Exploring Criminal Justice Issues: Challenges and Reforms in the Australian System

Verified

Added on  2023/04/26

|11
|3021
|244
AI Summary
In this article we will discuss about criminal justice issues and below are the summaries point:- The criminal justice system comprises three main components: law enforcement, the courts, and corrections. Issues in the Australian criminal justice system have been raised, including the need for reform and addressing drawbacks. Concerns include instances of police negligence, prison masculinities, and individuals being turned away due to system failures.

Contribute Materials

Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your documents today.
Document Page
Running Head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
0
Criminal Justice Issues
Student

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
1
Criminal justice issues
Criminal justice can be described as the scheme through which offenses and criminals are
recognized, detained, judged, and penalized. The criminal justice scheme is comprised of
three fragments: law enforcement, the courts, and corrections. The three fragments of the
criminal justice effort sequentially (O’Malley, 2012). For illustration, once an offense has
been committed, regulation enforcement examines. Once a suspicious person is detained, the
law court takes over. Although police and detectives may offer testimony in a trial, it is really
the courts' show until a verdict is reached (Cunneen, and White, 2011). Formerly, if the
suspect is found guilty they are punished and turned over to alterations. Subsequently,
release, law enforcement formerly works in combination with a bail officer if additional
attention is obligatory. Australia has a total nine legal schemes, including eight State or
Territory structures and one central system. Most of the management of courts, the lawful
profession and lawmaking occur in the States and Regions. Criminal justice issues have been
raised in the past few decades in all over the world including Australia (Baldry, Clarence,
Dowse, and Trollor, 2013). In this particular essay assessment of spectacular representation
of criminal justice issues will be discussed with a contemporary example.
There are some issues has been raised by different people or experts about the drawbacks of
Australian criminal justice system. A report published by Brown, Tyson, and Arias (2018) on
when parents kill children, supported the fact that the criminal justice system has different
lacks that need to be reformed. An incident happened in western Sidney on 4th July 1989
where an argument developed in a drinks night. A loud young person and many friends
opposed to some action by a minor and very drunk adolescent. He was enclosed and
surrounded by a threatening crowd of men that comprised bystanders and some laughing
bouncers. While not observing he was beaten to the head, fell stunned into a solid wall and
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
2
bled abundantly from the wound. One way or another target tripped back to the entrance of
the place to dean up. Finally a abstemious friend of the target appeared from inside. In
nervousness he headed towards a police vehicle slowly watching nearby with cops dearly
watching the proceedings from nearly 30 metres away. They rapidly accelerated the engine
and ran off leaving him without help on the road. Fortunately, the victim and his friend got
their own cab and runaway (Tomsen, and Wadds, 2016).
Another issue has been raised by Maycock, and Hunt (2018) is prison masculinities. Over-
representation of males in jail has long been recognized, their sexual category has
characteristically been ‘backgrounded’. Assumed the interpersonal character of sex and the
homosocial and powerfully hierarchical environment of the custodial, the study of jail gender
characters holds promise in building unique hypothetical and empirical assistances to gender
studies, criminology and activist plans (Maycock, and Hunt, 2018).
According to a report published by McLeod (2017) in ABC News, nearly 160000 individuals
turned away due to criminal justice failing. Tens of thousands of those who require help most
are sliding through the crashes of the Australian justice system each year. Australians
fronting complex communal and economic defies encounter more severe legal issues,
classically including relations with government organizations, the health organization, and
customer issues and strengthening debt (Joudo-Larsen, 2014). Yet deprived of the means to
pay for legal advice most of these problems are left to slip. Twenty years of stable cuts to the
legal-help sector mean that open advice is more solid and harder to admittance. Public legal
centers are spinning away 160,000 persons a year due to an absence of capability, while a
supplementary 10,000 persons a year are fronting the courts without help because of cutbacks
(McLeod, 2017).
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
3
As a society people receive that fairness before the regulation and admittance to justice are
important to the regulation of law, which in turn reinforces the feature of the economy and
civilization (Joudo-Larsen, 2014). Yet people have observed as an individual's official right
to pursue justice has been extracted useless as that individual's efficacious access to lawful
remedy has battered. The Australian lawful profession has contrived for years to diminish this
crisis by functioning for free (Joudo-Larsen, 2014).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals have a multifaceted relationship with
Australian criminal justice structure. They are over-exemplified in custody and also over-
signified as targets of offense (Cunneen, 2006). Problems arise between Aboriginal
individuals and the police department and there are other issues that arise when Aboriginal
criminals appear before the law court and are condemned (Allard, Stewart, Chrzanowski,
Ogilvie, Birks, and Little, 2010). The Royal Command into Aboriginal Expiries in
Custody was recognized in 1987. It stated to the Central Legislature in 1991. From the initial
1980s there had been a numeral of expiries in police and jail custody that caused anxiety
about the system Aboriginal individuals were treated by the police department and while in
jail (Allard et al., 2010).
An important discovery of the Royal Commission was that the great number of Aboriginal
expiries in custody was openly associated with the over-depiction of Aboriginal persons in
jail. That is, they expired at the similar rate as non-Aboriginal convicts but as there were
several Aboriginal individuals in keeping, the number was greater. Though, in examining the
expiries that fell within the relations of reference of the Royal Commission, miscarriage by
custodial establishments to exercise an appropriate duty of upkeep was exposed (Jeffries, and
Bond, 2009).

