Critical thinking Assignment # 1 - Essay Example

of the Law of the Concerned 11 June Critical Thinking Assignment The textbook tends to define justice as an intervention by the criminal justice systems that assures that the right offender gets punished, while ascertaining that the rights of all the people associated with the criminal justice system are upheld and protected, and a commensurate and similar punishment is awarded to the similar offenses while making it certain that the law and order machinery does pragmatically understand the difference between the offenders and the offenses (Cole, Smith & DeJong 6).

In a personal context I define justice within the context of the objectives that the criminal justice system ought to accrue from the dispensation of justice. According to me justice needs to aim at preventing the crime by deterring criminals and upholding the rule of law, while assuring public order and ascertaining that the actual offenders get commensurately punished in consonance with the gravity of their crime in a way and manner that brings closing to the extended family of the offended, and expressing appropriate public and state denunciation for the committed crime, thereby bolstering the public confidence and establishing law and order in the society.

As per my personal opinion, the purpose and objective of justice is not merely to assuage the ethical requisites like fairness and protection, but also to instill a sense of peace, confidence and certainty in the larger society in which a crime is committed. Each criminal case does define as to how justice presents itself to the larger society. In the light of this personal and larger definition of justice, justice is not being met in case of the twin brothers’ case being discussed here. The system is not extending a just and valid treatment to both the twin brothers here.

Though it may not be true, yet it is quite possible that at least one of the twin brothers and one’s friends and relatives are taking advantage of the likeness in the looks of the two brothers to hoodwink and bypass the criminal justice system. The way criminal justice system is going soft on the perceived offender, going by the fact that he has an identical twin who looks and dresses up like him and was also present at the scene of crime is sending a message to the society that the criminals who do have a look alike could confuse and dither the criminal justice system.

A more just approach in this case will be to take both the brothers within the loop of this murder case, because if one of them committed the actual murder, the other one is surely playing an active role in confusing the criminal justice system. By reducing the bond of the offender, the system is not only being unjust to the victim and his friends and loved ones, but it is also diluting the faith and trust of the larger society in the rule of law. Unless both the brothers actually confess as to which one of them actually committed the murder, the court should prima facie consider both of them to be offenders and must try them like that.

It is not only the duty of justice to punish the actual offender, but it is also a duty of the criminal justice system to harass and penalize the people who try to cheat the criminal justice system and the larger society it serves. Works CitedCole, George F., Christopher E Smith & Christina DeJong. Criminal Justice in America. New York: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.