This essay was written by a fellow student. It is prevalent within the courts, corrections, diversionary programs such as mental health organizations and jobs programs, the judiciary and beyond. Police Ethics. Do Men Still Wear Button Holes At Weddings? Urban Affairs Quarterly, 13(3), 285-312. Is discretion by criminal justice practitioners a good thing? You could not be signed in, please check and try again. In a law enforcement context, discretion only concerns decisions that are made in a legal setting. But it also raises the specter of too much deference to the rules, especially in cases where the rules themselves have the potential to create disparity, as in the case of federal rules that call for tougher sanctions for dealing in crack cocaine rather than powder cocaine. Judicial discretion gives courts immense power which is exercised when legislature allows for it. 1. It permits the use of force when necessary to keep a community safe. New York: Plenum. Retrieved from https://graduateway.com/discretion-in-the-criminal-justice-system/, Give examples of how discretion permeates every phase of the criminal justice system, Paper on the Internal and External Mechanisms That Control Police Discretion, Pros And Cons Of Criminal Profiling Criminal Cases Criminology. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a14efeb6bc31cd4 in which they use their own individual judgment, to decide the best course of action. Instead of applying a specific statute in a standardized way, it becomes possible to serve and protect in ways that the law might not envision based on its wording. While much of the discretion employed within the criminal justice system is at the hands of street level bureaucrats, which will be discussed below, it is certainly not the only area of the system in which one can witness its prolific use. Judicial discretion refers to a judges power to make a decision based on his or her individualized evaluation, guided by the principles of law. This is an important historical document notable for its inclusion of the now-iconic criminal justice flowchart (pp. This allows individual circumstances to be considered. . Click to reveal It infers that the person who acts in an egotistical manner does so because it is natural to act in this way, and therefore . Discretionary restriction is to be employed when a certain threshold has been crossed; there are limits to when individuals should be allowed discretion, to when situation and circumstance have any right to be considered. The choice to engage in a high-speed chase or not attempts to balance the need to capture a suspect against the potential for an injury because of pursuit activities. Police discretion relates to a police officer's ability to make a crime scene decision. Disparities can be the product of biases in the exercise of discretion by system actors, including police officers, prosecutors . Your IP: There are examples of discretion throughout the criminal justice system. report, Discretion in the Criminal Justice System. Officers can also make contact with individuals that they believe could be hiding something or have broken serious laws that require an intervention to keep others safe. In the CJS, it is the authority given to a decision maker to decide between alternatives or no alternatives. In another context, say that of a courtroom, some of these issues preventing a curbing of discretion would be immediately pushed aside, as they are no longer a concern; specifically, cost effectiveness and practicality. L. That means law enforcement officials can change the nature of the charges that someone faces by choosing a lesser or related one then a severe violation. 6. ) Racial disparity is further decomposed into two types: warranted or unwarranted. The document is also notable for its consideration of police, courts, and corrections (chapters 4, 5, and 6) in the context of crime control. New York, Henry Holt and Co. Johnson, J. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the most important aspects of our criminal justice system. This authority is in play from the moment a prosecuting attorney is asked to make an official criminal charge to the final sentencing. Another reason that discretion finds itself so intractable within the American criminal justice system is due to the increasing interconnected nature of the American criminal justice system and mental health treatment; in many ways, jails have become the de-facto mental health system for many Americans (Johnson, 1984; Snow & Briar, 1990; Palermo et al., 1992). With adults, less discretion could be used because they have a greater sense of morals. Recommended for all readers. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. 7. Every person, no matter how minor their offense might be, would get arrested and taken to court to face charges without this presence of this principle. 13 Advantages and Disadvantages of an Iridium Spark Plug, 13 Advantages and Disadvantages of Robinson Projection, 500 Cutest Dachshund Names for a Girl or Boy Puppy Dog, Top 500 Golden Retriever Names for a Female or Male Puppy, 301 Great Pyrenees Dog Names for a Female or Male Puppy, 500 Cutest Yorkie Names for a Girl or Boy Puppy Dog, Golden Pyrenees Guide: 26 Facts About the Great Pyrenees Golden Retriever Mix, German Shepherd Great Pyrenees Mix Guide: 27 Things to Know About the Germanees, German Shepherd Akita Corgi Mix: 26 Things Every Owner Should Know, Chihuahua German Shepherd Mix Guide: 25 Things to Know About a Chihuahua Shepherd, Alaskan Shepherd Guide: 29 Things Every Owner Should Know, Blue Heeler German Shepherd Mix: 26 Things Every Owner Should Know. Discretion should be used in moderation and to preserve order in society, not used in excessive amounts to threaten the laws purpose. Unwarranted disparity is the variation in outcomes that can be reasonably identified as being the sole result of race or other extralegal factors (e.g., gender) after all legally mandated sentencing factors are taken into account. This is somewhat vague, but so is the concept of police discretion. The Evidence Act . When someone violates an order, even if it may be perceived as unlawful, then it creates a higher risk of violence toward the official. Ohlin, Lloyd E., and Frank J. Remington. This text is probably best for a graduate-level class. When decisions that are made by officers do not yield the desired positive results, but are made in good faith, these decisions still fall under the umbrella of discretion. