Sentencing Disparities
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Sentencing Disparities
Sentencing disparity or ''sentencing discrimination'' is defined as "a form of unequal treatment in criminal punishment". Variation among judges Two judges could be faced with a similar case and one could order a very harsh sentence while another would give a much lesser sentence. There is evidence that some U.S. federal judges give much longer prison sentences for similar offenses than other judges do. In 2005 Max Schanzenbach found that "increasing the proportion of female judges in a district decreases the sex disparity" in sentencing which he interprets as "evidence of a paternalistic bias among male judges that favors female offenders". A 2020 study found with decreasing number of female judges in French courts the gender gaps in prison and probation sentences widens - prison and probation sentences are lighter for women, while suspended prison sentences are longer. The gender of the prosecutor seem to play no role. By gender or sex United States A 2001 University of Geor ...
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Criminal Justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other crimes, and moral support for victims. The primary institutions of the criminal justice system are the police, prosecution and defense lawyers, the courts and the prisons system. Criminal justice system Definition The criminal justice system consists of three main parts: #Law enforcement agencies, usually the police #Courts ,accompanying prosecution and defence lawyers #Agencies for detaining and supervising offenders, such as prisons and probation agencies. In the criminal justice system, these distinct agencies operate together as the principal means of maintaining the rule of law within society. Law enforcement The first contact a defendant has with the criminal justice system is usually with the police (or ''law enforcement'') wh ...
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Felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that resulted in the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods, to which additional punishments, including capital punishment, could be added; other crimes were called misdemeanors. Following conviction of a felony in a court of law, a person may be described as a felon or a convicted felon. In many common law jurisdictions, such as England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, crimes are no longer classified as felonies or misdemeanors. Instead, crimes are classified by mode of trial as indictable offences, triable by jury, which are usually more serious, and summary offences, triable by summary procedure without a jury, which are usually less serious. In some civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions, such ...
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Judicial Discretion
Judicial discretion is the power of the judiciary to make some legal decisions according to their discretion. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the ability of judges to exercise discretion is an aspect of judicial independence. Where appropriate, judicial discretion allows a judge to decide a legal case or matter within a range of possible decisions. However, where the exercise of discretion goes beyond constraints set down by legislation, by binding precedent, or by a constitution, the court may be abusing its discretion and undermining the rule of law. In that case, the decision of the court may be ''ultra vires'', and may sometimes be characterized as judicial activism. In 1824, US Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the following on this subject: Judicial power, as contradistinguished from the power of the laws, has no existence. Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal disc ...
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Focal Concerns Theory
In criminology, the focal concerns theory, posited in 1962 by Walter B. Miller, attempts to explain the behavior of "members of adolescent street corner groups in lower class communities" as concern for six focal concerns: trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy. Miller described these focal concerns as "areas or issues which command widespread and persistent attention and a high degree of emotional involvement." Miller's theory, as it is often referred to, views these criminogenic influences as a learned part of the lower-class subculture values. In essence, the theory suggests that delinquency is part of the learned cultural values rather than an anomic reaction to unattainable goals. See also * Core values * David Matza * Sentencing disparity * Social values * Uncertainty avoidance In cross-cultural psychology, uncertainty avoidance is how cultures differ on the amount of tolerance they have of unpredictability. Uncertainty avoidance is one of five key ...
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Ambivalent Sexism
Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework which posits that sexism has two sub-components: hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS). Hostile sexism reflects overtly negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender (e.g., the ideas that women are incompetent and inferior to men). Benevolent sexism represents evaluations of gender that may appear subjectively positive (subjective to the person who is evaluating), but are actually damaging to people and gender equality more broadly (e.g., the ideas that women need to be protected by men). For the most part, psychologists have studied hostile forms of sexism. However, theorists using the theoretical framework of ambivalent sexism have found extensive empirical evidence for both varieties. The theory has largely been developed by social psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske. Overview Definition Sexism, like other forms of prejudice, is a type of bias about a group of people. Sexism is founded in conceptualizations of o ...
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The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ...
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Gender Equality
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. UNICEF (an agency of the United Nations) defines gender equality as "women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike."The ILO similarly defines gender equality as "the enjoyment of equal rights, opportunities and treatment by men and women and by boys and girls in all spheres of life" gender equality is the fifth of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, sustainable development goals (Sustainable Development Goal 5, SDG 5) of the United Nations; gender equality has not incorp ...
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Non-departmental Public Body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of national government but are not part of a government department. NDPBs carry out their work largely independently from ministers and are accountable to the public through Parliament; however, ministers are responsible for the independence, effectiveness, and efficiency of non-departmental public bodies in their portfolio. The term includes the four types of NDPB (executive, advisory, tribunal, and independent monitoring boards) but excludes public corporations and public broadcasters ( BBC, Channel 4, and S4C). Types of body The UK Government classifies bodies into four main types. The Scottish Government also has a fifth category: NHS bodies. Advisory NDPBs These bodies consist of boards which advise ministers on particular policy a ...
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Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood (born 17 September 1980) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice since 2024. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010, and is a member of the Labour Party. In 2002 Mahmood graduated with a degree in law from Lincoln College, Oxford. She went on to complete the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law in 2003. As a barrister her specialism is in professional indemnity. Her selection as the Labour Party candidate for Birmingham Ladywood for the 2010 general election caused some dissent in the constituency party, but was found by an inquiry led by a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to be legitimate. She became one of the first female Muslim MPs, along with Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi. Between 2010 and 2024, while the Labour Party was the Official Opposition, she held various shadow frontbench positions, includ ...
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Secretary Of State For Justice
The secretary of state for justice is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Ministry of Justice. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the office's inception, the incumbent has concurrently been appointed Lord Chancellor. The officeholder works alongside the other justice ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for justice, and the performance of the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Justice Select Committee. Responsibilities Corresponding to what is generally known as a justice minister in many other countries, the justice secretary's remit encompasses justice policy for the whole United Kingdom along with matters of justice specific to England and Wales. The justice secretary is responsible throughout the UK for: * Human rights and civil liberties; * Miscarriages of justice (via the Criminal Cases Review Commission); and * The UKâ ...
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Equal Opportunity
Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. For example, the intent of equal employment opportunity is that the important jobs in an organization should go to the people who are Meritocracy, most qualified – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for reasons deemed arbitrary or irrelevant, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, having well-connected Nepotism, relatives or Cronyism, friends, Religious discrimination, religion, Sexism, sex, ethnicity, Racism, race, caste, or involuntary personal attributes such as Ableism, disability, Ageism, age. According to proponents of the concept, chances for advancement should be open to everybody without regard for wealth, status, or membership in a Social privilege, privileged group. The idea is to remove arbitrariness from the ...
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Social Equality
Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social services. Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social class or caste boundaries, along with an absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of an individual's identity. Advocates of social equality believe in equality before the law for all individuals regardless of many aspects. These aspects include but are not limited to, sex, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health, disability,trade union membership, political views, parental status, mores, family or marital status, and any other grounds. These are some different types of social equality: * '' Formal equality'': equal opportunity for individuals based on merit ...
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