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How Is Equality Relevant To The Criminal Justice System

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In several different ways, the principle of equality of opportunity is relevant to the criminal justice system in the twenty-first century. John Rawls “assumes that we are self-interested, rational beings motivated to select laws, rules, and ways-of-life that are most advantageous to ourselves” (p. 117). The principle of equality is a theory that we all wish truly existed; however, it is unfortunate that it does not exist due to our own personal biases. Unconsciously, we all have biased and prejudicial thoughts—we are human and this tends to result on a reality based on social values; however, it does not make it correct. Unfortunately, we have not all learned to put our differences aside in order to get along. In other words, there are times …show more content…

Rawls affirms that “there are two basic principles that define a “just” society” (p. 117). These two concepts are the liberty principle and the difference principle. The liberty principle states that “we should all be willing to agree to a system of rules which guarantees each person the free exercise of basic liberties” (p. 117). On the other hand, the difference principle states that there should be a “fair equality of opportunity” (p. 117). Nonetheless, our criminal justice system should have both of these principles, instead it is inequitable. The first step to fixing a problem, however, is to admit that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. We all know that our system is flawed, the real concern is how do we fix it? I do not believe that there is a way to completely fix the issues; instead, I believe that we would only minimize the injustice that currently exists. The first contact that an offender has with the criminal justice system tends to begin with a police officer. By having more defined policies and procedures emplaced at police departments, the biases that we have can be controlled and minimized significantly. The warnings and citations would have to exclude any and all areas where ethnicity and or race are requested. As well, all documents presented to court would have to exclude all possible personal identifiers of the person being handled; even that I am not sure to be possible. We live in a world of uncertainties that cause the law to be

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This article critically examines the racial disparities in sentencing during the late 20th century and highlights how biased judgments influenced judges' decision making processes. "Just Mercy" aligns with these findings by emphasizing how racial bias affects sentencing outcomes. The author Bryan Stevenson explores implicit bias and cultural stereotypes illustrating their impact on judges' perceptions and judgments of African American defendants. Through concrete examples. "Just Mercy" vividly exposes instances of racial bias within the criminal justice system and reveals the unjust consequences faced by people of color.

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Kamalu, Ngozi Caleb, Margery Coulson-Clark, and Nkechi Margaret Kamalu. " Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community." African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies: AJCJS 4.1 (2010): 1-31. ProQuest.

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This essay will examine three types of disparities that happen under the United States sentencing today. Judges tend to look at the characteristics of the victim involved in the crime to determine the outcome of the sentence. Why should someone’s race, gender, or even religion effect the time they receive for their jail sentence? The 1984 Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) was created to eliminate disparities, basically explaining how one’s ethnicity, gender, and religion should not affect their sentencing. Even with this act existing, race and gender has still plays a huge part on unnecessary sentencing lengths.

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Even before our nation’s founding, people of color have been discriminated. Decades pass and the criminal justice system is still “racist” labeling people of color as criminal, meaning black equal criminals therefore is fine to discriminate people of color just because they’re criminals. In “The New Jim Crow” the system targets black men because they are associated with crime, meaning crime stands in for race. In the other hand, As Heather Mac Donald writes in her book “The War on Cops”, “The criminal-justice system does treat individual suspects and criminals equally, they concede. But the problem is how society defines crime and criminals” (154).

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is a means of victimizing a specific people or if it is directed towards a certain race. This is because the distributive principles may provide guidance for choices faced by each society every now and then. One may start by considering the principle of strict egalitarianism that states that people are morally equal and that it is best to give effect to this idea. We get the information that in dispensing criminal justice, one community or race should not get overlooked but all should be treated fairly. In the book by alexander Michael that goes by the title "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" she tends to believe

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An example of criminal code violations in which it is apparent inequity in sentencing is the “war on drugs.” This so called war on drugs is a campaign to prohibit drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the goal of reducing illegal drug trade. Since this war on drugs the nation has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people in prisons and jails for drugs offenses. In 1980, 40,000 people were either waiting trial or serving time for a drug related offense that number has increased to around 500,000 in today’s time (American Bar Association). The problem which arose with this drug war was the disproportionate law enforcement presence in African American communities.

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The theory of justice revolves around the two fundamental principles. The first one guarantees the right of each person to have the most extensive basic liberty compatible with the liberty of others. We should be able to design and evaluate social institutions and practices on the basis of Rawls’ basis of principles justice. All person in a society should be given and should be able to receive equal distribution of rights in terms of political, social and economic goods. This is described as strict egalitarianism.

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John Rawls was a man who assumed a persuasive part in political idea in the late twentieth century, according to Rawls, behind our ignorance, we want to be treated equally and respected, we don’t want to feel persecuted, even If it gives pleasure to the majority, meaning that utilitarianism should not be involved in the concept. Rawls mentions two principals of justice, the first one is that everyone should have indistinguishable rights and his second was that each decision made should benefit everybody, furthermore Rawls contends his beliefs of justice saying that liberty and equality must happen to have a reasonable and fair society.

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John Rawls’ uses his work, A Theory of Justice, to define justice and injustice. Rawls’ general concept of justice follows that all social goods are to be equally distributed unless there can be a situation in which unequal distribution is the the benefit of everyone. The primary social goods he discusses are income, wealth, liberty, opportunity, and the bases of self-respect. Iris Young criticizes Rawls’ conception of justice in her work Justice and the Politics of Difference. Young claims that the focus Rawls places on distribution and the end product of said distribution leads to a limit on the scope of justice.

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Rawls theory of Justice relies on two principles, the first Principle of Equal liberties, and the second Difference principle. In today’s society Rawls’s theory of the Veil of Ignorance would better promote

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In A Theory of Justice, Rawls aim to justify the principles of justice as fairness by reference to individual rational choice. He grounds his view on the ideas on “society as a fair system of cooperation” and of “citizens as free and equal persons” (Rawls 1995:11). Acknowledging that people have diverse interests, the tries to answer to how they can reach an agreement in matters of justice. The conception of justice as fairness is important in order to understand the logic of principle of justice. In this hypothetical situation of equal liberty, Raws states that free and equal persons concerned to further their own interests define the fundamental terms of their association.

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In addition, I outlined the strong confinement in Rawls’s theory of Justice with regards to his perception of fairness. I have argued that Rawls’ perception of fairness is quite distinctive as it seems largely irreconcilable with the perception of fairness that is widely accepted by most people. To ensure a fair and equal treatment for all, Rawls stresses a complete obliteration of national capabilities and circumstances in order to create justice. However, Rawls’s perception of a just society differs a lot from the contemporary society we live in and is therefore of little significance to us.

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He outlines two different principles for justice as fairness, the liberty principal and the difference principal. Although many philosophers discredit Rawls’ principles, his writing has begun a renewed, lively dialogue about civil

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Freeman commented on Rawls’ writing that ‘there are two ideal perspectives in Rawls conception of justice: the original position and the deliberative

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The main principle for the theory of justice, justice as fairness, is determined by a silent spectator. Rawls’ approach is individualistic and the concept of justice as fairness may not be feasible to a certain extent in a society with a collective manner of thinking. A further criticism of the theory is Rawls’ acceptance of class division as he feels the need for creating a ‘difference principle’. No background is given as to why there is a state of class division and this goes against his inclusion of equality alongside liberty as principles of

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