Criminal Justice

Whenever we hear of the American Criminal System, what come to mind is a system that has a trusted procedure through which criminal conduct is investigated, arrests are made, facts are gathered, charges are brought, defenses are raised, trials conducted, sentences passed, and sentences passed in the most reasonable a manner as is possible so that there is this feeling in our inner core, that justice has been done. Unfortunately, this assertion for many may be troubling, and may not always be as true to itself as should be. The question therefore is, what went wrong with the justice system, or why is it that some people are more susceptible than others to be behind bars?

According to a Huffington Post blog titled Michelle Alexander: More Black Men Are In Prison Today Than Were Enslaved In 1850 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/michelle-alexander-more-black-men-in-prison-slaves-1850_n_1007368.html), it has become really nerve wrecking to revisit these questions every now and then. Shouldn’t the American Criminal Justice System be doing what it is suppose to do in a democracy? Has the system become what Michelle Alexander has described as The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness? How could the United States have stoop so low in this new age to allow one of the world’s trusted criminal justice system to be so undermined by special interest?  Tamar Birckhead in Delinquent by reason of poverty (http://jjie.org/delinquent-by-reason-of-poverty/91501) insinuate that this is a result of both institutional and structural causes, where the standard of proof in delinquency courts is determined in large part by the socio-economic class of the accused, and in my mind this scenario is applicable to other vulnerable demographic groups in the criminal justice system. The question we must ask and often is, how can we make this right? How can we avoid or intervene and to put a stop to what Michelle Alexander has positioned as the demise of Jim Crow and the replacement of the criminal justice system, as our society’s system of racial control?

Week Four

Nature vs Nurture

The nurture vs. nature debate has been an ongoing issue among scientists .Many of them think that people behave as they do because of their genes. This is therefore known as the “nature” theory of human behavior. On the other hand, some of them believe that people think and act in certain ways because they learn to do so. This is the "nurture" theory of human behavior.

It is undoubtedly clear that some physical characteristics are dogged by genetic inheritance. For example, Color of eyes, hairs, skin pigmentation and so on. But other things like weight, hair loss and susceptibility to specific illnesses like cancer are positively interconnected between genetically linked persons.

To the best of my knowledge, all of them have a greater role to play in our lives. For example, if you give birth to twins and separate them from day one, it will not change the fact that they will still look alike. They will end up having different behavior because most of our characters are being shaped by our environment. We learn a lot from the people around us. That is why if you give birth to a child and leave him/her to grow up only with animals, that child will end up behaving exactly like animals. He/she will have the features of a human being but will have characteristics of animals. Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits but nurture takes these genetic abilities and molds them as we learn and grow. Nurture or nature, both of they have their individual roles to play in our lives.

 

HUGH LAURIE'S SHOW

Week Three

When I looked at that comedy, I had to look at it over and over to understand what was funny to the audience. They kept laughing at the guy repeating the same lyrics time and again. If  I happens to found myself in a concert like that, I will definitely fall asleep. In any case, the last part of the show was funny when the musician almost gets punched on the face or jumped over.

This situation clearly point out our cultural differences. What seems to be fun to you according to your norms will not implies to me some times. Fun differs according to societies. That is why the audience is able to see fun in that scenario while somebody from my cultural background will see it as boring.

 

The Zimbardo Prison Experiment

The Zimbardo prison experiment after watching the video indicates to me the nature of human behavior when given position of authority and power. Unequal power between groups of people can often lead to tyranny in the absence of a solid regulatory system that manages excesses that result from unequal relationships. This was the situation between the guards and the prisoners in this experiment, despite the fact that it was merely role playing, the prisoners became willing to take instructions from authority figures and were stressed up from routine sleep deprivation and constant yelling and physical punishment when the guards exaggerated their thirst for power. The experiment demonstrated situational attributions which may not necessary demonstrate the innate characteristics of the participants.  The individuals in this experiment, because of their association into the respective groups into which they were assigned, lost their individual sense of identity by becoming part of the prisoners group or guards group and behaving in a way that may be said to reflect the group identity.

Due to the human suffering that resulted from this experiment, it can be said that the ethics of this experiment were questionable on grounds that the participants were not adequately protected from unnecessary human suffering that became real during the experiment. Otherwise, specific guidelines were followed, including issues such as the purpose of the research, procedures that were to be followed, benefits of the research, the duration of the research, and other necessary criteria such as conditions of participation, which in this case were voluntary, with participants having the option to either participate or withdraw at some point in time. That notwithstanding as mentioned earlier, there was not enough oversight, to protect the participants from untold human suffering that became a reality of this experiment, and based on this alone, it can be said that this experiment lacked a solid ethical framework to accomplish the goals for which it was said and meet with basic tenets that protect human life.