- Published: January 15, 2022
- Updated: January 15, 2022
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 18
Overhauling American Criminal Justice System [Pick the The recent issue of Sociological Quarterly carries many good academic articles that focused on various aspects of the society. “ Overhauling American Criminal Justice System” is one of them. The write of the article David Jack is a successful practicing lawyer. In the article, he pointed out many loopholes in the criminal justice system of America. Before writing the article, it seems that writer embarked upon an in depth study of the subject and reviewed a number of classical and modern books on the American constitution and history of American laws. During the course of reading of the article, it seems that in spite of comprehensive review of literature; the author failed to provide a proper framework of study. The article missed the quality of coherence.
The author discussed the patterns of crimes in logical manners. He, even, did not ignore the nature of crimes in different states of the United States. In his opinion, these crimes can be rooted out from the society after the elimination of the causes of the crimes. However, he did not discuss reasons in proper context. For example, he considers the increasing cases of theft as the natural consequence of ‘ split families’, but he ignored the view of biologists who traced the roots of theft in human genes.
The author conducted a survey to ascertain the problems of judicial system. Open ended questions have been included in the questionnaire of the survey which enhanced the scope of the research. The respondents of the questions are mainly adolescents, which raised a figure at the credibility of the research as mature opinion is missing in the research.
The writer explained the social phenomenon of crimes in good context. He traced the roots of crimes in the social problems of the society. For example, commenting upon the recent mass shooting incident at a college of New York, he blamed stress and depression of the teen agers as the major cause and stressed upon the need of the promotion of more recreational activities to develop competition among teen agers. While analyzing, he ignored the efforts of the rehabilitation department and analyze the incident superficially. The suggestions for the overhauling of the criminal justice system can be declared as old wine in new bottle. (Sameul 1977)
However, the article carries new information for the practicing lawyers. They can use this angle of information for the benefits of their clients. He discussed the various clauses and articles of the constitution in different contexts thus contributed to the creation of knowledge.
Many experts of the subject may express different views upon the conclusion of the research paper. He concluded the article while highlighting the lacunas in the criminal justice system and suggested measures for its overhauling. Every expert of the law may have different suggestions. Therefore, it is a point of controversy. However, heterogeneous points of view lead toward the development of the society.
Reference:
Walker, S. (1977). A Critical History of Police Reform: The Emergence of Professionalism. Lexington, MT: Lexington Books. p. 143