Justice is
the pedestal for all moral compasses. It
deems what is right, what is wrong, who is redeemed, and who is punished. In
order to instill a sense of protection over their people, the best governments
follow similar trends in crime and punishment.
The best governments enlist a well-paid, large police force,
rehabilitate offenders, and set quotas on working class immigrants.
A highly trained and paid police
force handles crime effectively, opposed to corruption, and gives an
empowering, strong image to the people. In
developed countries like The United States, Canada, U.K, etc, violent crimes
have drastically decreased within the last five decades, but police forces have
increased. Canada, one of the safest
counties in the world, increased its police force by 9% sine 2001. Unlike other public-sector employees, police
budgets and salaries have increased 5%. Why does Canada treat its officers so
well? Two reasons: 1. To eradicate
corruption and 2. To show citizens the government cares about their
safety. The reason South American police
forces are known for being so corrupt is their minuscule wages. On to number
two, a large police force illustrates a sense of protection to the population’s
well being. It also discourages any
criminals from attempting crimes due to the high chance that they will be
caught. But, what happens to the
criminals who do go to jail? Along with the progressive police force, a new
form of prison has been created not just to punish the prisoner, but to try and
rehabilitate him.
Rehabilitation in prison is
drastically lowers the re-offending rate and forms support organizations founded
by formal criminals. In Sweden, the
old-style, traditional prison system is being replaced by a system devoted on
rehabilitating the inmate. Instead of
sitting in a cell all day, the inmate attends treatment programs correlating to
his crime, anywhere from drug rehab to anger management. When they finish their sentences, all inmates
are placed into a probation system, which continues trying to help criminals
obtain a better education and continues to provide treatment programs. With all of these safety nets, the re-offending rate of 30% is drastically lower than the United States’ of 70%. The U.S still follows the belief that the
only way to eradicate crime is to punish offenders, locking them in a cell for
a majority of the day and releasing them back into the wild when their
sentences have been served.
The last policy to a successful
justice system is a quota on the number of lower-class immigrants. This is not
derived superstitious xenophobia, but derived from statistics that found that
poor immigrants have trouble finding jobs and turn to crime. For example, Denmark’s immigrants comprise
2.2% of the total population, while committing 70% of crime. Recently in Switzerland, the ‘free-movement’
policy of the EU was rejected, due to the prosperity of the economy and
low-unemployment. In order to keep this
successful state, immigration needs to be highly regulated. If the Swiss keep this policy, there are
unlikely to meet the same fate as their EU neighbors, France and Germany, who
are dealing with the backlash of immigrants.
2 comments:
Based on Cole's argument it can be concluded that countries that have had the most success in their justice systems have a strong and honest police force along with a penal system based on rehabilitation, not punishment. If a group of people were creating a new nation, they would definitely want to model their justice system after countries that have non-corrupted and large police forces, and successful rehabilitation programs. Since the amount of lower-class immigrants in a nation tends to directly correspond with the amount of crime, it can be argued that homogeneity plays a large part in successful justice systems. While this argument on homogeneity is true, a group of people forming a new nation may not be ethnically homogenous, and countries with open immigration policies may not want to change their existing immigration programs. Perhaps instead of stopping the inflow of foreign peoples, governments could create programs that help integrate immigrants into their society so they are less likely to turn to crime as a means of income.
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