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.
Fyodor Dostoevsky stated, “The degree to which a society is civilized can be judged by entering its prisons.” Prisons, as a part of the corrections system, occupy an important position in society by carrying out criminal sentencing, increasing public safety, and maintaining a just society. Prisons serve as …
Prison gangs are a prominent problem in many correctional institutions across the country. The violence and racial tension associated with prison gangs impacts the operation of entire correctional systems. Prison administrators face multiple challenges when dealing with prison gangs including protecting other inmates and staff from gang violence, …
Fueled in large part by financial interests, the prison industrial complex consists of businesses and corporations that contract prison labor, including construction companies, technology vendors, lawyers, and lobby groups that represent them. To most of its critics, the complex signifies a network of actors motivated more by profit …
Prison inmates rarely enjoy control over their labor in the ways that ordinary members of civil society take for granted. In many countries, prisoners are viewed as having legal duties to work, meaning that they can be compelled to work, though limits exist on the extent of that …
Literature from the 1980s conceptualized prison overcrowding as an improper alignment in responsibilities between the state and the local government. This conceptualization suggested that prison services, such as providing new facilities, which are granted (at no cost) by the state government to citizens and officials of local government, …
Despite the presence of institutional rules that prohibit over familiarization between inmates and correctional employees, some staff members end their careers in disgrace by having an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner. These relationships, which are usually initiated by inmates, have been characterized as behaviors that are highly personal …
Prison sexuality refers to the sexual relationships of individuals confined to correctional facilities. Sexual relationships behind bars may include consensual and nonconsensual inmate-to-inmate sex or conjugal visits. Prison administrators face some serious questions about how to deal with sexual relationships within their facilities. It is important that they …
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is a major labor union in the United States. AFSCME Corrections United (ACU) is the primary labor union for correctional officers with 62,000 corrections officers and 23,000 corrections employees. The union’s mission is to fight for better pay …
The U.S. prison culture is distinct in that it is defined in terms of a social hierarchy unlike the hierarchy of free society. Individuals are often placed in an unwritten social class system based on their age, race, offense, and temperament, thus influencing their ability to interact and …
The provision of rights and humane conditions for prisoners has been a historically challenging issue. Until the Middle Ages, prisoners were often executed summarily. The Treaty of Westphalia at the end of the Thirty Years War introduced provision for the release and parole of prisoners without harm or …
Prisoners’ Dilemma is an illustrative game that was developed to help demonstrate the cost-benefit analysis process that takes place when determining the desirability of a situational outcome. The term game may trigger thoughts of standard games like poker or baseball, but in this context it is used to …
Private prisons are detention places where control of those who have been sentenced is awarded or contracted out to a nongovernmental entity (i.e., private company). At least two situations may be at play with private prisons. A public or government detention facility allows the private company to assume …
Problem-oriented policing (or problem-solving policing, as it is better known in the United Kingdom) refers to a philosophy and method of law enforcement that focuses on problems of concern or considerable nuisance to the general public, with a special focus on crime and social disorder. Problem-oriented policing was …
The principle of proportionality is based on the fundamental foundation of balance and fairness in the legislation, interpretation, and application of law. As it relates to criminal law, the principle of proportionality holds that a sanction or punishment imposed on one found guilty of committing an offense must …
There is no more powerful person in most courthouses than the prosecutor, with largely unfettered discretion over critical life, death, and freedom decisions, and precious little guidance and oversight for the exercise of that discretion. The immense power, that almost boundless discretion, can be wielded for good or …
The term prosecutorial misconduct encompasses a range of improper behaviors that violate the rules of court or ethical standards associated with the practice of law. Examples of prosecutorial misconduct characterized as courtroom misconduct include making inflammatory remarks in front of the jury, attempting to introduce inadmissible evidence, making …
The ethical issues surrounding prostitution are as varied as the profession itself. Prostitution is considered a consensual crime, one in which neither party is acting against his or her own free will; however, there is a strenuous debate over this point, especially in light of the involvement of …
Psychological jurisprudence is of interest to criminal justice ethics because the construct capsulates the interaction between psychology, the law, and ethics. The term appears to have first been coined by Gary Melton in a presidential address to the American Psychology-Law Society at the American Psychological Association in 1991. …
Psychological tests are used to infer information about the psychological functioning of clients that is not directly observable or reported by them, or may be occurring outside of their own awareness. While many forms of psychological tests have been developed, those commonly used for courtroom applications generally relate …
All political regimes, past and present, have adopted a system of laws and administrative rules designed to combat crime and violence and preserve public order. To accomplish these ends, governments must first identify behaviors that they want to prohibit. In some restrictive, authoritative regimes, crimes are likely to …
