Category: Criminal Justice Essay Examples
See our collection of criminal justice essay examples. These examples are to help you understanding how to write essays on crime-related topics. Contemporary study of criminology and criminal justice is also increasingly interdisciplinary and thus features a broad variety of topics on the causes, effects, and responses to crime. Also, see our list of criminal justice essay topics to find the one that interests you.
In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentencing of juvenile criminal offenders to life in prison without parole violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The decision further expands a recent series of Supreme Court decisions that have …
Ethical minimalism counters ethical absolutism and maximal moral codes. Ethical absolutism postulates that a moral truth has been established and that if the moral code is followed, individuals and society will benefit. Maximal moral codes are rules developed within the context of ethical absolutism. For instance, some Christians …
Miranda warnings refer to the rights that an accused person must be advised of before his or her interrogation by law enforcement. The Miranda warnings have historically been the subject of ethical debate as well as misconception by the American public. Miranda warnings are derived from the U.S. …
A long-standing debate within legal philosophy concerns the extent to which it is possible to make a clear distinction between law and morality. For some, while it might be true to say that the law is informed by moral perspectives, there is nonetheless at any given time a …
Laws are enacted by a legislature. Moreover, in a democracy, by virtue of being laws passed by the duly elected representatives of the people, laws reflect the will of the citizenry, or at least this is so by the lights of the standard theory of representative democracy. On …
Though natural law has in common with scientific law the idea that it somehow reflects the structure of nature, it differs from the latter in being prescriptive as well as descriptive; that is, it both states what is the case in the world and stipulates what ought to …
In 1972 the National Sheriffs’ Association created the National Neighborhood Watch program and its mascot, Boris the Burglar, in an effort to assist neighborhood residents and law enforcement after a nationwide upsurge in crime. Today Neighborhood Watch is housed within the National Sheriffs’ Association and remains dedicated to …
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system— a sophisticated input/output device composed of the brain and spinal cord. It is responsible for receiving, interpreting, and responding to stimuli by transmitting electrical and chemical impulses throughout an organism. Often, response to stimuli manifests itself in the perceptible world …
Michelle Alexander, the author of the book The New Jim Crow, asserts that in each generation new tactics have been used to achieve racial exclusion of and discrimination against African Americans. Her main thesis is that the United States has not ended the racial caste system, but rather …
In 1988, criminologist Gregg Barak coined the term newsmaking criminology. Newsmaking criminology refers to “the processes whereby criminologists use mass communication for the purposes of interpreting, informing and altering the images of crime and justice, crime and punishment, and criminals and victims.” Newsmaking criminology was largely a response …
In the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), justice is understood in a most generous and ethically compelling way. Nietzsche, the creator of genealogical analysis, returns to the origins of sociopolitical phenomena to understand them in the context of their arising in specific historical contexts in response to specific, …
On November 27, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law H.R. 4628, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003. This legislation created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission. This commission was in charge of investigating the …
The phrase noble cause corruption refers to a specific form of police misconduct that is motivated by the desire for a morally good result. It can be summed up as, “the ends justify the means.” This is distinct from other forms of police corruption insofar as it assumes …
The work of Nel Noddings (1929– ) and Carol Gilligan (1936– ) on the ethics of care (and caring) and gender and moral development have been quite influential in a variety of spheres. Unlike other ethical systems, the ethics of care (and caring) emphasizes the relationships between and …
Ethical objectivism maintains that the true moral position is one of rational self-interest. It is reasonable for a person to want property and a comfortable life. Desire is not an evil, and reason can be applied to human desire. An underlying tenet of objectivism is taken from the …
When offenders are convicted and sentenced by the court, a key aspect of the resulting sanction is to inflict pain on the offender, especially if the penalty involves incarceration. This pain is sometimes justified as meting out just deserts (or retribution), teaching offenders that crime does not pay …
In modern civilized societies, human conduct is limited by the laws and regulations set forth by governing bodies. A critical debate within philosophy and the social sciences concerns the kinds of conduct that can rightfully and legitimately be prohibited by criminal law. As norms and values vary across …
Jeremy Bentham’s writings on law and punishment were pivotal in the development of the modern criminal justice system. His reformative ideas defended a legal system based on the dual principles of rationality and utility. He was also known for applying this ethic to the design of buildings that …
Juvenile justice experts define parens patriae as the state’s duty and license to raise children. If the natural parents are not taking proper care of their children, the state is both obligated and authorized to intervene in the family’s life and to pursue this mission. Legal historians would …
“Underground economy” describes economic activities outside the purview or regulation of government agencies. Government is not able to tax the incomes from such enterprises, therefore figures from underground economies are not included in the calculation of the nation’s gross national product (GNP). Underground economies are known by various …
