Definition Of Criminal Justice Essay

Criminal justice to me takes on a whole host of meanings ranging from the way a criminal is charged and made to pay for his/her crimes, to the way communities justify and self-assure they are doing the right thing making themselves and communities safer by dealing punishment to the criminally inclined.
Before we get too in-depth we first need to define what it is to be a criminal. By definition a criminal is someone that has committed a crime also known as an act that is against the law. There are, of course, the evils of humanity that are easy to define as crime such as murder, theft, kidnapping, and arson. However, throughout history there have been many things that could make you a criminal by past rules and regulations that are common place in today’s world. An example of this is blasphemy a crime that in the middle ages would have been punished by death, however, today it is as common as it is accepted. With that being said we will refer to a criminal as a person who has went against what is acceptable by the current government and society.
Next, we must delve into what justice is. To put it simply it is that a person receives a punishment equal to his crime. However, this is much more difficult due to everyone having different definitions and views. Some people believe that the only acceptable way to …show more content…
The views can be, and commonly are, complete opposites of each other. Some altering factors that can influence views could be their culture, ethnicity, and/or morals. The greatest difficulty in pinning a direct definition on what criminal justice means to me is this wide range of views. One thousand years ago I may have believed beheading is just and one thousand years from now I may believe that a riot against the government is the most just cause of all. For that reason I will base my opinion on criminal justice on a case by case basis for