Guenther's Argument Analysis

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In 1976, A. L. Guenther put forth the notion that our criminal justice system is “unfair, harsh, and biased,” as well as saying that we have a criminal processing system and not a criminal justice system. While these statements may have been made four decades ago, they still ring true today. I agree with Guenther’s comments, as our criminal justice system is unfair to the offenders they deal with, carries out harsh penalties on these members of society, and is biased to different groups over the history of America. Offenders are usually treated like statistics, not like members of society. A criminal justice system is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “The system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses.” (Oxford, 2016) While the definition uses the term law enforcement, the legal system and corrections also make up the legal system along with the police. It may be outlandish to expect that the criminal justice system (or any system in government or society for that matter) to be perfect. Small, isolated errors should be expected, but should not interfere with the main goal of achieving justice. On top of achieving justice, a criminal justice system should also deter both the general public as well as current offenders from committing crimes in the future. In short, the criminal justice process is simple. When a crime is committed, the suspected offender is arrested. Depending on the severity of the crime, they are then either fined and released, or arraigned on charges assuming sufficient evidence and cause is found by authorities. After being charged, a grand jury or judge then decides if the case will move to trial. If a plea deal is not reached, the trial is held, and a jury decides to either find a defendant guilty or not guilty. If found guilty, they are then sentenced, and in some cases, there are mandatory minimum sentences depending on the charges. There are many parts of this process where an individual can leave the system; a person may take a plea deal, the district attorney may offer a plea deal or decide that there is not enough evidence to go forward, or the offender may just pay a fine. For a criminal justice system to be successful, it needs to accomplish a number of goals. The sanctions put on those who commit crime need to be sufficient in both punishing the offender justly as well as deterring them and the public from committing the crime in the future. The system should not discriminate against any one group, and should decrease crime rates by ways of deterrence and efficiency in apprehending criminals. Punishments should fit the crimes that offenders committed. Guenther’s comments about this system came in 1976. The America that Guenther was experiencing was much different than the country we are all familiar with today. According to the DEA (1981), drug use in America skyrocketed during the second half of the 1970s. In their report, they stated that 26 million Americans could be considered regular drug users by 1979. The criminal justice system also had a lot less funding than it does today; spending for criminal justice was at approximately $7 billion. By the 1990s, that number had climbed to around $100 billion. By 2009, this number doubled. This came along with a moral panic, as people reacted with fear to what was perceived as an upcoming epidemic of drug users and the problems that would come with them. This comes when a large part of a society fears a new threat to said society, either by something like a …show more content…
This happens when a criminal justice system and society decides to take a controlling stance on crime. (Makin, Prezi, 2016) When this happens, it leads to a politicization of crime, and a harsh increase in sentencing rates. Presidential and other political candidates show strong stances against crime due to moral panics in order to get elected, and incumbents may point to their high arrest rates to show that they are cracking down on crime. This started with the War on Drugs in the 1970s, around the time that Guenther spoke his words on the criminal justice

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