Paper Example Undergraduate 6,323 words

Traffic Violation Systems: The United

Last reviewed: February 17, 2013 ~32 min read
Abstract

Sanity in our roads is an essential aspect that ensures the safety of pedestrians and motorists is guaranteed. Many countries have had to formulate and adopt stringent rules aimed at combating unwelcomed behaviors in the roads. This study focuses on the ‘day fines' as used by the U.S. government in tackling traffic violations.

¶ … Traffic Violation Systems: The United States System vs. The Day Fines

A Case Study in Traffic Violation Systems

The United States System vs. The Day Fines

There are various fines imposed on individuals in the world. Day Fines refer to Fines that are unit in nature. These fines are above a minimum value reflective of an individual's daily income. Offenders, people who are perceived to pay the Fines are consulted on their personal daily income before being made to pay for fines for offenses committed. Crimes have escalated in the world. The emergence of crimes in the society relates to increase in the number of individuals deemed offenders of justice and rule of law (Alarid & Del, 2011). As done in the U.S. alone, many individuals have been found guilty of offenses referring to diverse magnitudes. The essence of having the offenders guilty is for them to engage in routine measures and activities that serve to pay for the mistakes they made. Nonetheless, the changes of human interactions and inclusion of different mechanisms of punishment for guilt has transformed the manner in which individuals within an organization are able to respond to the offences done.

There are different levels of crimes in the world. These crimes warrant a diverse response mechanism that helps to respond to the types of crimes committed by people. For instance, it is uncommonly possible to have offenders pay humongous amounts of money in response to the crimes they have committed. Financial punishment is considered as hard as physical punishment. Financial punishment is another alternative that can be used to instil punishment in offenders found guilty. Moreover, use of financial punishment amounts to eradication of prison times and congestion. The specialties of crime vary from one generation to another. In modern times, punishment does not have to take a direction of physical punishment and imprisonment. For instance, an offender can be made to pay for the crimes committed through a pay cut.

Use of day fines is an alternative to other forms of responding to guilty offenders. Many nations have involved the use of day fines. For instance, the U.S. has involved the use of day fines in tackling traffic offenses. Traffic offenders are punishment with financial payments that are made to the judging authority. In many cases, it is uncommonly possible to have consequences that require offenders to make financial instalments that ensure punishment has been made in the right way possible and with respect to the rights and obligations of the offender.

Day fines are a common and standardized making in many jurisdictions. Many jurisdictions have involved day fines as a way of responding to different crimes and offenders in the world. For instance, a number of nations like Fenno-Scandinavia, Finland, and other commonwealth countries have involved day fines as a means of eradicating prison congestions. Moreover, they help to reduce pile up of cases in the court systems of the country. Some other nations that involve the use of day fines include Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

In Finland, day fines apply to crimes that are possible to punishment by fines. The country has involved the system since 1921. In most cases, most crimes are directed at individuals who have the ability to respond to fines positively. For instance, petty fines that do not warrant imprisonment can be overridden by the imposition of Fines.

In the United Kingdom, day fines apply to situations that are guaranteed to require immediate punishments. Nonetheless, the issuance of the fines is done based on the acceptance of the offender. Traffic rules are part of the sectors that deal with day fines in the United Kingdom and the U.S. The use of day fines reflects on the ideology that assumes a commonness of power and jurisdiction within a given state. The essence of day fines has transformed court systems and cases in many nations. Moreover, use of day fines has ensured that cases and fines are made effectively without inclusion of measures that become a burden to the dealing authorities (Gaines & Miller, 2013).

Some crimes are negligible but cannot go without punishment. For instance, minor littering is a crime that does not make sense if it sends someone to prison for two or more days. Such crimes can be sort by use of day fines. Congestion in prisons is reduced with involvement of day fines. In most cases, use of day fines applies to a number of crimes. Some of the crimes include water traffic, traffic crimes by pedestrians and drivers, minor crimes including failure for car inspections, crimes against Public Order Act, and many other crimes in the society. Such crimes have fixed fines that cannot be altered. Offenders are made to go through the crime system without wavering or failing to respond to every requirement. Moreover, it becomes less possible for crime victims to escape after committing crimes since such prosecutions happen almost instantly (Harris & Tichenor, 2010).

