New Zealand law currently stipulates that all criminals imprisoned during the time of election are to be denied the right to vote. Throughout the course of this essay, I will support the political exclusion of criminals; however, I will argue that that the current system should be changed in order to equalize punishment across all similar sentences. This is under the moral principal that the disenfranchisement of criminals would serve as an additive to their punishment, and as initiative to deter criminals from acting criminally.
There are several benefits that rise from the disenfranchisement of criminals. Firstly, the implementation of this type of exclusion serves as an extra punishment for crimes that have been sentenced for more than three years. It extends other rights that criminals have taken away from them as punishment, much like their space, ability to be integrated within society, and ability to be independent. This makes sense, as if a criminal has lost the right to do such things, voting should follow trend. This makes for a harsher punishment. …show more content…
In particular, the justice system having unfair effects on certain identifiable groups in society, predominantly minority ethnicities. (Munn, 2011) postulates that “There are many areas where this bias can infiltrate the system. It is not even necessary that at any stage the bias is conscious on the part of the actors within the criminal justice system.” This unintentional bias where the ethnicity of a criminal has a miniscule effect on the outcome of a stage in the justice system for a criminal (arrest, sentencing etc), may seem insignificant within each case. However, when observing statistics on prison populations all over the world, the impact is large and results in disproportionate amounts of minority ethnicities being
There are several benefits that rise from the disenfranchisement of criminals. Firstly, the implementation of this type of exclusion serves as an extra punishment for crimes that have been sentenced for more than three years. It extends other rights that criminals have taken away from them as punishment, much like their space, ability to be integrated within society, and ability to be independent. This makes sense, as if a criminal has lost the right to do such things, voting should follow trend. This makes for a harsher punishment. …show more content…
In particular, the justice system having unfair effects on certain identifiable groups in society, predominantly minority ethnicities. (Munn, 2011) postulates that “There are many areas where this bias can infiltrate the system. It is not even necessary that at any stage the bias is conscious on the part of the actors within the criminal justice system.” This unintentional bias where the ethnicity of a criminal has a miniscule effect on the outcome of a stage in the justice system for a criminal (arrest, sentencing etc), may seem insignificant within each case. However, when observing statistics on prison populations all over the world, the impact is large and results in disproportionate amounts of minority ethnicities being