My Social Issue : Unfair Trials

Before proposing a reform to the American criminal justice system, we must first examine the problems that plague the process of justice on all levels. American society plays an important role in shaping the criminal justice system. Their beliefs and values determine the type of deviants and the consequences of the crimes. Often their beliefs contradict each other.

Disputes between individuals can be resolved through mediation, tribunals and courts are sought depending on the complexity and nature of the dispute. Their effectiveness in achieving justice for and between individuals to varying extents will be assessed by their ability to uphold notions of fairness, equality, access, timeliness, enforceability and resource efficiency.

For my final project I chose to focus on Race and sentencing. The United States is about 5% of the world’s population but when it comes to world prisoners the Unites States is about 25%. In the United States African Americans are incarcerated 5 times more than whites in state prisons throughout the country and also 10 times more than whites in 5 states. In this paper I am going to research and study specific articles and studies that document the rate of incarceration for African Americans and Whites. This is not only a problem state by state sentencing but it is also problem for federal sentencing as well. Not only am I going to look at race and sentencing but I am going to also

Thousands of immigrants moving to America during the turn of the nineteenth century have faced extreme diversity on their quests to fulfill their American dreams. Immigrants faced a multitude of hardships and battled prejudices that were rampant throughout America during this time period. However, for the most part, Hilda Polacheck, an immigrant emigrating from Poland made out fairly well in her life. Hilda experienced what it was truly like to be a poor working immigrant, however, she was able to break out of the poverty cycle and was determined to make the world a better place. With this success she was able to step back and look at the social injustices being committed in the United States clearly, without being blinded by the hardships and the tragedies of being a poor immigrant. Throughout Hilda’s Autobiography, as well as throughout history, an immigrant woman in the United States faced extensive discrimination as well as vast and often unjust limitations on their inalienable rights as citizens of the United States.

When people condemn others, the accuser affect themselves the most. Marc and Dianna MacYoung, the authors of No Nonsense Self-Defense, in their article “Blaming Justifies Your Own Bad Behavior” writes, “Unfortunately, blame is

Almost every day, we hear about justice being served upon criminals and we, as a society, feel a sense of relief that another threat to the public has been sentenced to a term in prison, where they will no longer pose a risk to the world at large. However, there are very rare occasions where the integrity of the justice system gets skewed and people who should not have been convicted are made to serve heavy prison sentences. When word of this judicial misstep reaches the public, there is social outcry, and we begin to question the judicial system for committing such a serious faux pas.

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines fairness to be ‘the quality of treating people equally or in a way that is reasonable’ and justice as ‘the quality of being fair or reasonable’ (Oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, 2014). Investigation of the characteristics of the Australian Legal System (ALS) including its adoption, structure and operational rules, reveal that for the most part the system is based on these two attributes. This inference is further evidenced by the legally binding operational framework assigned to the financial services industry and reflected in the codes of practice that also guide it.

This paper is aimed at raising questions on the TED talk’s subjects of injustice and how we are priming some kids for college and others for prison. Bryan Stevenson talks on the topics of injustice and poverty stating that there is a correlation between the two and he also talks about reforming our justice system which would lead to changing some very crucial amendments within our constitutional rights. The questions I raise to his statements are as follows, one… considering that the biggest statistic for the death of young black males under the age of 20 is other black males does a societal change need to be made? Two, in regards to changing the way our justice system works, would you be ok with allowing people like Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, and other psychopaths to roam freely after 20 years without the death penalty. Three, would you be willing to get rid of the 4th and 5th amendments as well as the exclusionary rule in exchange for a blanket allowance of all truthful evidence? Now in regards to Alice Goffman and her speech on College vs Prison I felt a sense of urgency to state “good, but what are the solutions?” or what do you propose we do as a society to keep our youth out of prison and get them on the track to success? Ms. Goffman’s statements were geared more towards pointing the finger rather than offering a viable solution to the problem.