Fines are a method of criminal punishment. This method of punishment is as old as the criminal justice system. The system was applied in cases where the offenses were not serious enough to warrant incarnation. Nonetheless, the main challenge of using fines as forms of punishing crime was on fixing equitable fines that suited crimes committed. The National Institute of Justice has established a plan of dealing with crime offenses that can be punished by application of fines. The establishment of the financial judges is reflected from the nature and magnitude at which crimes are rated in the society by the justice system nonetheless, crimes committed in traffic avenues are punishable by imposing financial constrains to the offender. The court systems are responsible for establishing a common ground that suits establishment of necessary tools of trade in order to deal with crimes in the society. Part of the changes effect on capabilities to live within the extremes of finding order after punishing traffic offenders sin the society (Tonry, 1997).

How the United States, at the state level, understands a traffic violation system with the European system, the day fines

A substantial fourteen million Americans are arrested every year in the U.S. These arrests are made on grounds of different crimes committed within and outside the country. More criminals are brought to the court for sentencing. Nonetheless, it has been difficult for the judges to administer equitable judgement since most of the offenses are intermediate and cannot qualify a number of garnishments. With such a perception, the U.S. has tried to establish day fines as a way of reducing congestion to the present modes of punishment, and entry of criminals in prisons. The judges have been experiencing limited alternatives over which they can be able to carry out their judgements. For instance, the only principled sanctions are probation, imprisonment, and fines.

Fines are seen as a legible way of offering punishment to a number of offenders without having to reconsider on the emergence of difficulties among the judges. Nonetheless, the state sees a possibility of difficulty among a number of members who are forging for equitable punishment. This is because use of day fines in the traffic systems is illegible to many individuals who may feel that they have been disadvantaged in one way or another. Fines are hard to impose. Moreover, many poor people are not legible to respond to this punishment. Imprisonment will be seen to favour the poor and let the rich escape imprisonment. Such a move will impose cases of unequal justice in the land of the U.S. And the world as a whole.

A number of countries like the Latin America have designed methods of administering Fines to individual offenders. These fines are directed at overcoming some shortcomings that have implanted the general activity of imposing fines to criminal offenders. The fining system designed is called day fines system. Day fines are viewed by the state as backward channels of punishment. These punishments provide precise methods of calibrating fines depending on the gravity of the offense and the ability of the offender to respond. Through this concept, the state manages to determine the amount of punishment required over an offender in relation to the amount of money to be paid.

In most cases, units of punishment are established over which they are substituted with financial correspondences. The punishment units are general to every offender after committing a crime. Commitment of crime is a general undertaking that is considered to navigate along certain paradigms of punishment by the state. Establishment of units is categorical to the magnitudes of punishment to be influenced on individuals. For instance, it is remarkably easy to have magnitudes that coincide with the amount of financial capabilities of the offender. In most cases, the judges fix one unit of punishment to resemble a day's payment. Through such a manner, they will be able to establishment a basement over which they can deal with problems that arise due to insufficiency of funds by many offenders.

Days punishment has a number of advantages. The mechanisms that have been put forth to handle issues of day amercement are rudimentary to the knowledge of many people in the U.S. For instance, day Fines is subject to the capabilities of the offenders. It is not a subject imposed to all offenders no with no consideration of their financial stabilities. Nonetheless, offenders who are judged to be within the bracket of paying day charge make it an obligation. The U.S. has state and federal strategies on imprisonment of offenders have received an enormous boost with involvement of the day Fines services.

The federal government of the U.S. has found a more equitable and distributive way of punishing offenders with day fines. Traffic offenders are rampant and active most of the day times. Since they are individuals who operate most of their activities during the daytime, the federal state perceives day fines as a more eloquent way of ending their difficulties when they face prosecutions due to minor and serious offenses. Through day fines, the courts have found a better way of dealing with rich offenders who find it legible when they are made to face the common courses of offenses in the society. At the end of the day, the government feels that it has offered punishment of traffic offenders in a more jurisdictional way possible. For instance, the court establishes the amounts of income per day of every offender. This means that those who are known to earn higher income per day are made to pay for punishment with respect to their amounts of income per day. This helps to reduce burdensome punishment on offenders who are not able to earn higher amounts of income per day (Tonry, 1998).

