The use of restorative justice

The use of restorative justice

paper#1 brian

The use of restorative justice in this day in age seems too good to be true. The main issue is that people are naturally selfish and will not budge from their ways. In order to completely have restorative justice there needs to be a drastic change in what people think is right, wrong, and knowing that the human life is not worthless. This type of justice is a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders, and communities caused or revealed by crime (Schmalleger, F. 2020). In few instances all parties involved in the criminal justice process can meet eye to eye and come to terms with what was done. The healing that can take place when there is admitting of wrongdoing and forgiveness is given can help spread restorative justice throughout the justice system.

In the case of Amber Guyger, a former police officer, she stood trial for entering the wrong apartment and fatally shooting Botham Jean thinking he was an intruder. She was untimely found guilty and the final day of the murder trial included a stunning moment in which Jean’s younger brother, Brandt, told Guyger during his victim impact statement that he forgave her, and gave her a long hug before she was taken to prison. Just after that, District Judge Tammy Kemp apparently gave Guyger a Bible and also hugged her (McLaughlin, E. 2019). In this case the younger brother realized that holding hate in his heart after she was found guilty of the murder weighed on him and forgave Amber Guyger

References:

Schmalleger, F. (2020). Corrections in the 21st Century. [Savant Learning Systems]. Retrieved from https://savantlearningsystems.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781260805321/

Eliott C. McLaughlin and Steve Almasy. (2019, October 3). Amber Guyger gets 10-year murder sentence for fatally shooting Botham Jean. Cnn. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/us/amber-guyger-trial-sentencing/index.html

paper#2 Jeffery

When looking at the concept of restorative justice you have two parts that must come together. First the criminal but be truly ready to take responsibility and the second part is the victim or the family must be ready to forgive. With this concept, some criminals will never receive restorative justice due to the victim or family never being willing to forgive. This also puts a larger burden on a victim or family when restorative justice comes into question.” A restorative justice perspective allows judges and juries to consider victim-impact statements in their sentencing decisions.” (Schmalleger and Smykla, n.d., 44) When looking into the trial of Amber Guyger you can find examples of restorative justice. The brother of the victim was asked if he would like to speak at the victim impact statement and he thing to do so. Instead of using this time to tell the judge to throw the book at the shooter he forgave her and spoke to her about how he forgave her. This should fall into victim-offender reconciliation because the victim in this case his brother forgave his offender. “Brandt Jean shocked many when he told Amber Guyger he forgave her and said he didn’t want her to go to prison after she received a 10-year sentence” (Simon, 2019)this shows that the family of the victim truly forgave Guyger in the shooting that had happened this happened after the trial at the sentencing when the family speaks out to the judge. “Restorative justice seeks to restore the health of the community, repair the harm done by the crime” (Schmalleger and Smykla, n.d., p. 45) the forgiveness from the brother would be considered the restoring of the health of the community and the harm done.

References

Schmalleger, F., Smykla, J. (n.D.). Corrections in the 21st century (9th ed.). McGraw Hill Education.

Simon, D. (2019, December 6). His hug of forgiveness shocked the country. yet he still won’t watch the video from that moment – cnn. Cnn. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/06/us/brandt-jean-botham-jean-forgiveness/index.html

paper#3 chris

 

Description of CODIS (Option 6)

Ge et al. (2012) report that DNA databases are now a fundamental tool in a criminal investigation. The purpose of these databases is to maintain a store of DNA profiles collected from offenders, crime scenes, or missing persons. Because there is such a high re rep rate among offenders, the collection of a convicted criminal’s DNA helps solve future crimes. Saferstein (2015) reports that one of the early problems with using these databases was that the DNA specimens were collected in many different jurisdictions from many different sources. To allow easier access to the databases, Saferstein (2015) states that the FBI created the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to allow federal, state, and local laboratories to exchange information and compare DNA samples against other samples in the database.

Saferstein (2016) says that the CODIS system has three separate indexes. They are:

• Forensic – This index contains, at the time of Saferstein’s writing, over 900,000 DNA profiles collected from unsolved crime scenes.
• Offender – Contains over 13 million profiles of individuals convicted of crimes.
• Arrestee – Many states and the FBI collect DNA from those awaiting trial and from detained immigrants. This database contains over three million profiles.

Saferstein (2016) reports that as of June 2011, searches on CODIS have resulted in 147,200 hits that assisted in more than 141,300 investigations.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that personal information is protected in CODIS in several ways. Searches of CODIS do not show any names, and no single identifiers are used in the CODIS software, although for missing persons, there can be some metadata included such as date of birth, etc. The information stored in the database is the DNA profile, the name of the agency submitting the profile, the specimen identification number, and the DNA lab staff associated with the profile analysis.

