Legal Aspects of Social Control - Essay Example

What does society expect of its police, courts and corrections? How is this realized? In what way are these expectations unfulfilled? Student ID Lecturer Submission Date University Social control has to come from within (a society), so that people do not feel left out from outside pressures coming within their folds. Crime depends a great deal on the way under which society treats it, offers solutions to its perpetrators and the way offenders are in essence dealt. Crime is dealt in a very amicable way if there is punishment for each and every outage of good deeds and when the society’s stakeholders stop realizing their true basis in line with its very needs. Punishment must teach the society to control its basis of supporting itself in a way that the society has more good than bad within the long run. People should understand what crime could do to deter their well-being and happiness within the long run and thus they should abstain from indulging in such acts, not only for their own selves but also for the betterment of the society as a whole. There must be a greater amount of social control that has to be exercised. Society expects worthwhile measures that need to be undertaken by the police, the courts and corrections over a period of time. If the society does not get the same, there is bound to be resentment within the related ranks. The significant question here is that whether the purpose of punishment within the criminal justice system is to make the offender into a good person or destroy his own self for good. This needs to be answered in the light of the discussion that we have done above. The morality angle seeks to find an explanation for the same in an ethical zone, one that limits the punishment from torturous ways and means rather making the offender pay for something that is most prized to him, though not necessarily in terms of money or valuables. It could be his time that he loves spending with his family or even his degrees that he has earned by getting himself educated over a period of quite a few years. The criminal justice system must educate the offenders, make them into better human beings and train them in line with the ethical standards of the society. (Winslow, 1968) The aspect of morality must be taken into due consideration and all-out efforts need to be incorporated within the relevant system so as to inculcate values of tolerance, empathy and respect for one another within the society. It is a fact that punishment’s sole objective should be to educate the offenders so that they do not repeat what they have already done in the past. More than that, these individuals should also be exclaimed about their acts in the light of morality and how ethics would never allow for the very same. Moral education is the exact word that stems from this discussion since a lot of emphasis must be laid on the fact that the concerned person becomes a better human being after he has been punished for a certain period of time. The reason of punishing an individual is by no means to incapacitate him rather ask of this person to give in his best towards the society in an individual role as well as a collective manner. The most significant thing in this equation is to apprise them of their sheer mistake rather than feeling agitated about the barbaric attitudes of the people who are at the helm whilst making the important decisions of their lives, which would either leave them in jail for a long time or get them hanged. The education factor must therefore be made apparent in the ruling of the verdict when an offender is punished since he must be told about the positives of life rather than making them hard and real criminals after they leave the jail area completing their respective tenures. The attempt should thus always be to make the punished individuals into good and respectable human beings, therefore society is the one that receives betterment within its ranks nonetheless. The vengeance and retribution is definitely not the point behind punishing the rightful offenders since this is a grave reaction to the already committed action by the individual. The law thus has to understand its due and moral law in the relevant scheme of things and then go about committing certain acts which are not only acceptable but also socially and morally right. (Hagan, 1993) The society expects better treatment of its individuals at the hands of the police, the criminal justice regimes and the authorities in a broad sense. At times, these expectations go overboard and do not examine the situation under which the criminal justice system is going through. It is definitive to comprehend that there are times when these expectations are pretty understandable and need a patient hearing on the part of the authorities, the courts and the police but then again hearing out the people would not solve half the problem. Implementing the codes within the practical sense would actually bring about a positive change within the society and this is exactly what the people require at the end of the day. (Beilke, 1999) Thus the need of the time is to realize the true potential of the courts, the police and the correctional settings so that there are no loopholes present within the related ranks. The society must not bear the brunt for the faults of others. The authorities need to pull up their socks and deliver on a proactive basis. All said and done, it is up to the said human being as to how he takes the punishment in his stride and then go about gaining further insights. If he takes the same in a positive fashion, he is sure to become a better individual but if the opposite happens, then this person could turn out to be a real nuisance for the whole of society. The bottom line thus is to think for the betterment of all and sundry and not just focus on an offender who deserves punishment because it has been destined upon his personality by all accounts. The society would be a contented and satisfied one if all the pertinent institutions within its folds are working towards a common objective – to serve the people in the most righteous way. References Beilke, Dustin. (1999). No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System. The Progressive, Vol. 63, May Hagan, John. (1993). Introduction: Crime in Social and Legal Context. Law & Society Review, Vol. 27 Winslow, Robert. (1968). Crime in a Free Society. Dickenson Publishing Word Count: 1,045 Read More