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
4
According to a report published in psychology today by Kinnaird (2018), the criminal justice
system is cracked and it cannot be fixed. Safeguarding buy-in means that people understand
that it did not occur overnight; nonetheless, rather the scheme was built cracked (Tyler,
2009). A superficial inspection of the word "cracked" may yield outcomes such as broken,
altered, fractured, unequal, disturbed, and full of difficulties, weak, crumpled, or
disconnected. If someone work in the area of criminal justice (or have relatives
and friends that do) or have been a target of an offense (or have family and friends that have),
they may perhaps also distinguish that the structure is broken. Notwithstanding efforts to
decrease or eliminate offense, it may never "go away." It is merely moved, relocated from
some part of the scheme to another grounded upon encouraged offenders, suitable objectives,
and the lack of capable carers. It is a matter of risk managing. The real test appreciates that all
people can be offended (or turn into a criminal) and that indifference and renunciation are not
their associates (Kinnaird, 2018)
People with severe and untreated psychological health and substance use illnesses often come
upon barriers that stop receiving the right facilities. The lack of appropriate facilities causes
much detriment including psychological health and substance use crunches. Inappropriately,
Australia does not have suitable systems in place to counter the psychological health and
substance use issues (Kutcher, and McDougall, 2009).
Drug policy choices are another issue associated with the criminal justice in Australia.
Openings with the heroin widespread of the 1960s and on-going through the overwhelming
crack epidemic, Drug crises have frequently taken center phase in Australian politics and
crime regulation policy (Forsythe, and Adams, 2009). Over the 1980s, the central policy has
been “legalism.” In this outlook, drug use encounters the recognized social instruction and
moral basis of authority. Drug guidelines have highlighted criminal punishments and
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
5
discouragement over deterrence and treatment as controller tools. These drug guidelines have
had a push-down-pop-up consequence: the more burdens applied in single place, the more
probable new difficulties were to rise in another (Stafford, and Burns, 2010). For instance,
criminal authorizations for low-level blow users have removed resources away from the
handling of such consumers, whose actions are routes for HIV communication through high-
risk sensual activity regulation. There is indication that crystal meth application is extensive
in some parts of the United States and Australia where the news broadcasting have connected
operators with insufficiency, unemployment, high criminal rates and psychological and
physical sickness, including fixation, HIV and AIDS, but the projected appearance of an ‘ice
age’ in Britain has not appeared, notwithstanding the Sun broadcasting as freshly as 18 June
2011 that ‘deadly crystal meth is here’ (Ayres, and Jewkes, 2012). The lessons from periods
of legalistic drug guidelines suggest that discouragement approaches have not been
efficacious in decreasing drug usage. Enforcement policies have expended resources,
intensified the health threats related to drugs, and improved the levels of violence nearby
drug markets (Forsythe, and Adams, 2009). Drug rule has also improved incomes for drug
vendors and involved other young persons into vending, as the overstated symbols of visible
consumption by traders act as an alarm for younger individuals. Serious sentencing laws used
broadly and comprehensively have demoralized, rather than protected, the ethical authority of
the regulation (Mandracchia, Shaw, and Morgan, 2013).
Another issues mentioned was crime as culture by (Ferrell, J., 2014 ) according to him, to
speak of crime as the culture is to recognize at a least that ample of what people tag criminal
behaviour is at the similar time cultural behaviour, together organized nearby networks of
sign, ritual, and common meaning. Put merely, it is to accept the subculture as the simple unit
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
6
of criminological investigation. While this overall insight is barely a new one, cultural
criminology progresses it in a numeral of direction.
Sharp upsurges in young violence have amplified the sense of individual risk faced by those
who living and working in urban regions and contributed powerfully to the extensive fear of
crime in overall. This fear originates from the randomness, initial onset, and severance of
violence committed by youths. Between 1985 and 1992, the young homicide capture rate, the
juvenile killing victimization rate, the numeral of juvenile murders involving weapons, and
the rates of homicide committed by 15- and 16-year olds augmented by more than 100
percent.
Wrongful conviction is the international issue that has involved considerable investigation
into identifying its occurrence, causes, and associates (Dioso-Villa, at al., 2016). Australia is
not annulled of mistaken convictions; nevertheless, the global findings do not gracefully
apply to the Australian setting. Presently, most Australian jurisdictions are not liberal, nor are
they clear, in awarding reimbursement. Numerous wrongfully convicted individuals in
Australia do not acquire any reimbursement, do not receive their lawful fees compensated
for, and the causes for decisions as to whether or how much to recompense them are certainly
not revealed. According to a report published by Rowlings (2017), nearly 7 per cent of all the
prisoners are innocent.
Criminal justice is usually described as the stricture by which the crimes and the offenders
are identified, detained, judged and pushed. The issues associated with the criminal justice is
Australia has been increased and critics by different experts or researchers. Some of the main
issues has been identified in this essay are child death and associated legislation, prison
masculinities, criminal justice failing, justice unfairness when it comes to the Aboriginal and

