Injustice in the Criminal Justice System
74How much do we really know about criminal justice?
How much do we really know?
When asked, I think the average person thinks they know quite a bit about how the criminal justice system works. Most of us, in our lifetimes, will have some contact with the system, Chances are, that we, or someone close to us, has been picked up by the police for some indiscretion or criminal act. Many of us know someone who has spent time in jail, even if only for a night. We see police in our day to day lives. Crime shows proliferate on every cable channel. The prison has become as much a part of our world as green grass and blue sky. When asked about criminal justice, everyone has an opinion. But how much does the average person really know? It has been my experience that through this constant bombardment of crime shows and personal experiences, most people are left thinking they know far more then they really do. Criminologists like myself are trained and educated to understand and question the criminal justice system. We criminologists are far more knowledgable then the average Joe, but are rarely given credit for actually knowing more. Just because I have been to the doctor many times and watched E.R. on television, does not make me an expert on medicine. So, my first question to all of you out there, is why does the general public think they are experts on criminal justice? And why does this percieved knowledge close most people off from believing that the experts in the field just might know more then we do?
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I guess I didnt make myself clear. For that I apologize. By "experts" I do NOT mean police, judges, prosecutors and prison guards. The "experts" I refer to are the scholars and researchers who study the police, judges, prosecutors, and prison guards...many of which (including me) have a very negative view about how much injustice there is in the system...such as a few of the flaws you have so aptly pointed out.
I think we may be on the same wave length. Most people are not exposed to the opinions of the kinds of experts you are talking about. Instead they are exposed to the views of ambitious politicians and prosecutors and people like Nancy Grace on CNN bloviating about sensational crimes.
Well knowing more and understanding it on a level that the average joe can't hope to fathom isn't something I would want to boost about. Reason being that crime is incressing and the " criminologists that are far more knowledgable than the average Joe" has not come up with a solution to counter the rise. I would focus more on using my knowledge to fight the disease of crime than worrying about recieveing some attention.
my son has been locked uo for 24 yr, for armed robbery, no one was shot are killed, i feel that it is a punishment that did not fit the crime, people have killed and got less time he need help please
Ralph Deeds Level 6 Commenter 2 years ago
People's attitudes and opinions are influenced by what they have read and watched in the news, by their personal experiences and by their religion and political beliefs.
Many people including myself are skeptical of law enforcement "experts" if by that you mean police, judges, prosecutors and prison guards because of the abuses we have read about in the newspapers and more recently seen in videos on television. Also, in the U.S. we have observed the failure of the "war on drugs" which has resulted in the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world. And we have been the victim of "speed traps" where we were ticketed and fined for speeding a bit on an empty highway or a rolling stop at a stop sign. And more recently we were inundated by news of an Irish police officer hauling a black Harvard professor off to jail in handcuffs for no good reason. In Michigan we've read recently about women raped repeatedly in our women's prison. We also have seen politically ambitious prosecutors pursuing dubious cases in order to further their political aspirations. Routine actions by good policemen, judges and prosecutors don't make the news.
On the other side of the coin, public demands for capital punishment, long sentences, trying children as adults and lock 'em up and throw away the key are fueled by sensational violent crimes, drunk driving fatalities and the like. These attitudes have prevailed despite opinions by "experts" that capital punishment is not a deterrent and occasionally in the execution of innocent individuals, that drug possession should be treated as an addictive illness rather than a criminal offense and that children should be tried as children not as adults and other mindless zero tolerance and "war on" policies.