Chapter 3 Flashcards
The need for justice
The author states that justice is required because it is not the nature of human beings to be generous, openhearted or fair
And that if we behaved all the time with these virtues we would not need justice
Fairness:
the condition of being impartial.
It is related to equal treatment. It is the allocation of equal
shares and equal opportunities
Equality:
refers to equal treatment for similar people and acts.
Impartiality:
it is the core of our system of criminal justice
-it is not favoring one party or interest more than another
Origins of the Concept of Justice
The concept of justice originates in the Greek word dike, which refers to everything staying in its proper place.
Plato
believed justice was achieved by maintaining the social status quo. He classed it as one of the four civic virtues (along with wisdom, temperance, and courage).
Aristotle
believed justice was the basis of law, defining
it as the unwritten customs of a people that distinguish between what is and is not honorable.
Aristotle, Cont.
He believed that each individual is suited to a certain role
And that those with the highest intellect should be given schooling, those that are musical should be trained as musicians for society,
An those without qualities should serve as slaves
Distributive Justice (1 of 4)
Distributive justice concerns what measurements should be used to allocate society’s resources
e.g. issue such as affirmative action, welfare, free schooling,
Economic goods (income or property)
Opportunities for development (education or
citizenship)
Recognition (honor or status)
Since some possessions are scarce, justice requires what?
Since some possessions are scarce, justice requires that goods be distributed using standards of entitlement such as need and desert.
Distributive Justice (2 of 4) (Egalitarian theories)
start with the basic premise of
equality or equal shares for all
Marxist theories
place need above desert or
entitlement
Libertarian theories
promote freedom from state
interference
Utilitarian theories
attempt to maximize benefits for
society
What is the concept of the Veil of Ignorance
That an ideal system of justice and distribution would be designed as if the people did not know which status in society they had.
This would insure that the system was fair to everyone.
- E.g. the original American rights were designed by land-owning whites so it gave only these people rights and power = under the veil the original lawmakers would have to act as if they did not know what position they
had in
Rawls Veil of Ignorance, Cont.
Under Rawl’s theory of justice, retributive punishment is limited in such a way as to benefit the least advantaged.
The just benefit for any offense must be considered as if one does not know whether one is the offender, the victim, or a disinterested bystander.
Pay
The author states that most people believe that police are underpaid.
Corrective Justice (1 of 4) ( Substantive justice)
refers to issues of inherent fairness in what we do to people in the name of justice
Retributive justice
is based on balance
Justice demands that the criminal must suffer pain or loss proportional to what the victim was forced to suffer.
E.g. an eye for an eye
A life for a life can make simple sense
The status of the victim
Historically, the status of the victim was important in determining the level of harm and therefore punishment
Mercy
Concept of mercy: when even if the offender is guilty they are not punished for various reasons such as need and context of the crime.
The Law of Sanctuary
allows a person respite from
punishment within the confines of church grounds.
Utilitarian justice:
Utilitarian justice: only supports punishment if it
benefits society
Beccaria and Bentham
Punishment should be based on the seriousness of the crime.
And How well it prevents crime in the future
The Hedonistic Calculus
Bentham said we must calculate the potential rewards of a crime so that the amount of threatened pain could be set to deter people from committing the crime.
And that it would be immoral to punish or hurt people more than needed to deter future crime.
Procedural justice
steps taken to reach determination of guilt or punishment
Goal is two fold
Procedural Protections
Notice of charges
Neutral hearing body
Right of cross-examination
Right to present evidence
Representation by counsel
Statement of findings
Appeal
Procedural justice research
Illustrates importance of procedural justice as it affects legitimacy of entire justice system
It has been found that even if people are not happy with the outcome of a trial, they perceived the procedure as fair.
It has been found that when citizens believe that police procedures are fair that they will comply with the law
and work with police to solve crimes
(New Orleans projects story)
Fairness and Organizations
Research shows that individuals in justice
organizations who feel that they are not treated fairly are
* less satisfied
* More likely to quit
* And more likely to treat others badly or engage in corrupt behaviors
Wrongful Convictions (1 of 2)
One reason people distrust justice system
Wrongful convictions continue to plague our system
Innocence Project:
an organization staffed by lawyers
and students who reexamine cases and provide legal assistance if there were legal errors
Reasons for false convictions
Defense lawyers’ incompetence
Suppression of exculpatory evidence (what is this?)
False/mistaken eyewitness identification
Invalid forensic science
Informant/jailhouse informant perjured testimony
Government misconduct
Bad lawyering
Confirmatory Bias
It is when investigators focus on the original suspect and ignore contradictory evidence
This led to legislation in Texas requiring prosecutors to open their files to defense attorneys
* E.g. The Brady Rule
Race, Ethnicity, and Justice
Perceptions of blacks and whites differ regarding the criminal justice system.
Race permeates the criminal justice system.
Disproportional representation of blacks in certain crime categories
Blacks are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than whites.
Race, Ethnicity, and Justice 2
And cases where the wrongfully convicted were black, there is a greater likelihood of official misconduct by police
Blacks are less likely to receive bail;
And receive harsher plea deals and harsher sentences after convicted to equally situated whites
This leads to:
– Racial profiling
– Saturation patrols in black neighborhoods
– Blacks are more likely to be shot and killed while unarmed than whites
Race, Ethnicity, and Justice 3
Blacks are more likely to be arrested in traffic stops for resisting
And force is more likely to be used
Although blacks are less likely than whites to possess drugs such as marijuana, they are more likely to be arrested for things such as small amounts of marijuana than whites
Restorative Justice
Emphasizes compensation over retribution
Returns focus to rights and needs of the victim
Requires restoration of victims, offenders, and
communities injured by crime
Integrates victims, offenders, and communities more into the justice process
immoral Laws and the Moral
Person (1 of 2)
Immoral laws deprive certain groups of liberty or treat some groups differently, giving them either more or fewer rights and privileges than other groups.
Unjust laws have the following characteristics: They are degrading to humans.
They are discriminatory against certain groups.
They are enacted by unrepresentative authorities.
They are unjustly applied.
Immoral Laws and the Moral
Person (2 of 2)
(what is Civil disobedience?)
voluntary disobedience of
established laws
The problem is the widespread belief that law is
synonymous with morality
