Criminal Justice System: A Subculture With Unique Rules & Regulations - Essay Sample

Introduction

The criminal justice system maintains its systems of values that are different from other fields. In many aspects, the criminal justice systems could be referred to as a subculture that maintains a comprehensive set of regulations, rules, codes, and symbols with ethical structures that differ from those in the mainstream society. Some of the criminal justice practitioners responsible for maintaining these structures include paraprofessionals, paralegals, attorneys, judges, parole officers, probations, correctional officers, and law enforcement officers among others (Dodson, 2018). It means, the coordination of various systems within the place of work requires professional competency as well as upholding moral ethics which help the criminal justice practitioners decide on what is wrong and right. This paper will provide a comprehensive discussion on whether Criminal justice practitioners incorporate emotive ethical theory in their place of work. Also, it will further highlight whether the theory can be part of positive leadership, including some of the consequences.

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The Practice of Emotive Ethical Theory by Criminal Justice Practitioners

Emotive theory of ethics is a concept which denotes that various judgments and moral responses have emotional aspects. It involves the acceptance of emotions articulation as well as recognizing the cause or the trigger for emotional feelings when making various decisions about the criminal justice process. Emotive theory of ethics, however, calls for ethical, rational thinking during court proceedings and suggests that consciousness should be integrated within the systems (Martinez & Wueste, 2016). In this regard, the theory offers a substantial foundation for challenging tough situations as well as providing appropriate guidance to the decision-making process. In the application of various legislations which regards to multiple cases presented within the criminal justice system, the theory can apply philosophies and moral guidance in the deciding on the outcome of the cases.

The emotive ethical theory creates a central idea of maximizing the happiness of people by reducing their suffering due to hefty penalties as a result of the court verdict. It also creates a focus on the consequences and the result for the common goal. Concerning whether criminal justice practitioners practice this kind of theory, it is vital to note that the criminal justice system is organized differently (Martinez & Wueste, 2016). It means that criminal justice practitioners do not practice emotive ethical theory in their place of work due to multiple reasons which are worth mentioning in the present article. The criminal justice system forms one of an essential public service system.

Currently, the criminal justice system deals with high levels of recidivism observable in the society where offenders face re-arrest on more than one instance due to repeat offenses. The concern has been at the center of conversations around the possibility that the current system may be facing failure in the ability to reduce criminality (Hoyle, 2017). The application of the restorative justice perspective is therefore useful in this case because it not only deals with the issue of recidivism, but it also provides the offenders with the right attitude, skills, and abilities to become better citizens once their respective sentences are complete.

Prompting the various complains that have been raised about the criminal justice system, there is a necessity for improvement of the whole system for public satisfaction. Various measures can be applied to improve the criminal justice system, which includes structuring a timelier criminal justice process. There has been the problem of too much delay for the defendants to await trial. It is crystal clear that justice delayed is justice denied CITATION Col18 \l 1033 (Cole, 2018). This can be achieved by opening more law courts and employing more court officials to reduce the jam in the courts that hinders fast prosecution of offenders hindering them from the attainment of justice. The government, through the legal system, should ensure that at least two-thirds of the simple criminal cases are brought to trial as soon as one month of appearance in court. Further, this would have improved the system from the long-time delay between the days of hearing the case to the day of trial.

Moreover, to ensure that defendants also receive justice, all the procedural documents about the defendant's case must be availed to their lawyers in digital form. Through this, it would solve the problem of barring the lawyers from accessing the information about their clients or in the bid by the prosecution side to deny the defendants side the information - denying them justice. There should be an improvement in the number of completed cases. Some cases are not completed, and the defendants are always denied justice in the process. Therefore, the police, in conjunction with the Public Prosecution Service, must make explicit agreements about the cases that require more attention. It has to employ very stringent measures in dealing with various criminal issues, which must be taken into account to curb insecurity level. Ethics is a vital concept in the criminal justice system. However, it presents many complications, especially when it comes to various philosophies surrounding criminal justice system operations. Criminal justice practitioners have to apply ethics in deciding what is wrong or right, as well to avoid the violations of multiple legislations which guides their services (Haltaufderheide, Mertz, Vollmann, & Schildmann, 2016). However, the emotive ethical theory has not predominately been applied by the Criminal justice practitioners since they believe it may interfere with the justice process.

