The Criminal Justice System and Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter - Essay Example

? The Criminal Justice System of The Criminal Justice System Criminal Justice Systems in most countries tend to have many detractors one of the major reasons for this is the fact that it is a very sensitive area which may lead to the arrest of innocents or the acquittal of the guilty. Justice is one of the main pillars on which a modern society is built. This is due to various reasons. One is the basic premise of fear upon which Criminal Justice systems work. The fear of punishment and public disgrace is something that prevents many from committing what the society considers to be crime. This system of punishment has evolved over the centuries from barbaric methods to correctional ones that would help the offender to get rid of his anti-social tendencies and get rehabilitated into the society where he was earlier a misfit. Public attitudes towards an offender have changed but are not altogether different from what it was, that of a sinner, in earlier times. This is important as it would help one chart the course of the changes in the criminal justice system. One also needs to take into account the changes that have taken place in the society while examining the criminal justice system. These may include the pervasiveness of technology in every aspect of the modern life. Courts and the police too have begun to take into account the evidence and assistance offered by technology to the extent that it is a part of modern life in every respect at this point of time in history. The scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter represents what the Puritan system of justice in America was at a certain point of time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The criminal justice system has come a long way from accusing a person without having a proper legal framework. It has also enshrined in this framework the notion of equality that should be the basis of justice in any civilized country. This has been compounded by the expectations of the public in recent years from the criminal justice system where it has become an electoral in almost every country in the world. The nation state has thus been instrumental in creating an environment where everybody would be judged through a secular and modern code of law and order that enables equality in justice and punishment. Equality is however, not always the case when it comes to the distribution of justice. Racial profiling is one of the most important obstacles in the process of criminal justice. This involves the process whereby people of color are discriminated against while the process of justice is carried out. This may happen on a road where a person of color is stopped just because of their race. This represents deep rooted attitudes of racial superiority that is a part of certain sections of the police (Three faces of Racial Profiling, n.d.). This is an example of how race impinges on the institution of justice in everyday life. This may then extend to include proceedings at courts where a person of color is discriminated against when it comes to credibility, especially when pitted against people who are of White races. This can then be extended to the situation of poor people, those who are often not able to afford lawyers for themselves. The trend of racial profiling has decreased in the past few decades; however, the situation of poor people has not radically improved. This can then also be connected to the situation of people who are doubly deprived or dispossessed. This refers to the condition of poor people of color in the United States of America. They are then at the receiving end of both their race and class position as a result of prejudices. The failures of the criminal justice system in several cases can be attributed to the rising frustration and helplessness that is felt by these communities in relation to the attitudes of the American middle classes and legal system. This can be seen in the rising number of people who feel that joining a gang may be their only way out of a system that does not provide them with the opportunity to transcend their racial and class belonging. This then leads to the creation of a vicious cycle that reinforces the lack of belief that these communities have in relation to what they perceive as the mainstream. The impact of technology too is one of the most important aspects of criminal justice in today’s times. In the recent past there has been many a debate regarding the use of media in the treatment of cases in the courtroom. This can be seen in the different debates that discuss the presence of the media while a case is in progress. The intrusive presence of the media is resented as a result of the effect that it has upon the minds of viewers whereby the case becomes akin to a reality show, an aspect of the whole case that can also interfere with the process of criminal justice. This is an instance of the media that is an institution of the society having an impact on the process of criminal justice. Modern institutions thus have an impact on criminal justice that is immense and also has an influence on the tastes and values of the audience of a media. Apart from this, the institutions of medicine and forensic science have also contributed to the changes in the trends of the processes of criminal justice. At this point of time in history, it is common for lawyers to use arguments that are based on the reports of labs as a result of the pervasiveness of such technology in the process of criminal justice. This is also seen in the public perception of criminal justice. This can be seen in the way commercial sitcoms on television depict such processes. Such sitcoms take the existence of such forms of technology for granted (Neubauer and Fradella, 2011). The importance of a technological phenomenon is thus seen in the processes of justice that take place in today’s society. In this sense, it can be seen that the importance of technology in the lives of people sees itself reflected in the processes of justice and law. Thus, one can say that the processes of the society that one lives in finds itself reflected in the activities of the processes of the criminal justice system. This reflection is an indication of the fact that the systems of justice are not in any way separate from the ideologies that shape the society and in that sense, it indicates the level of progress that a civilization finds itself in. the prejudices and the weaknesses of that society finds itself mirrored in the lives and histories of the cases that are a part of the cases in courtrooms. The importance of the law-enforcement system including the police also needs to be taken into account in this entire process of criminal justice. However, it is one of the most important facets of the administration of a nation and it is one of the issues that the electorate of a nation takes into account while deciding which party or individual is in power. As a result, one may say that electoral processes too have to be taken into account while deciding the trends that the system of criminal justice. The trends deciding the situation of the criminal justice system and the effects of societal institutions are complex and depend on the development of either institution. References Neubauer, David W.; Fradella, Henry F. (2011). America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System. Belmont: Wadsworth. Print. “The Three Faces of Racial Profiling”. (n.d.). American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 4 Nov. 2012, from http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling Read More