Before the adoption of the day fines punishment in the U.S., the United States involved the common way of punishing offenders. Most offenses were punishable through incarceration and other related approaches. Nonetheless, the state viewed every traffic crime as to consume a considerable amount of time than most states and courts could allow. The rooms in prisons were congesting up with inmates who kept increasing in number. One of the lethal features that were used while the state managed to deal with offenders is the imposition of fines. These fines had no legible structure like that used by the European day fines system. Most punishments were delayed while the offenders were interfered in their rights and consequences of being found guilty. Although the government struggled to establish appropriate avenues of accommodating offenders, the options of jurisdiction and punishment by the courts were running out. When the U.S. compared the present system of punishment with the European day fines, the European system proved to be effective and efficient.

The implementation processes involved with day fines incorporated most of the structures that dictated the need to have a formal ground of establishing law and order within the country. The European system posed equitable ways of managing cases that involved remuneration of the offender's salaries and linking them with punishments for the offenses committed. This has served to reduce a number of complications that were being experienced by the country throughout the onset of the court systems. Moreover, such period involved establishment of laws and regulations that provided ways of managing humanitarian activities (Mays & Winfree, 2009).

The United Kingdom is one of the European countries that have involved the use of day fines in controlling and monitoring traffic offences and offenders in the country. Day fines offer a rudimentary approach in which the United Kingdom has managed to have a solid foundation of fighting and punishing crimes. In most cases, the cases involving offenders are used to gauge the financial capabilities of the offenders in order to manage ways of freeing them other than crowding on the justice systems of the country (Justice Management Institute., & Vera Institute of Justice, 1996). For instance, various courts in London and Manchester impose day fines to traffic offenders in order to reduce cases of case delays and prosecution of individuals when their rights have been infringe in one way or the other.

Day Fines are applied depending on offender characteristics and capabilities. The invention of the day fines system by the United States traffic system paved a way in which the country managed to reduce on cases of offenders binding up. Moreover, it reduced cases of filling the prisons. The citizens have come to understand the basic facets that make up the system in order to foster an equitable justice system in the country. Traffic violation is understood to be a crucial feature that has rocked most states in the U.S. In fact, traffic violation has played an influential role in contributing to an increase in the number of criminals destined to prisons and courts. The government of the U.S. knows the need and importance of having a ground state management and control of traffic violation activities in the country. Day fines system of managing traffic violation is considered equitable and possible in many states of the U.S. (Levinson & Sage Publications, 2002).

The basic mechanisms involved by the state in establishing day fines were with the use of units. In the Staten Island in which day fines had been incorporated into the traffic system of the country, units were used as basic functionalities that brought the issue of day Fines in traffic systems. The court was served with the establishment and using units that corresponded with the offenses incurred by the individual people. Part of the offenses and units involved punishment through imprisonment. Offenders of traffic laws and regulations were rated less than one unit as far as their daily income is concerned. In many cases, the court established units that matched with what was required of every offender of traffic laws and regulations. Other different units served to improve connections and functionalities emanating from other cases from the court. With an increase of the court cases and imprisonment, the country saw it equitable to involve immediate day fines that could free offenders once they had committed and fulfilled financial requirements basing on the offenses incurred (Pollock, 2008).

Day fines were collected and enforced based on what the offenders could manage to offer in response to their varied offenses. Monitoring of every happening that took place between the offenders and the court administration tips the magnitude of success expected of every process in and out of court. With involvement of the European mode of day fines, many nations have reduced congestion in courts, and have encouraged care and responsiveness among the offenders. For instance, monitoring of the payments are done through physical contacts, mails, phone calls, and any other method that is perceived to bear fruit to the country. When compared to conventional ways that were used to render fines to offenders, the initial method proves to be equitable and effective to all the parties involved.

Each unit is established depending on the dollar value it can accrue. Offenses are sensible to human nature. They portray a legible way of establishing justice and cohesion within a state. In many cases, it is cheap to have dollar generations in handling offenses and offenders in and out of courts. The dollar or financial amount employed should be within the reach of the offender at all times. The offenses committed should be reflected clearly by the method used to deal with them in the court. At no time should the offense not be reflected by the dollar level awarded. For instance, every offense should have an equitable payment mechanism. It is understood that the U.S. viewed used of dollar generations as effective ways of getting to punish offenders. Physical punishments like imprisonment acted as natural platforms over which offenders engaged in other crime activities. The criminal activities did not contribute to the success and functionality of the immediate societies. Before the court imposes any fines to an offender, it ensures that the fines have been established as unit components of the dollar values.

