Ideally, the insanity defense echoes a societal inclination to provide alternative sentencing by providing mental health treatment for mentally ill criminals, rather than utilizing traditional incapacitation punishment for criminals whose mental illness was the direct cause of their criminal behavior. ... Hence, the insanity defense reflects a crime sentencing policy that that identifies there are unique situations in which the need for treatment over punishment is preferable (Butler, 2011). ... At the time of the index offense the defendant was laboring under such a defect of reason, from dis...

• Word Count: 1113
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Today, many of these punishments may seem antiquated, but the basic scope of the protection remains the same. ... Inmates have the right to be free from sexual crimes, including sexual harassment. ... The Eighth Amendment has been the topic of much controversy mostly concerning the death penalty, but it also covers the treatment of those convicted of crimes. It is thought that the Eighth Amendment was written to eliminate torture which had been used in dealing with those convicted of crimes. ... The framers of the Constitution did not give us specific instructions on what was to be considered ...

• Word Count: 2215
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Also there is the eighth amendment where there is no cruel or unusual punishment. Some people believe that this protection has been abused by some states that practice Capital Punishment. In many states firing squads and hangings are still used as a method of capital punishment. ... The 8th amendment only limits the methods used to practice capital punishment not completely abolish it. ... Rumsfield the courts found that President Bush did not have the authority to set up war crimes tribunals and found the special military commissions illegal under both military justice and the Geneva Conventi...

• Word Count: 1427
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This constitutional right to privacy is an attempt to establish a balance of an "individual's reasonable expectation of privacy and society's right to control crime and protect the public." ... Ideally, the result of the Miranda trial has saved many innocent citizens from confessing to a crime that they did not commit (Berman & Murphy, 2003, p. 478). However, it has also made it much easier for criminals to escape judicial punishment due to loopholes and mistakes of the police. ... It is easy to claim that many people who have committed a violent crime are not behind bars due to a ...

• Word Count: 1330
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The federal government, since the beginning the war of drug, spends approximately ten billion dollars a year on drug enforcement agencies and programs, and another estimated one hundred and ninety billion dollars a year on investigating drug related crimes, prosecution of alleged drug activities, and enforcing punishments and/or imprisonment. ... This inherently leaving various law enforcement agencies with less ability to confront other crimes. ... The statistics show a rise in crimes concerning personal property; drug abusers in hopes of supporting their drug habit committed seventy-five per...

• Word Count: 1653
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It creates a new crime, called "domestic terrorism," which states that someone acting in a way "dangerous to human life" can be imprisoned ("Search"). ... Before the act, approval for wiretaps was generally difficult to obtain because there had to be a probable cause to show the suspect was involved in a crime. ... However, Amendment VII of the United States Constitution states that "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment be inflicted" ("USA"). Deportation without due cause is surely cruel and unusual punishment and therefore in v...

• Word Count: 2045
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This amendment states that if you are accused of a crime, you must have certain rights reserved which the courts are obliged to uphold. ... The Eighth Amendment prevents the government from imposing excessive bail or fines and says "cruel or unusual punishments,"" shall not be inflicted (Lowi & Ginsburg 2000:A15). ... Second, freedom of speech is the right for the citizen to speak his or her mind on any subject and in any point of view whether it be or not be in public opinion without punishment as long as it does not harm anyone else. ...

• Word Count: 1521
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

James Tallmadge introduced the Tallmadge Amendment stating: "And provided, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years" (1). ...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Physician-assisted suicide is generally recognized as illegal under the parameters of homicide, however it is very difficult to meet all of the elements of the crime and conviction subsequently becomes nearly impossible. ... At the time of the appellate courts hearing of the Campbell appeal, there was no other codified law expressing what crime an assisted suicide would fall under and the homicide charges were dismissed. ... The American people are notoriously weary of it's implementation, as can be seen in the case of capital punishment. ...

• Word Count: 1550
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

After gaining independence, our founding fathers created an extremely unique, and revolutionary government in order to set up a social contract between America and its people. Purposefully not trying to be anything like their previously rulers the British, Americans created a new one from the ideas ...

• Word Count: 1435
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For the government, Snowden is a lawbreaker who has committed the crime of espionage by disclosing classified information and material that harm the security of the United States. ... They also share the hope that United States government offers him clemency and allows him to return home, or at least reduces the punishment. ...

• Word Count: 1240
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Often juries were brought together to accuse political opponents of the king of various crimes in order to do away with their opposition. ... In it, the idea that punishments ought to fit the crime was codified in the following words - "A free man shall not be [fined] for a small offense unless according to the measure of the offense, and for a great offense he shall be [fined] according to the greatness of the offense." ...

• Word Count: 2226
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

According to Encyclopedia Britannica1, the Thirteenth Amendment stated: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." ...

• Word Count: 1687
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Under British rule colonists were required to feed and quarter British soldiers in large number without compensation or even necessarily respect from the receiving soldiers, which may have caused the soldiers to become tyrannical and oppressive to the colonists, murders (Boston Massacre) and crimes committed by these troops against colonists created much hatred toward those soldiers. ... Even just isolating these tax and military problems as part the issues colonists were made to deal with there was essentially nothing they could do, the British legal system (referenced in the declaration of ...

• Word Count: 3055
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

When Louis XVI is tried by the National Convention for high crimes and misdemeanors against the state for attempting to flee France and the vote to execute him was passed by a narrow margin, the split became a full fledged gap. ...

• Word Count: 4395
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: Undergraduate