Friday, September 18, 2009
Discretion is all around us
Everywhere we go we use discretion, and see it being used. We see discretion in our legal system, and we use our own discretion everyday to make decisions. Discretion is used in our law in many different ways. Cops, lawyers, and judges, all use their own discretion and make decisions on how they should handle a certain situation they are faced with. Cops use their discretion on how to deal with people who break our law, whether that is by a simple traffic citation, or how to handle a felon. Also, judges use their discretion on people who show up in court and how the law applies to that particular situation. Some judges may swing their vote one way than another. For example, a woman who is battered by her husband, and is threatened with her life, in turn kills her husband, how do we sentence this woman? Do we charge her with a murder, or were her actions justified by self defense? What if this woman has kids and she felt that they were in danger. A judge looks carefully into this particular situation and decides whether to sentence this woman to life, or let her go because her life really was threatened. He uses discretion on how to sentence this woman. There is no doubt that in our judicial system, discretion is used. Even though we have a certain set of defined laws, discretion is used to justify the outcome of situations. There is no doubt that discretion is all around us.
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I agree that discretion is found everywhere in the legal system and that it does need to be used. The law needs to be paired with discretion in each case because each case is diverse. Judges need to turn to the facts of a particular case in order to decide on an exact sentence. Facts provide extra information that allows a judge to decide upon a longer or shorter sentence.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the post above that discretion is found everywhere in our legal justice system. Without discretion our legal system wouldn’t function well. The reason our legal system wouldn’t function well is people will feel the legal system is totally unfair because if a judge just goes by the sentencing guideline alone some convicts would spend a longer or shorter time in jail then needed to if they commit a crime for a just or unjust reason . Discretion is a key function to our legal justice system.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed true that discretion is constantly being used all around us in the legal system and there is nothing wrong with that since we are all human. The only way to remove discretion is to have machines replace the cops, lawyers and judges, and instead have them judge and sentence us.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt discretion is used in the law and in sentencing. In a world of individual thought, and situational ideals, it is impossible to not use discretion. Discretion should not be viewed as a bad thing- bias and prejudice are the qualities of which we need to be careful. Is stealing for survival as high a crime as stealing for revenge? If we eliminated discretion- these two acts would be viewed the same, but I can't help but argue that while both are still crimes, one is much more malicious than the other and should be treated as such.
ReplyDeleteAs noted in a previous post discretion is indeed important, for if there were no discretion, outcomes of cases and situations would be determined in a perfunctory, machine-like style. And if outcomes of cases were determined by "robots," there would never be a human, affective component in the legal system.
ReplyDeleteSome jobs can be replaced by technology. Others, like that of a judge, need to be held intact.
I agree that discretion is a deciding factor in making decisions for cases because sometimes judges may feel lenient depending on the circumstances of the case. Discretion is necessary because it allows judges to interpret whether specific laws apply to a certain case. In addition, discretion is always used by cops who often can decide to arrest or let you go on a warning depending on your compliance and demeanor of the cop. Discretion is a powerful tool that is often use in society especially with those who have authority.
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