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Cross-Sectional Research Designs in Criminology and Crimin Cybercrime Investigations and Prosecutions, Defining "Success" in Corrections and Reentry, Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, Electronically Monitored Home Confinement. It permits a police officer to use their training for the public good. Police discretion allows law enforcement officials to utilize their skills and experience to determine an acceptable level of force against a suspect. 8. 2. As we talked about in class, the 3-strike rule is a fair method of deciding who should be held accountable. (1983). Our American system of justice has evolved from the English common law into a complex series of procedures and decisions. Copyright 2023 service.graduateway.com. Dont waste Your Time Searching For a Sample, The Role of Discretion in The Criminal Justice System, An Argument in Favor of Healthy Discretion in Criminal Justice, Honesty and Justice in the Criminal Justice System, Punishment vs. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. submit it as your own as it will be considered plagiarism. Discretion Examples Bob is traveling at 75 miles per hour. What is the salary range if one has a criminal justice degree? Allowing judicial officers to decide sentences on a case by case basis and thus permitting them to . * Owen, S. S. (2012). It allows each person to interpret applicable laws and then act upon them based on the choices made in that moment. And, today, there are tens of thousands of innocent people behind bars. It can lead to soft law enforcement mechanisms. This sentiment is put forth by Arthur Rosett (1972). Here, I believe discretion is still to be valued and employed. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Discretion is abused when the judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable. This chapter considers the purposes, aims, and values of a criminal justice system and the controversy surrounding each of its terms: system, justice, and criminal. The various decisions that different participants in the legal system are allowed to make shows what . Home | About | Contact | Copyright | Report Content | Privacy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Police officers can use discretion as a way to protect the general public. (1990). 1977. Judicial Discretion Definition Its judicious use increases fairness and can help to promote an equitable legal process by allowing the judge to consider individual circumstances in instances when the law is insufficient or silent. Lawyers in any sector of practice have substantial discretion in pursuing clients goals. The capacity to control and gives viable authority to officers, who have more prudence and self-sufficiency than the administration, raises genuine ramifications for police administrators. Which Teeth Are Normally Considered Anodontia? There are some departments that give their officers . It also allows the police officer to quickly interpret the applicable statutory law and then act upon the determination. An officer might need to consider whether or not to draw a weapon, make an arrest, issue a traffic ticket, perform a search, or stop to offer assistance to someone. However, their impact has fallen only on adjudicatory stages of processing. Samuel Walker 1992 adds that the term system is perhaps misleading, because the police, courts, and corrections are largely independent of one another, although the actions of each set of actors clearly have an impact on the others. No matter how much discretion you give an officer, its ultimately their choice to use it. police officer, lawyer or judge etc. Police officers can use discretion to determine what charges get filed against a suspect. As significant part of the criminal justice system in Canada, being a police officers "involves the use of a significant amount of discretion" (McKillop & Pfeifer, 2004) . Almost every situation presents an opportunity for this practice to be observed. Bibliography * Alpert, Geoffrey P. ; Dunham, Roger G. Discretion is available for offenders of all ages. Even though discretion can often be viewed as problematic when it doesnt receive enough oversight, most officials use their judgment in ways that work to preserve societal and family interests whenever possible. The underlying value of prosecutorial . It virtually eradicated criminal trials; today, roughly 95 percent of convictions come via plea. Rawls (1971, p.71), in his seminal theory on justice, observes that "the principle of efficiency cannot serve alone as a conception of justice.". Why is discretion found in the criminal courts? Law enforcement must take part in specific implementation with respect to the requirement of laws and must browse an assortment of elective activities so as to determine the circumstance. (2018, Sep 23). Theft is an easy enough example for us to use; the classic example of a single mother, currently unemployed, stealing diapers and bread in order to care for her children is rather different than petty theft by a college student, from the same store (and even, perhaps, of the same items, given the pettiness), for no reason other than that they wanted to. 4 : the result of separating or distinguishing. For example, indistinct laws, annoyance conducts, uncertainty in state rules, moral norms, and obsolete laws may make an officer have a substitute goals to the issue. Dont Perhaps the easiest to understand and most apparent reason is the inherently diffuse nature of the criminal justice system. Street level bureaucrats are defined as: public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their jobs and who have substantial discretion in the execution of their work (Lipskey, 1980). Federal agencies have a large degree of discretion in structuring student loan repayment programs. Dworkin, Ronald. In the case of sentencing, disparity involves the application of different punishments to cases that appear to be identical on the merits, or alternatively, the application of same punishment to cases that appear different. Discretionary judgment affects only choices about which strategy most effectively serves the clients goals of acquittal or minimal punishment. Are tens of thousands of innocent people behind bars gives courts immense power which is exercised when allows! 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