan Preciado goes to Comala to fulfill his mother’s dying wish by finding his father Pedro Páramo . When he arrives in Comala he does not find Comala as the lush, lively town town his mother talked of but a desolate town filled with ghosts. The ghosts tell him the story of Pedro Páramo life and of Comala’s past. The character of Pedro Páramo reveals that corruption is contagious.
It is an important issue to be discussed. At this moment it may not directly affect everyone, currently a large percentage of those affected are people in poverty or men of color; but the number of incarcerations has greatly increased over the past “40 years” and may continue to increase in the long run affecting many. Stevenson is trying to raise awareness, informing his audience about the justice system today and how it favors those who are “rich and guilty [rather] than if you’re poor and innocent.” He is trying to raise awareness as to how punishment in the criminal system does not stop at a certain age, and how the death penalty “in America is defined by error.” Through his experiences and efforts he has found a need to bring public awareness as to how unjust the United States criminal system is.
Innocent people who are being condemned have negative effects on them. Being arrested for a crime that they did not commit looks bad on their record. Even though they are not guilty, people “... label them ‘criminal,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘rapist,’ thief,’ ‘drug dealer,’ ‘sex offender,’ [and] ‘felon’...” (Stevenson 15). These labels can not be removed, and people have to live with them for the rest of their life.
Not From the Mind Punishments for crime and bad behavior have been seen in different ways with some thinking we should be lenient and not give criminals hard times, while others thought that a more severe, brutal punishments to truly emphasis right from wrong. The articles “Time to Assert American Values” by an editor from The New York Times and “Rough Justice A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime and Punishments” by Alejandro Reyes both describe the trial of a teenage boy from the United States who was caught vandalizing in Singapore. Both authors of the articles examine in great detail, the punishments that the young boy should receive for his crime with both articles contradicting each other. After carefully analyzing
Another perspective surrounding the American criminal justice system is that people only criticize the system because the results they wanted did not occur. Some people go as far as to say, “THE criminal justice system doesn 't work” (Haberman). But why do people have these strong feelings against the American criminal justice system? Haberman’s interesting viewpoint answers that question when he says, “It seems to be a popular pastime: trashing the system when it does not produce the results you want.” From this quotation one can consider that some people disparage the system so heavily because they disagree with the rulings, not because the judgements are wrong, but simply because they do not like them.
In this day and age, There are five times as many people in jail as there were in the 1970s. Almost 5 percent of the population of the United States will go to prison at in point of their life. Conservatives believe that imprisonment reduces crime in two ways: it removes criminals from the public so they can not commit more crimes, and it also discourages people who would commit a crime as they consider the consequences. Unfortunately, neither of these outcomes have come to be true. In fact, mass incarceration and “tough on crime” laws have been extremely ineffective that instead of reducing crime, it increases it.
The criminal justice system is responsible for delivering punishment to breakers of the law, and according to Professor Colin S Diver, the criminal justice system derives its authority with a reliable “moral credibility” (Diver 5). However, the Norsefire methodology of delivering justice is not one that exhibits a
Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.