The American traffic violation system has received immense support from its involvement with the European day fines system. The European day fines system is effective, influential, and easy to manage within the country. As used in some states, the day fines system is perceived with intense ease of use and manipulation in order to yield credit to the user organizations. In most cases, the system is friendly to the court system as well as the offenders and the national legal system as a whole. For instance, day fines system enables the country to reduce cases of congestion and struggles to establish options of offering prosecutions to the offenders of traffic justice. Moreover, the European day fines system provided a palatable ground over which justice is administered equitably to all the people involved and the national legal system.

Use of the day Fines system in traffic violation systems

There are a number of states in the U.S., which have involved the use of day fines in most of their court processes and prosecutions. One of the states is Maricopa County in Arizona. In this, state, day fines are administered through the probation department. This department has been directed at low earners and needy people who have been convicted at the Supreme Court. Such people are not able to cater for equitable terms and services of the court in terms of financial responsibilities. In most cases, it is easy to have imbalances of financial capabilities among individuals in a court system. In this, state, day fines serve to restore balance of justice and cohesion from the courts to the people of the U.S.

Several programs advocate for use of day Fines as punishments for criminal justice in the U.S. The issue of day fines and fining in general has always been subject to punishment of criminals with justifiable means in the country. According to research and studies done in 1988, day fines have been incorporated in much U.S. courts sine evolution of justice systems. Many courts have embraced mechanisms that result in fines and other related punishment measures. Courts advocate for varied mechanisms of imposing punishment to criminals. The urgency of the matter is reiterated by the fact that several criminal activities warrant a variance of options used in offering fines and prosecution. This is one of the reasons many courts in New York and the country as a whole have involved the use of fines in punishing offenders of justice and laws.

The relevance of fines is replicated from the fact several characteristics and legal measures ascertain equity of juice in the constitutional jurisdictions. The existing law is acted upon by all the states without failure of the respective measures and assurances. According to earlier research, the U.S. has involved day Fines as done in other European countries.

Research shows that use of day Fines is a measure that has undertaken several stages of growth and development in the existing court systems. At the Vera Institute, research activities showed a continued use of day fines in dealing with many criminal offenses. Nonetheless, Day fines have not been done with effect from the existing domains of justice. For instance, use of units and financial fines has been adapted recently unlike in the past (McDonald et al., 1992). The National Institute of Justice is another body that has participated in propagating extension of the day find use in the U.S. One of the common features about this body is that it administers use of day fines in accordance to fruitful justice, in the courts. Use of Fines as a criminal sanction has taken many approaches in the world. There is no country that does not use imposition of day Fines as methods of dealing with criminal injustices. Over the past decade, the National Institute of Justice has been involved in funding studies that stressed at finding out the effectiveness of using day fines as methods of punishing criminals in the country.

The studies have focused on how effective day fines can be if used among all people deemed to have committed a crime. Apart from the effectiveness of using day fines, the studies funded by the National Institute of Justice has replicated the importance of having fines in the court systems as part of the measures and options of punishing criminals of any offences in the country. In most cases, the U.S., like many European countries, has involved traffic offenders into the long list of day fines. According to studies, traffic offences do not have to be delayed or protected through imprisonment. This is because most of these crimes are minute and not legible to massive punishment. Day fines will prove a better option of punishing such offences as soon as they occur.

The efforts made by the National Institute of Justice have resulted in the present day Bureau of Justice Assistance program. The National Institute of Justice in a bid to establish possible ways of using day fines in the criminal courts has involved in elaborating the existence and importance of this bureau in the U.S. From the varied research studies done in the U.S., it was evident that use of day fines is one of the possible ways of reducing congestion in the law courts and other sectors of justice delivery in the U.S. And the world as a whole. After the studies, its findings, structured day fines were established. Such day fines acted as approaches that could be used to alleviate challenges that were being experienced by involving the U.S. system.

According to studies done by Charles Worzella in his report of Milwaukee experience, day fines have a number of complications and successes when used in many states and structures of a legal and justice system. The Milwaukee experience incorporated use of day fines in offenders who had been charged with breaching city ordinances. The courts were handled by joint participation of the public and private ordinances (Walski et al., 1988). The chance of exemplifying a justified example of cases was reached. The court had been deemed with many case processes that were marked to exceed over a hundred thousand. The Milwaukee experience established a blue print on how day fines can be implemented the betterment of the justice system in the country. Incorporated of such approaches and steps on the normalized cases of traffic injustices is likely to bear fruits to the dominant parties. After the Milwaukee experience, many courts in the U.S. decided to engage in further studies and approaches that could establish possible ways of depicting and bringing in the issue of day fines in traffic rules and regulations.

