Discretion In The Criminal Justice System Essay

It’s my opinion that there is a lot of discretion in the criminal justice system. Now the reason I feel this way is because we are all human with everyday problems and although police officer, judges and lawyers are supposed to uphold the law they have to make decisions everyday based on their better judgment. Furthermore, when looking up the definition of discretion it is the power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgment; freedom of judgment or choice (dictionary.com. n.d.). Therefore, when a situation comes before the court a judge has to use his or her better judgment based on the evidence presented to them in order to give the proper verdict. However, when a police officer comes upon a crime scene they have to determine what has happen and use their better judgment to determine who was truly wrong as well as if an arrest needs to be made in certain situations. Furthermore, a lawyer has to determine when a case come before them if they are going to take the case or not because of the evidence that may be present. Therefore, it is up to their discretion whether to take the case or not because some lawyers will not take a case that they feel they are going to lose.

I feel …show more content…
Unfortunately, I don’t truly feel that we will ever be able to truly limit it. The reason I feel this way is because there has to be a certain amount of discretion within the criminal justice system in order for the system to work as well as help some people. Furthermore, I feel that there should be some regulations placed on some situations because there are a lot of people in prison or jail because some lawyer did not do everything that they could to prove that they were actually innocent and not guilty but just went through the motion of the court and now someone is spending the rest of their life in prison because of one small mistake instead of looking more into the