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
7
Torres Strait Islander people. The aboriginal person has been facing issues while seeking
justice in Australia. The number of aboriginal criminals is higher than the general Australian
in the custody and most of them died due to system failure or due to police unawareness. The
high number of aboriginal people death was directly related to the over-depiction of the
aboriginal people in jails. Other issues have been identified in this essay; cracking of the
criminal justice system which cannot be fixed. People with severe mental health conditions
and substance use commonly become the barrier for delivering fair justice to the people of
Australia. Drug usage, youth violence, and wrongful convictions are also the major issues
that need to be removed from the Australian criminal justice system. Numerous people
sentences in jail in Australia are innocent. And most of the targets of wrongful convictions do
not receive any compensation or lawful fee.
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
8
References
Allard, T., Stewart, A., Chrzanowski, A., Ogilvie, J., Birks, D., and Little, S., 2010. Police
diversion of young offenders and Indigenous over-representation. Trends and issues in crime
and criminal justice, (390), p.1.
Ayres, T.C. and Jewkes, Y., 2012. The haunting spectacle of crystal meth: A media-created
mythology?. Crime, Media, Culture, 8(3), pp.315-332.
Baldry, E., Clarence, M., Dowse, L. and Trollor, J., 2013. Reducing Vulnerability to Harm in
Adults With Cognitive Disabilities in the A Australian Criminal Justice System. Journal of
Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 10(3), pp.222-229.
Civil liberties Australia. 2017. Prisoners in Australia? 7 % are innocent [online]. Available
from: https://www.cla.asn.au/News/prisoners-australia-7-innocent/ [Accessed 31-01-2019].
Cunneen, C. and White, R., 2011. Juvenile justice: Youth and crime in Australia. Oxford
University Press.
Cunneen, C., 2006. Racism, discrimination and the over-representation of Indigenous people
in the criminal justice system: Some conceptual and explanatory issues. Current issues in
criminal justice, 17(3), pp.329-346.
Dioso-Villa, R., Julian, R., Kebbell, M., Weathered, L. and Western, N., 2016. Investigation
to exoneration: A systemic review of a wrongful conviction in Australia. Current Issues
Crim. Just., 28, p.157.
Forsythe, L. and Adams, K., 2009. Mental health, abuse, drug use, and crime: Does gender
matter?. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, (384), p.1.
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
9
Jeffries, S. and Bond, C., 2009. Does Indigeneity matter? Sentencing Indigenous offenders in
South Australia's higher courts. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 42(1),
pp.47-71.
Joudo-Larsen, J., 2014. Restorative justice in the Australian criminal justice system. AIC
reports. Research and Public Policy series., p.v.
Kinnaird, B. A. 2018. The criminal justice system is broken and can’t be fixed [online].
Available from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-hero-in-you/201812/the-
criminal-justice-system-is-broken-and-cant-be-fixed [Accessed 31-01-2018].
Kutcher, S. and McDougall, A., 2009. Problems with access to adolescent mental health care
can lead to dealings with the criminal justice system. Paediatrics & child health, 14(1),
pp.15-18.
Mandracchia, J.T., Shaw, L.B. and Morgan, R.D., 2013. What’s with the attitude? Changing
attitudes about criminal justice issues. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 40(1), pp.95-113.
Maycock, M. and Hunt, K. eds., 2018. New Perspectives on Prison Masculinities. Springer.
McLeod, F. 2017. 160000 people turned away: How the justice system is failing vulnerable
Australians [online]. Available from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-03/how-the-
justice-system-is-failling-vulnerable-australians/8770292 [Accessed 31-01-2019].
O'Malley, P., 2012. Globalizing risk? Distinguishing styles of ‘neoliberal'criminal justice in
Australia and the USA. In Criminal justice and political cultures (pp. 42-60). Willan.
Stafford, J. and Burns, L., 2010. AUSTRALIAN DRUG TRENDS 2009 Findings from the
Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) Australian Drug Trends Series No. 37. Sydney:
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales.

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
10
Tomsen, S.A. and Wadds, P., 2016. Nightlife ethnography, violence, policing and
security. Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, pp.194-209.
Tyler, T.R., 2009. Legitimacy and criminal justice: The benefits of self-regulation. Ohio St. J.
Crim. L., 7, p.307.
1 out of 11
circle_padding
hide_on_mobile
zoom_out_icon
[object Object]

Your All-in-One AI-Powered Toolkit for Academic Success.

Available 24*7 on WhatsApp / Email

[object Object]