Criminal Justice Inequality and Conflict Theory

Discussion 1:Topic: Miranda Rights
I feel that Miranda Rights should be read at point of arrest and again before interrogation. That way the detained person knows his rights. In today’s world, there are so many laws and so many confusing issues in the world, people are frightened and scared if they have a run-in with the law. There is no reason that law enforcement cannot go out of its way to make sure that people feel safe and secured even when they are under arrest and about to be interrogated. All people need to be treated with more compassion and empathy. The Supreme Court’s guidelines are inadequate on this issue because they do not take into consideration the trauma of the arrestee or the fact that he may not be aware of his right at the time of arrest and may talk before interrogation, unaware that what he is saying can be used against him in the court of law.
Discussion 2: Topic: Public Encounters
An officer can do his job and not escalate the situation by being respectful and courteous at all times and treating the person he is patting down or doing a quick search of with care even though he suspects the person of being dangerous. Suspicion does not mean fact, and so the officer should be kind and considerate rather than rude and blunt. At the same time, the officer has to be able to do his job so he must be insistent and if the person resists, he must be able to use social and emotional intelligence to read the situation and prevent it from escalating by keeping calm himself but staying firm. It is when officers lose control of their own emotions that escalation happens.
Discussion 3: According to conflict theory, what is “criminal justice inequality”? Provide an example.
Conflict theory posits that there are finite resources and groups are in a struggle for power over those resources. As a result there is usually a group that has power and consolidates by controlling the levers of justice, politics, business, and so on; and there is a group that does not have power that struggles to obtain it. Karl Marx, who developed conflict theory, believed the workers were an example of the latter group and that they would rise up to seize power for themselves. Criminal justice inequality refers to the lack of equality in the criminal justice system between groups, those groups with power and those without. An example of this would be the way blacks are disproportionately incarcerated in the US: there is a disproportionate percentage of the black population incarcerated in US prisons, indicating that blacks are not receiving equal fair treatment within the criminal justice system.

Discussion4: Social Control Theory
Hirschi’s social bond theory states that crime is committed because of lack of attachment, commitment, involvement, or belief by the individual who commits the crime. In other words, the criminal perpetrator has no connections to society that are of any value and so, not feeling connected to society, the person has no qualms about acting against that society by creating a crime. Factors that affect attachment can be whether the person has family or friends in the community; commitment can be factors like going to school or work; involvement can be something like a church or recreation group; belief can be something like political affiliation, activist organization or church group. These factors are important in that they can communicate either pro or anti-social behavior. Because people are social creatures, they learn how to behave from others, so if they are involved with a gang, the gang may teach them to accept law violating behavior, but if they are involved with a school or church they may learn to resist law violating behavior.
Discussion 5:
The individual trait theory of criminology posits that there are certain personality traits that lead one to become a criminal. These traits can be affected by both nature and nurture, meaning that they can be the result of biology and/or environment. So if crime, violence or deviance were proven to be caused by individual trait theory it would have a major impact on the criminal justice system. People would no longer be held responsible for their own actions, as the person could point to biology or to environment for the cause of his criminality. Other people would become accountable, like parents or teachers. The criminal would be seen as a victim rather than as the victimizer.
Discussion Topic 6: Federal vs. State Systems
Advantages of proceeding with a federal criminal prosecution as opposed to a state prosecution, providing that there is concurrent jurisdiction, is that the US federal prosecutor does not answer to a local electorate so is not under the same kind of pressure or scrutiny to prosecute big or difficult cases. The state prosecutor will be much more influenced by local politics, which can be problematic when it comes to equality in the criminal justice system. On the other hand, federal prison does not have parole, so even if the prisons are nicer than state prisons, there is no chance of early release like there is in state prisons.