Posts Tagged ‘background checks public records’
Criminal Justice; The modern World
Criminal Justice:The Modern World
Bruising battle looms over release of records – The Times …
The proposal to halve from release,
Arrest Records And Justice: How Legal Are Arrest Records Mining?
The State Arrest record.
How do the legal codes of this modern world compare with one of the oldest known sets of laws? Are there lessons to be learned from the laws on stealing that were given to ancient Israel, and why would one need to search criminal records to solidy ones security?
By Earl Hunsinger
A history of ancient Israel is contained in mankind’s oldest book, the Bible. This history includes a set of laws dating from the period immediately following the nation’s exodus from Egypt, around 1513 BCE. How does this ancient law code compare to the law codes of today?
When the laws contained in the Bible are mentioned, many perhaps think only of what have become known as the Ten Commandments. While these are certainly a principal part of the Mosaic law code, the entire code contains over 600 laws. Even so, this law code was simple compared to the complex and convoluted codes of modern nations. For example, by the end of the 20th century, the federal laws of the United States filled over 150,000 pages in legal books, with about 600 additional laws being added every two years.
How does this huge number of laws benefit the victims of crimes? Many today feel that the modern legal system seems to care more about the rights of the accused than it does the rights of the victim. Some would say that the victim has no rights, only an obligation to help bring the perpetrator to justice. Some nations have begun addressing the subject of victims’ rights. For example, see the Home Office article Victims’ Rights for information about a recent attempt to address this problem in the United Kingdom.
However, in the vast majority of cases, even when the accused is found guilty, no attempt is made to compensate the victim in any way for the crime that has occurred. For any hope of gaining restitution, the victim has to go through a lengthy and expensive civil case. In a crime involving stolen property, there is a good chance that what was stolen is gone forever and the victim will never be fully compensated for his loss. Based on most criminal justice systems, as opposed to civil codes, the victim is supposed to be satisfied with seeing the perpetrator put behind bars.
Many would argue that this punishes the victim further, by making him work harder to pay the taxes needed to feed, clothe, and house the very individual that victimized him. For example, according to the North Carolina Department of Corrections this cost is approximately $25,000 per year for each prisoner in this state. With over two million people behind bars in the U.S., or one prisoner for every 142 residents, the total cost paid by taxpayers for all the criminals imprisoned in the U.S. is staggering. The situation in many other countries is similar.
By contrast, the law code of ancient Israel had no provision for a prison system. The emphasis was placed on justice, which meant not just punishing the perpetrator of the crime, but also compensating the victim. The Bible book of Exodus provides many such examples:
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In a case involving stolen property (Exodus 22:4), the criminal was normally required to made double compensation to the victim.
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This law even took into account the fact that for various reasons one animal might be worth more than another. If the stolen bull or sheep was found alive, the punishment was double compensation, but if the animal had been slaughtered or sold, the compensation imposed was five bulls or four sheep instead of the usual two (Exodus 22:1).
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If the thief had nothing, he was to be sold into slavery to pay for the things that he stole (Exodus 22:3).
These laws gave real justice to the innocent victim by trying to compensate him for his loss. They also punished the criminal in a way that served as a deterrent to crime.
In a world where crime is a daily fact of life and prison populations are on the increase, the differences between the legal codes of today and this ancient code are interesting to contemplate. For more information on the laws given to ancient Israel, spend some time reading the Bible books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.
| By Buzzle Staff and Agencies Published: 1/25/2007 |
Too Many Criminal Records
Too Many Criminal Records
NY criminal justice boss to lead homeland security :: PostStar.com
Glens Falls and Lake George go.
Criminal Justice Jobs Are Widely Available And Lucrative
Criminal Justice are available.
Introduction to Criminal Justice by Larry J. Siegel
Get the most out of your record.
It is a widely known fact that the United States of America has more people in prison per capita than in most all other first world nations. Yet we do not have the lowest crime rates, yet one would think we should. Part of the problem is the recidivism rates are astoundingly high and some has to do with education. Nevertheless it the problem is not going away even if we fixed those two things. And thus this became a serious topic in an online Internet forum recently. See for your self as two members discuss this very important issue.
The first think tank member states; ‘As for reform of the criminal court system – if the laws are amended to give judges discretion again, this will go far in reducing sentences for petty offenders who DO need some sort of consequences but not lifelong punishment and stigma.’
But many judges are really Lawyer/politicians and cannot be trusted. They are humans and well you just cannot trust humans you know? So can we trust judges to not give breaks to friends of friends and people in higher places, which leaves out the poor who cannot afford favors, thus corrupting the system. Regarding the life long punishment and stigma indeed that too is an issue. Yet if someone is a known felon and we all know the high-risk of repeat offenders in this nation do you want that person working in your company? Do you? So if we had lower recidivism then perhaps the second problem of life long stigma might disappear.
‘Another specific suggestion I would make is that there be diversion programs for lower level offenses – if the govt took even the $25,000 it would have spent for one year in prison and spent a third of that on plugging them into the appropriate programs (drug treatment, anger management, citizenship, civics, parenting classes) as well as the usual community service, the community would benefit. This $12,000 could also be in addition to what the person has to pay as fines and the funds saved by not going through lengthy trials (with associated public pretender/district attorney costs and clerks, judge, etc.).’
Hmmm? Good point. Interesting. Yes the over all return on investment of such a program makes sense but getting the taxpayer to want to spend that kind of money might be a little tough to have them swallow, but it makes logical sense.
You state; ‘With automatic diversion programs or a structured probation program for the lowest-level offences, it would reduce recidivism greatly. (An acquaintance wrote an amazing 7-year probation program) so other countries have solved this problem already’ that I cannot attach here… I would be happy to email it.).
Perhaps this may be a right step towards solving the issue, but again there are costs involved and every time we expand public services the government gets bigger and less efficient meaning the blob of bureaucracy keeps on growing and growing? But this also makes a lot of sense indeed. Good thoughts here.
Edited: JB Murphey for Finding Public Records
