How Special Interest Groups Impact Politics

¶ … Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. This ruling presented ethical challenges for the criminal justice system, especially with the high-profile trial of Jack Kevorkian, who was tried for assisting in a patient's suicide. Kevorkian was found guilty in 1999, but since then, social issues and mores have changed, and there is new discussion about what should be viewed as legal, ethical and allowed in the 21st century.

For example, if a person wants to die, should he or she not have the right to commit suicide? According to the Supreme Court, there is no historical precedent for approving or condoning the purposeful taking of one's life and physicians are supposed to help save life not end it.

However, if the definition of what it means to be a physician and provide care changes over time, then the case for euthanasia could also change -- and the criminal justice system would have to re-orient the way in which it approaches life, death and the role of doctors with regard to patients. As Kamisar (1998), it is not always easy to make such a decision, especially when you put yourself in "another's shoes" and experience the suffering that they are undergoing.

The Court looked for precedent in order to make a decision, but today's lawmakers may just look at the idea of mercy killing as a benefit to society, as some European nations do today. References Kamisar, Y. (1998). Physician-assisted suicide: the problems presented by the compelling, heartwrenching case. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 88(3): 1121-1146. Washington v. Glucksberg. (2015). CaseBriefs.

Retrieved from http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/constitutional-law/constitutional-law-keyed-to-sullivan/substantive-due-process-rise-decline-revival/washington-v-glucksberg-7/2/ ASHFORD 4: - WEEK 3 - DISCUSSION 2 The bureaucratic initiative of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against the terror cells that threaten civilization is based on the authority given Congress by the Patriot Act, which provides the legal authorization for the government to spy on citizens, collect data and even target citizens in attacks.

The theory of fighting the war on terror has been applied in the real world and result in the behemoth that is the DHS and whose offspring (like the TSA and the spying programs of the NSA) are evidence of an increasing path to a society that is less free for the sake of being more secure. The crime control policy initiative of the TSA, for example, to screen passengers boarding aircraft has result in long lines, complaints and very few actual stops or arrests.

The bureaucracy of the government in the war on terror influences the crime control policy by essentially asserting that these efforts must be made in order to protect citizens and it creates a culture of fear by issuing color-coded alerts, etc. It primes the people to accept this kind of police state mentality by issuing propaganda through the media, which people accept without criticizing as it must be true since it aired on TV and the news media would not lie or cover up the truth, so it goes.

The problem is that the bureaucracy creates a new kind of monster, which is xenophobic, paranoid, and reactionary (Grover, 2015). References Grover, J. (2015). Aviation Security: TSA Has Taken Steps to Improve Oversight of Key Programs, but Additional Actions Are Needed: Testimony Before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives. TRID.

Retrieved from https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=1353406 ASHFORD 5: - WEEK 4 - DISCUSSION 1 Public opinion helps to set the stage for formulating and adjusting justice policy and the relationships between stakeholders by shaping perception of crime and criminals through the media.

The media, for example, has been shown by researchers to be a means of shaping the way the public thinks about certain segments of the society: for instance, some groups are marginalized as being suspected terrorists or criminals in low economic backgrounds while the media never reports on the crimes of white collar criminals in high positions of power.

The public is knowledgeable enough about issues like terrorism and financial crimes when it has been educated but if the government and the media do not reflect the reality appropriately or only concentrate on specific issues or aspects of society that fit in with the narrative that they want to maintain, then the public will not react with knowledge but rather with bias as Froese and Mencken (2009) point out.

Thus the way the public perceives communities and wars as well as crimes and their elements is shaped by the political discourse and by the way the media presents issues. References Froese, P., Mencken, F. (2009). A U.S. Holy War? The effects of religion on Iraq War policy attitudes. Social Science Quarterly, 90(1): 103-116. ASHFORD 5: - WEEK 4 - DISCUSSION 2 Special interest groups essentially control.