Policies within the field of the criminal justice system have several objectives that ensure the efficient operation of the system. One of the critical purposes of the policies is to support strategy execution within the system. The policies have also been essential in ensuring that all actors within the field of criminal justice understand the scope of their work and are aware of consequences related to their actions CITATION Wel16 \l 1033 (Welsh, 2016). Resultantly, the policies have been effective in supporting ethical behavior and influencing the behavior of employees. In criminal justice, credibility is paramount in ensuring the effectiveness of operations. Policies promote the credibility of individuals operating within the system. The policies assist in the management of internal controls, which in turn ensure that parties concerned play their roles appropriately.

Having a clear comprehension of ethics is fundamental within the Criminal justice system. This is since such knowledge can easily be applied in the developing of a curriculum for teaching public servants who work in the criminal justice system. To ensure full delivery of justice, criminal justice practitioners uphold some virtues and values which are incredibly distinct from those of the employees in other professions (Haltaufderheide et al., 2016). Such kind of attributes and values is what guides them in the delivery of justice within the criminal justice systems. There are many aspects found inside the criminal justice outline, which are known as subcultures. The restorative justice perspective captures this paper's ideal assessment of the criminal justice scheme as well as the role it should play in the process of dealing with offenders and the focusing on the long-term ability to deal with recidivism. First, the corrective justice system views offenders as individuals with the capability of reformation and redemption CITATION Van15 \l 1033 (Van Cleve, 2015). For this reason, while the process of sentencing is based on the need to ensure retribution and deterrence, the perspective also introduces another aspect, which is the opportunity to make amends.

Such aspects help in the maintenance of a distinct set of rules and regulations and offer well-stipulated codes of conduct, which enable the criminal justice practitioners to delivers justice without the favor of emotional consideration. This is one of the core reasons why they do not practice the emotive ethical theory since they believe it can curtail the justice process. Criminal justice practitioners have specific guidelines which help them to formulate myriads of ideas which create a positive impact on the legitimacy of the verdicts given (Haltaufderheide et al., 2016). Furthermore, their performance is based on a strong ethical foundation put in place by system. Such moral foundation ensures that ethical decision is arrived at by the criminal justice practitioners.

Conclusion

In every criminal justice practice, criminal justice practitioners often apply moral reasoning as they interact with the workplace. Such kind of arguments performs a fundamental role in the understanding of ethics. It is thus prudent to note that even though the criminal justice practitioners do not practice the emotive ethical theory, they uphold ethics in their operations. The approach, however, cannot be part of the positive leadership (Dodson, 2018). It is because positive leadership involves a positive mindset which stays grounded in reality and performs every aspect of the checking fact without undue influence. The theory cannot fit positive leadership since emotions and feelings of sympathy will curtail the decision-making process. Some of the consequences are negative influence decision making, unreliable court verdicts, and negative effects on the justice process.

References

Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.

Dodson, K. D. (2018). Challenges Criminal Justice Practitioners and Treatment Professionals Encounter with Special Needs Offenders. In Routledge Handbook on Offenders with Special Needs (pp. 1-17). Routledge. DOI:10.4324/9781315626574

Haltaufderheide, J., Mertz, M., Vollmann, J., & Schildmann, J. (2016). Empirical and Meta-Ethical Presuppositions of Using Emotive Ethical Theory in Criminal Justice system. The American Journal of Legal Justice, 16(9), 51-53. DOI:10.1080/15265161.2016.1196261

Hoyle, C. (2017). Policing and restorative justice. Handbook of Restorative Justice. DOI:10.4324/9781843926191.ch16

Martinez, N., & Wueste, D. (2016). Balancing Emotive Ethical Theory and practicality: engaging non-ethicists in ethical decision making related to the Criminal Justice system. Journal of Justice Protection, 36(4), 832. DOI:10.1088/0952-4746/36/4/832

Van Cleve, N. G., & Mayes, L. (2015). Criminal justice through "colorblind" lenses: A call to examine the mutual constitution of race and criminal justice. Law & Social Inquiry, 40(2), 406-432. DOI:10.1111/lsi.12113

Welsh, W. N., & Harris, P. W. (2016). Criminal justice policy and planning: Planned change. Routledge.