Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice Research Paper Assignment
Order Instructions:
You must write 4–5 pages of content in current APA format on a criminal justice topic . Additionally, you must include a title page, abstract, and reference page and use at least 5 scholarly sources.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Abstract
Criminal justice is an offence committed against the state and its institutions. Both men and women are involved in criminal related activities in a variety of way. This paper attempts to look at how women are affected by the criminal justice system. The paper confirms that women are faced with different circumstances from men and this may affect their justice.
Introduction
According to Barberet (2014), criminal justice is the system that involves the government institutions, whose main aim is to deter and mitigate crime or even impose sanctions to those who break laws of the country and to correct them. It also entails upholding social control at all levels, and also imposes rehabilitation efforts when deemed necessary to do so. Despite criminals being both men and women, the number of men involved in criminal activities outnumbers the number of women involved in the same. Moreover, the conditions that surround the criminal activities in women to some extent vary between men and the women. The circumstances that surround women criminal activities are different from those of men despite both of them facing the same legal test.
Women and Criminal Justice
There has been a high increase in women crime in the world, leading to most of them being sentenced in court despite them committing crimes less serious as compared to those crimes done by men. There have been great sentences of women and this has been attributed by the perception of their needs rather than their deeds, with most of them having to be imprisoned with an aim of separating troubled and troublesome behavior. The many women who end up being imprisoned are free from substance abuse since they are restricted to access drugs for those who are used to their usage; hence, they are free from the risk of mental problems (Player, 2014). Women who present lower risks as offenders tend not to get support from the probation service and do not receive adequate attention from the law enforcement agencies.
Women have accomplished amazing feats globally and there is a need to ensure that they do not suffer disproportionately with regard to their gender for them to continue with their important role in the society. The numbers of women are very high as compared to the number of men in the world and yet they receive less recognition in criminal justice reform measures where they are highly mistreated. However, despite them being the primary caregiver of their children, they end up being victimized by physical, emotional and sexual abuse in their past lives which live to haunt them. The criminal justice continues to detain women even after undergoing such trauma in their lives instead of offering counseling to give them the rehabilitative treatment that can help them forget the pain they have been undergoing through (Malloch, Mclvor &Burgess, 2014). Some women even detained at extraordinary rates for the sake of primary nonviolent drug-related offenses which they never took part in the, hence when found guilty, they are punished. Criminal justice regarding women can be described in a variety of ways considering several facts. These facts include incarceration of women at very huge numbers whereby, the number of women behind bars and probation is very high. Bright, Kohi & Jonson-Reid (2014) argues that, there are women who are incarcerated in non-violent offenses and they end up being charged with drug-related crimes, which they have not even committed and this is regard to their color which makes them to undergo severe sufferings.
The other fact that is used to describe women criminal justice in the court is where many girls enter the juvenile justice system with a history that is full of physical, emotional and sexual abuse that always disturbs their mental functioning due to their horrible experiences. Many girls who are arrested end up being charged with the mistake of running away from the violent home situation where their parents rape and even mistreat them. This becomes a great challenge to them because, instead of being counseled on what happened, they are mostly subjected to dehumanization in prisons and a lot of humiliation; hence, they end up not getting the right mental health services (Malloch, Mclvor & Burgess, 2014). While serving time in the facility, girls are more likely to be sexually victimized as compared to boys whose sexual victimization is very low. They end viewing live to be meaningless to them due to what they have undergone in life and most of them after sexual victimization they don’t value men at all in life, hence they find it hard or even impossible to start up a family.
Another fact is that, once these women are released from prison, they face discrimination from the members of the society who tend to view them as unproductive or even poor to associate with. To some extend they are excluded from enjoying government services or even receiving any assistance from the government, such as subsistence benefits to them and their children. They are also refusing employment opportunities that can help them earn a living and they have pathetic housing and can’t get access to basic needs like education. According to Sangoi & Goshnin (2014), statutory bans are even imposed on some industries such as child care, nursing and home health care where women of color and poor status are in large numbers so that they can be made to suffer by not getting these basic needs. In most countries crime rate has really declined and the rate of incarcerating drug offenses has been out of control with the women being the weaker sex and the most affected by the drug saga. As we think about the women’s role in today’s society, it is also good to focus on the large number of children who have been abandoned by their mothers in prison, where they suffer and lack the basic needs in life.
The other fact concerns shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery whereby the health of the newly born, and that of the mother is at very high risk since the environment is not friendly to them all (Player, 2014). The shackling of women prisoners in bed during their delivery times is unethical and unconstitutional, hence those found doing so should be judged in court and if found guilty they then face the consequences. These women are denied reproductive health services which entail testing them to know their HIV status with an aim of reducing risks to the unborn child and even to get access to quality prenatal care. These women also do not get access to blood screening to identify the presence of any sexually transmitted disease that can be treated with an immediate effect to prevent causing bad effects to the unborn such as blindness which is as a result of gonorrhea. They don’t get access to abortion services which may be necessary in case of an ectopic pregnancy with an aim of saving the mother’s life, which is always at danger in such a case like this.
Conclusion
Both men and women are involved in criminal related activities that subject them to the criminal justice system. However, the number of women involved in criminal activities is relatively lower than the number of men involved in criminal activities. Due to different circumstances, the legal criminal legal implications of women are somehow different as compared to those of men. Women are faced with very different circumstances that complicate their life and subjecting them to equal legal standards with men may deny them justice.
References
Barberet, R. (2014). Women, Crime and Criminal Justice: A Global Enquiry (Global Issues in Crime and Justice). Routledge; 1 edition
Bright, C., Kohi, P., & Jonson-Reid, M. (2014). Female in the Juvenile Justice System: Who Are They and How Do They Fare? Crime & Delinquency. Vol. 60 Issue 1, p106-125
Malloch, M., Mclvor, G. &Burgess, C. (2014). Holistic Community Punishment and Criminal Justice Interventions for Women. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol. 53 Issue 4, p395-410
Player, E. (2014). Women in the criminal justice system: The triumph of inertia. Criminology & Criminal Justice: An International Journal. Vol. 14 Issue 3, p276-297
Sangoi, L. & Goshnin, L. (2014).Women and Girls Experiences Before, Drugs, and After Incarceration: A Narrative of Gender-based Violence, and an Analysis of the Criminal Justice Laws and Policies that Perpetuate This Narrative. UCLA Women’s Law Journal. Vol. 20 Issue 2, p137-168
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