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Criminal Justice Broken Essay

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The Criminal Justice system is one of the most important vessels within society due to its role in ensuring that society is abiding by its laws and holding those who transgress these laws to account. Despite its crucial role in society, it has also been under some scrutiny in regards to how effective it actually is, which results in arguments that it doesn’t properly fulfil its job as a carrier of justice. A focus on the criminal justice system is a subject of interest because it helps us understand the tension within society between individual rights and freedoms. (Schmalleger, F. and Koppel, T, 1999) Thus, this essay will be arguing that the criminal justice system is indeed broken. This argument will be explored through the poor experiences …show more content…

This can be shown through the victims’ enhanced influence in court through the presence of Victim Impact Statements. These essentially are pleas written by victims that have an influence over the sentencing of the perpetrator of the crime through its role in helping the judge decide on the perpetrator’s sentencing for the crimes they have committed. This is an important aspect in showing that victims actually have a sufficient amount of participation thus making it that the criminal justice system isn’t broken at all because of the victim's freedom to explain the impact the crime had on them which is then taken into consideration when deciding the outcome of the offender’s sentence, thereby giving the victim a sense of closure as a result of the feeling that their voice has been heard (Jeffrey , Levett, …show more content…

Within the proceedings of the criminal justice system, women are punished in very damning ways which raises questions surrounding potential reforms regarding the criminal justice system and the degree to which it is actually broken.

Upon entering the proceedings of the criminal justice system, through the lens of a woman, it is a flawed experience. This is because of the ‘gendered’ criminal justice system. This means that this system itself is influenced by gender roles and stereotypes which already shows disparity between male and female treatment because of the social norms and values that underpin this system. This often consists of women being subject to harsher and more frequent punishments for either similar or the very same crimes that their male counterparts have committed, also conjoining with the fact that they often experience a greater mental and physical anguish as a result. It is noted that the criminal justice system is designed and primarily operated by men, and that reflects and reinforces traditional gender roles and expectations. (Carlen, 2013) which can act as an explanation as to why women are treated with such a lack of empathy, even to such extents that incarcerated women are subject to mental health problems which highlights disparities between both genders in the handling of them within penal systems. This

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