SOC327 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Restorative Justice, Mens Rea, Mental Disorder
7 Jan 2019
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4 components of the justice system: police, courts. Purposes of the justice system: controlling crime, responding to crimes already committed, arrest, prosecution, punishment (even though this isn"t necessarily the most effective, preventing crime, trying to keep crime from happening in the first place. Informal and formal mechanisms used for this: e. g. diversion programs, e. g. neighbourhood watch, e. g. programs for at-risk youth , maintaining justice, rather complicated. All b/c the lack mens rea" --often spend more time in a mental institution than they would have spent in prison like cases should be treated alike and different cases should be treated differently justice can"t be arbitrary. However, we often fall short of actually achieving these principles b/c the system isn"t perfect. In reality there are a lot of problems that stop the system from really achieving justice & function as a system. The area/institution/parole board didn"t have that info available to determine that he shouldn"t be free in the community.
