Criminal Justice Discussion
1) Vigilantism is one of the most controversial issues of criminal justice, but while researching its pros and cons, it is possible to argue that people today should not take the law and justice into their own hands. Vigilantism was the norm in many societies including the American frontier days. This form of justice developed as the result of people’s dissatisfaction with the norms of law and the way the state authorities enacted these norms. That is why people took justice in their own hands and punished the assumed criminals even without having any legal rights to do it.
The supporters of vigilantism claim that it is the best way to restore justice because the response to crimes is immediate and radical. The fear of unavoidable punishment organizes society and restricts criminals from committing their illegal actions. Despite these advantages of vigilantism, it has a number of serious disadvantages. First of all, rather often it is personally biased and not objective. Having no experience and training vigilantes accuse and assault even innocent people. Besides, vigilantes undermine the foundations of the legal system of the state and in this way they provoke violence and crime. So, I believe that vigilantism is dangerous for the society.
2) Media play a very important role in formation public attitude to the police. For instance, favorable media coverage of the police officers and their activities aimed at solving crimes increases public trust to them. This type of coverage creates the impression that the police solve all the crimes and it exaggerates their crime fighting effectiveness. At the same time negative media coverage exaggerating brutality and discrimination of the police can cause fear and dissatisfaction in the society and cause the spread of vigilantism and other negative social phenomena.
My attitude to the police was also distorted by media because I was sure that the police officers are brutal and heartless. However this attitude changed when I received help from the police when a man tried to attack me, so now I trust the police and have certain doubts concerning the …