The United States prides itself on having robust, deeply entrenched measures implemented across its core agencies, including the police and criminal justice system, to safeguard against wrongfully convicting people who, after further reflection, are factually found to be innocent. As citizens, we have been educated to trust, among other things, that our systems protect the notions that one is innocent until proven guilty and that prosecution must prove any charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet, wrongful convictions are more prevalent than we might think. In particular, the publicity of hundreds of cases over the last few decades has put a spotlight on this indisputable

In the second edition of The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? By Gerald N. Rosenberg (2008) is a revised version of the first novel and includes new chapters and introduces the argument of same –sex marriages. Rosenberg develops his study by analyzing the verdicts of a state court of final authority in Hawaii, Vermont and Massachusetts; these countries ruled that the renunciation of marriage assistance for same-sex couples infringed their individual state constitution. Rosenberg examines the direct and indirect consequences of these decisions and provides counter arguments. Throughout the novel, Rosenberg argues the failure of litigation if the courts abstain from supporting social change, court judgments create a legislative counterattack or overturn the complete constitution amendment. The central theme of the novel is that courts are guarded in their capability to implement social policy. He also explores whether laws efficiently alter a boarder social beliefs, ethics and traditions in society. In order to support his thesis he provides cases studies. The first case is the United States determination to end racial segregation in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The second case is Roe v. Wade (1973) and other cases where courts can produce major social reform in civil rights, abortion, women’s rights, the environment, reapportionment, criminal rights, and same-sex marriage. Thus, in order to understand Rosenberg’s novel this paper will focus on three

Today’s society has one of the worst justice systems, everytime you go on the news you hear all about the unjust things the justice system does. Now with recent news such as the Baltimore incident,

I chose the topic "Innocence and the Death Penalty" which led me to an article about Manuel Velez. Mr. Velez was was arrested in 2005 for the murder of his girlfriend's one-year-old son by blunt force trauma to the head. During the time of the injury, Velez was working on a construction sight a thousand miles away and had multiple witnesses that stated it was his girlfriend who was abusive towards her children. Velez signed a typewritten statement from the police stating that he had injured the child, but due to his low IQ of 67 and his primary language being Spanish he was unable to understand what he was agreeing to. Unfortunately his court-appointed attorney never discovered or used this information in court. Velez was convicted in 2008

People always praise our world is beautiful and peaceful, but they ignore the injustices still exist and some of them without good solutions. Although people believe social injustices are unfair and will bring pain and tear, they are used to treating them as air because they never experience these unequal things. Likewise, the discrimination occurs both in upper class and regular class between Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. For example, there was an obvious discrimination happened in the speech of the Republican nomination for president election. At that time, Donald Trump, who was one of the speakers, believed that force illegal immigrants repatriation can be the best way to make America great again. Because Mr. Trump recognized these immigrants only bring drugs and crimes to the U.S., and they occupied a large number of jobs which made the unemployment rate increasing currently. In addition, he said if he becomes the president, he will declared three principals and two of them can be social injustices. Firstly, America has to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border that stowaway cannot enter America illegally. Secondly, the laws must be fully enforced illegal immigrants to go back to Mexico. In addition, Mr. Tramp is not the only person who gets rise to injustices, but the social injustices and discrimination also happened in various aspects.

Though the concept of social injustice is universal in nature, the experience varies with each person. Factors like a person’ race, or gender can further influence the severity of the injustice; victims caught in the overlap between discriminations often go unrecognized by the law and society. Many people recognize the names Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice as African Americans who were murdered by local police. But names like Michelle Cusseaux, Tanish Anderson, and Meagan Hockaday often receive less feedback even though they are also murdered African Americans. The only distinction between the sets of names is gender. Even within racial injustice, discrimination is present between genders as some cases get national

The social injustice I humbly relate to is the intolerance toward Hispanic populations in America; whether the person is documented or undocumented. Before moving to Carthage, Missouri; I had essentially no interaction with Hispanic people. Embarrassingly, I admit, I relied on stereotypes to build my opinion of the Hispanic population as a whole. On May 22nd, 2011, we lost our home, every personal belonging, and our car in the Joplin tornado. We anxiously awaited our homeowner's insurance payout; with three dogs and nowhere to stay, we fretted, meanwhile homes available for sale shrunk by the hour. Soon, an acquaintance approached us, he had a home in Carthage; that was for sale and vacant. Built in 1910, I immediately fell in love with the home; it is my perfect home, with historically abundant features.