After the studies and thorough investigation of the usefulness of day fines in the two courts, it was realized that day fines have certain levels of feasibility and usefulness in the society. Day fines have a number of advantages that are perceived to benefit the society in general. For instance, it is possible to reflect on the challenges being faced by many courts in the world, and relate with equitable approaches and easiness that comes with the use of day Fines. Greene and Worzella covered many issues in their bid to establish ways of building court systems that depended on day fines to criminal offenders. With equitable studies and comparative practices, day fines remain as the dominant figures in establishing possible ways of eradicating consequences that come with the use of the United States system of justice other than the European day fines.

There are a number of issues that determine use of day Fines in courts. First concerns the implementation processes that have to be assumed by the relevant authorities (Neubauer, 2011). Implementation of day Fines is a lucrative field that needs to be studied and understood by all the stakeholders involved. The processes of implementing the programs should be given enough time in order to arrive at possible ways of elaborating on the importance of having the process successful in the legal frameworks. Policies for implementing the process need to be established by the required agencies. For instance, the courts need to have policy makers who will work towards establishing possible ways of implementing the system without having to compromise on the successes and effectiveness of the cases involved. The implementation processes need to be structured and objective.

Day Fines pose a rudimentary approach of dealing with criminals and lawbreakers in the court systems. Prosecution activities and processes are made valid and viable with the use of day fines. In many cases, the U.S. has failed to act according to the rules and regulations put to cover up for lost chances due to congestions in courts and prisons that host inmates. With the use of day fines, the entire system of justice delivery will be put at ease (Born, 1996).

Apart from the implementation processes, it is necessary to have stakeholder approaches that ensure equity of legal justices to the offenders. As far as the court or the government of the U.S. is responsible for bringing success to the system, the people who are responsible for implementing the system should be represented well. The feasibility and usefulness tests should be conducted in order to arrive at a positive approach of accomplishing the entire activities of day fines in the country. For instance, the experiences drawn from the Staten Island ad Milwaukee should offer exemplary opinions that establish feasibility and usefulness of day fines in the U.S. Other feasibility approaches should exemplify the need to study other nations using the system. For instance, many European nations have involved day fines in traffic control systems. Because of their use, many traffic cases have been dealt with in an appropriate and justifiable manner. Therefore, other nations provide equitable examples that can be used as pace setters in building use of day fines in traffic control systems. With such study and implementation processes, day fines will be useful in the American courts (Tonry, 2000).

How the U.S. state implemented the day Fines system

The U.S. used a number of processes while implementing the day fines system. Every activity or procedure needs to be implemented under appropriate measures and assurances. In order to put the day fines into operation, equitable measures and procedures were drawn and used. Initially, the existing problems within the court systems had to be solved. Problems are common in any set of the court system. Initial problems should not be involved in the new approaches of management. For instance, the American system of the court is different from the European day fines. Therefore, the problems that were experienced with the use of the older system should be solved before involving new system. Moreover, the court cases that were bending with the older system should not be involved with the new system whatsoever (Siegel, 2010). Challenges that were experienced by use of the older protocol are rampant and immeasurable. For instance,, congestion in prison rooms due to a continued influx of offenders served as a gear box through which many of these cases were thrown without equitable punishment. On the other hand, the inmates suffered different challenges, yet they could be made to pay for their fines without having to involve staying in prisons.

The courts are thrived with the responsibility of establishing units for equitable punishment. Instead of spending years in jails or paying astronomical amounts of dollars, the courts should establish possible ways of unifying the existing structures of fines in order to let every candidate pay according to his or her capabilities of finances. Units serve to moderate on the amounts of fines to be paid by each offender. The parameters used to establish these units depend on the daily income of the offenders. After establishing the units, the courts stakeholders should move into establishing the range of units to be imposed on offenders. After establishing the units and setting the ranges, the court is given the mandate to determine the nature of the punishments basing on the dollars awarded to each unit (Kamerman, 1998). The entire process, as done in the American system of the court ruling, should be effective and measurable to attain.

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