Topic > Criminal Justice Final Exam - 2627

Question Two: To begin with, criminal justice is a system designed to maintain social control, meaning it is a necessary aspect of every society since "Laws are the conditions under by which independent and isolated men came together to form a society” (Beccaria, 1764: 16). In other words, crime control concerns the methods adopted by a society to reduce its crime. As a matter of fact, they exist various crime control strategies, from community policing to risk assessment In addition to different tactics for controlling crime, there are different theories that not only attempt to explain the causes of crime, but also outline different ways of managing criminals e.g example, deterrence, rehabilitation and even punishment Now, it is important to realize that there is no perfect model for crime control as each system has advantages and disadvantages. With this in mind, it is clear that crime control has changed over the past few decades, and one can easily identify these changes by drawing on situations involving race, gender, and two theoretical perspectives. First, the problems with crime control are nowhere near as bad as they once were; however, one can see that some problems still exist when examining crimes that involve an offender's race. In this view, the main objective of criminal justice is to establish the actual guilt of the accused, which means that it was also designed to protect society by vindicating the rights of victims. While this may be true, it does not change the fact that bias exists in the justice system, and this happens because judges are given some discretion in deciding the outcome of the case. For example, Katz (1988:177) states that... middle of the paper... second race. In other words, race and gender have an effect on crime considering that there is not only a clear distinction between the types of crimes, but also the frequency of crimes committed. Furthermore, psychological positivism suggests that crime is the result of mental disorders and ineffective parenting, which goes completely against the classical idea that people choose to become criminals. In addition to biological and psychological elements, there are social factors that can influence people to engage in criminal activity. As a matter of fact, social and economic pressures play a major role in causing crime as people are more likely to break the law when they have nothing else to lose. Therefore, biological, psychological and social factors should all be considered when trying to establish a reason for any crime. Word count = 1,378