Ge et al. (2012) report that the FBI is working closely with laboratories in the U.S. and foreign countries to expand the database. It is believed that working with foreign governments and making a more international database could be a help in this countries fight against terrorism.

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions on CODIS and NDIS. Criminal Justice Information Services. https://www.fbi.gov/services/laboratory/biometric-analysis/codis/codis-and-ndis-fact-sheet

Ge, J., Eisenberg, A., Budowle, B. (2012). Developing criteria and data to determine best options for expanding the core CODIS loci. Investigative Genetics, 3(1), 1-14. https://doi-org.bethelu.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/2041-2223-3-1

Saferstein, R. (2015). Criminalistics: An introduction to forensic science (11th ed.). Pearson

Paper#4 Brandon 1.

 

Evidence Collection Units

Evidence collection units are experts in their field. These units are trained to collect and preserve evidence taken from crime scenes. Many advantages can come from having evidence collection units process a crime scene. One of the advantages deals with the specialized training of these units. Many forensic techniques still leave ample room for improvement (Service, 2000). Evidence collection units undergo training that is specific to evidence collection, which allows them to be more current with new techniques and procedures to process a crime scene. Some police officers and detectives are also trained on evidence collection, but they have a wide range of other responsibilities that may cause divided attention.

Having a unit designated primarily for evidence collection allows that unit to have a primary goal and focus, which allows for more attentiveness and an expert approach to evidence collection. The second advantage deals with having a unit dedicated to evidence collection it allows a professional and unbiased approach to inspecting the crime scene. The unbiased approach is important as it allows the members of the team to conduct their business without any emotional attachment to the crime scene. Police officers and detectives could potentially have an emotional attachment to a crime scene, which could potentially invoke the possibility of mistakes being made due to the emotional stress of certain crime scenes. The third reason would be the fact that the evidence collection units maintain custody of evidence collected at a crime scene. Evidence Collection Unites follow strict evidence storage procedures to safeguard that evidence is preserved in the same state in that it was recovered from the crime scene and not contaminated (Ahluwalia and Srinivasan, 2004). The safeguards allow the proper handling of all evidence collected. Some police officers and detectives may not have the specific training to properly handle and preserve certain crime scene evidence.

References

Ahluwalia, R.S., and Srinivasan, A. (2004, April). Forensic information management system. Forensic Science Communications, 6(2). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A137921497/AONE?u=tel_a_bethelc&sid=AONE&xid=d5ef8de9

Service, R. F. (2000). Where Dead Men Really Do Tell Tales. Science, 289(5481), 855. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A64975255/AONE?u=tel_a_bethelc&sid=AONE&xid=8304530d

Paper#5 Brandon 2nd

Biometrics to Counter-Terrorism

Since September 11, 2001, the United States government has been seeking many unique ways to protect American citizens The Patriot Act, in all of its different incarnations, has been essential to combat terrorism. The United States government has also made vast advancements in technology to combat terrorism, and one of these advancements has been in the biometric recognition field. The government uses the fingerprints and facials of known terrorists to help discover and capture the terrorists. Large central databases such as SIS, VIS, and Eurodac are used to store personal and biometric data to manage borders but have also been used to counter terroristic threats (Sadik and Kaya, 2020). These databases allow a government to collect and store the fingerprints and facial images of suspected or known terrorists.

Terrorists will typically use disguises and false identities to conceal themselves and blend into the local population, biometric programs allow the military and government agencies to in a way see through those disguises and capture those terrorists. The military has used drones that are equipped with facial recognition devices to better detect potential threats. The US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) Program is a biometric program designed to control and monitor the movement of foreign nationals throughout the United States to enhance the security of US citizens and visitors (Mitsilegas, 2012). The US-Visit is used to better protect our borders, both from potential illegal immigrants and from possible terroristic threats. The collection of biometric data and the advancements in biometric data collection is extremely important to further protect American citizens.

References

Mitsilegas, V. (2012). Immigration control in an era of globalization: deflecting foreigners, weakening citizens, strengthening the state. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 19(1), 3. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A296952444/AONE?u=tel_a_bethelc&sid=AONE&xid=7fb87e4f

Sadik, G., Kaya, C. (2020). The Role of Surveillance Technologies in the Securitization of EU Migration Policies and Border Management/AB Goc Politikalarinin ve Sinir Yonetiminin Guvenliklestirilmesinde Gozetim Teknolojilerinin Rolu. Uluslararasi Iliskiler / International Relations, 17(68), 145. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A653757275/AONE?u=tel_a_bethelc&sid=AONE&xid=8808652e