Government Policy - Help or Hindrance in Criminal Justice
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of government policy in criminal justice. Specifically it will answer the question: Do government policy and regulation help or hurt in the racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual orientation area? These members of society could be called "vulnerable populations," and all are quite affected by society and governmental policies. These populations are "different" from the general population, and so, their needs, their reactions, and their experiences are often different, too. Governmental policy initially was meant "for the people and by the people," but today's governmental policies often ignore segments of the population, or make it harder for them to synthesize into the general population, both in society, and in the criminal justice system as it exits in America today.Governmental policy has long been scrutinized, criticized, and manipulated as to where it stands on issues regarding the vulnerable populations. Sometimes, governmental policy shifts, as it has somewhat regarding gays and lesbians serving in the military. Today, the governmental policy is "don't ask, don't tell," which is superficial at best. Gays and lesbians are forced to ke
ep their sexual preferences a secret, just when much of the country is becoming more open and aware of gay and lesbian issues. For example, military leaders cannot come out and directly ask a service member if they are homosexual. However, they can investigate information that may lead to discovery of homosexual acts, and they can discharge a soldier if they are found to be truly or openly homosexual. Thus, the military is operating in a paradox, where they hide the fact that soldiers are gay unless the fact becomes well known. This is only one of many governmental policies that seems both ridiculous and harmful to the homosexual population who wants to serve in the military. There, if they want to "succeed," they must hide their lifestyle, exactly as many homosexuals felt they had to do decades ago to fit into "acceptable" society. This governmental policy has not furthered the lives of homosexuals and their careers in the military, it has hampered them by turning them into liars to protect their military careers. Government policies continue to affect religious groups in the nation, too. While more Christian conservatives in the Congress and White House have brought about more interest in Christianity and a renewed interest in religious education in the schools, this has come at a high cost to many other religions. In addition, because of the broad range of views on free speech and what constitutes free speech, there have been many government and legal sanctions on what seem to be fairly innocuous religious references, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, which was "outlawed" by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who said it was "unconstitutional" because of the words "under God" in the Pledge, which is said violate the First Amendment for those who do not believe in God. It took nearly two years for the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, and when they did, it was because of a technicality with the atheist father who brought the case, rather than the constitutional
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1340
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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