The History of Criminal Justice
The proposed paper will focus on exploring a historical perspective of responding to female offending that is also known as violence against women (VAW). Since ancient times, attitudes towards women’s rights were ambiguous and depended on males. Patriarchy was declared the pivotal issue that concerned offenses and punishment for criminals engaging in violence against women. In Ancient Athens, sex offenses against women were punished by a fine to their husband or father, providing no measures that might directly help victims (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2013). In Ancient Rome, men were polygamous, and it was documented by law. Thus, while women were deprived of the right to have several husbands, men were allowed to have several wives. The above issue meant that males could not be accused of adultery even if they did so.
Several attempts were made to resolve the identified issue. For example, in the Anglo-Saxon period, it is possible to note Alfred’s laws that primarily focused on sexual intercourse which occurred without the consent of a woman. In particular, the above attempt increased the number of fines for rape and other sexual offenses. Another example is the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act 1976 that was introduced to protect women from such cases. Nowadays, there are several legislations that target equal treatment of women and adequate response to their offense. Therefore, it is essential to discuss this issue in detail, paying attention to its development in the course of history. The paramount goal of the proposed project is the investigation of the criminal justice system response to VAW from a historical viewpoint.
Before the Civil War, there was a rapid increase in crime rates caused by the move of rural Americans and the influx of immigrants to cities. Urbanization promoted a situation conducive to crime, and socio-economic difficulties forced people to commit illegal acts. Among the most frequent ones, one may list homicides, rapes, and violence between White and African-American populations. The patterns of crime included riots of African-Americans struggling against slavery and resistance of Whites to this movement. For example, Ku Klux Klan may be noted as the organization that used terrorism against ex-slaves and activists of African-Americans (Mecklin, 2013). These patterns affected modern brutal trends by promoting violence in African-Americans, who are unjustifiably perceived by many people as more aggressive than others. In my region, sexual offenses and theft are the main criminal trends. As for international comparisons, one may mention the Civil War in France, when similar patterns were observed.
Economic depression is the first event that impacted the criminal justice system in a post-Civil War period. Expressed in unemployment, low wages, and the overall downturn in economics, it caused negative attitudes towards the system. The second event is associated with Eastern European immigration to the US forced by the Russian Revolution and World War I (Jones & Johnstone, 2012). The mass transportation establishment is another issue that allowed plenty of people to move across the US to find a better life. The second and third events impacted the country with an increase in crime rates as they were conducive to unpunished violence. The atmosphere of instability and fear leads to even more brutality and the deterioration of social tension. While the response of the police was the improved measures to combating crime and catching criminals based on racial and ethnic control, courts and the correctional system introduced new mechanisms of punishing them such as probation, parole, and indeterminate imprisonment.
References
Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2013). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jones, M., & Johnstone, P. (2012). History of criminal justice (5th ed.). Waltham, MA: Anderson Publishing.
Mecklin, J. (2013). The Ku Klux Klan: A study of the American mind. Redditch, UK: Read Books.