On the other hand, there are also criteria that, in our opinion, are not justified reasons to treat people differently. In the world of work, for example, we generally consider it unfair to give people special treatment because of their age, gender, race or religious preferences. If the judge`s nephew receives a conditional sentence for armed robbery, if another offender unrelated to the judge goes to jail for the same crime, or if the brother of the director of public works gets the million-dollar contract to install sprinklers on the municipal golf course, Despite the lower bids of other contractors, tell us it is unfair. We also believe that it is not fair for a person to be punished for something over which they had no control or not to be compensated for any harm they have suffered. The courts only hear cases of fact and controversy – a party must prove that they have suffered harm in order to take legal action. This means that the courts do not rule on the constitutionality of laws or the legality of acts if the judgment has no practical effect. Cases before the judiciary usually range from the District Court to the Court of Appeal and may even end up in the Supreme Court, although the Supreme Court hears relatively few cases each year. Basically, because every human being is therefore a moral being. The majority of individuals, if shown to violate the personal dignity of others, will try to refrain from doing so. In general, people don`t want to hurt others. In addition to the moral sanctions of one`s own conscience or the conscience of others, however, in most countries of the world, there are now laws that oblige governments to respect the basic human rights of citizens, even if they are not prepared to do so. A second important type of justice is retaliatory justice or correctional justice. Retributive justice refers to the extent to which sentences are just and equitable.
In general, sentences are considered only to the extent that they take into account relevant criteria such as the seriousness of the crime and the intent of the criminal, and do not take into account irrelevant criteria such as race. It would be barbarily unjust, for example, to cut off someone`s hand for stealing a penny, or to impose the death penalty on a person who accidentally and through no fault of his fault harmed another party. Studies have often shown that when blacks murder whites, they are much more likely to be sentenced to death than when whites murder whites or blacks murder blacks. These studies suggest that injustice still exists in the criminal justice system in the United States. Absolutely everyone. Criminals, heads of state, children, men, women, Africans, Americans, Europeans, refugees, stateless people, unemployed, employees, bankers, people accused of terrorist acts, charity workers, teachers, dancers, astronauts. The traditional role of victims in a trial is often perceived as that of a prosecution witness. It is common for victims to have to testify about what happened to them without really having a choice about whether or not to do so or under what conditions they want to share this information. (Edwards, 2004; Wemmers, 2017).
Victims who act as witnesses are required to provide information, and they may feel powerless. The judge, prosecutor and/or defence lawyer may ask them questions that they feel they need to answer. When people disagree on what they think should be given, or when decisions need to be made about how benefits and burdens should be shared among a group of people, questions of justice or equity inevitably arise. In fact, most ethicists today believe that there would be no point in talking about justice or fairness if it weren`t for the conflicts of interest that arise when goods and services are scarce and people differ on who should get what. When such conflicts arise in our society, we need principles of justice that we can all accept as reasonable and just standards for determining what people deserve. (7) Informal dispute resolution mechanisms, including mediation, arbitration and customary law or indigenous practices, should be used, where appropriate, to facilitate mediation and reparation for victims. The foundations of justice go back to the concepts of social stability, interdependence and equal dignity. As ethicist John Rawls has pointed out, the stability of a society – or any other group – depends on the extent to which members of that society feel treated fairly. When some members of society feel they are being treated unevenly, the groundwork is laid for social unrest, riots and riots.
Members of a community, Rawls argues, are interdependent and will preserve their social unity only to the extent that their institutions are just. Moreover, as the philosopher Immanuel Kant and others have pointed out, human beings are all equal in this respect: they all have the same dignity and, by virtue of this dignity, they deserve to be treated as equal. Whenever individuals are treated unequally on the basis of arbitrary and irrelevant characteristics, their basic human dignity is violated. We all have to do it. There is legislation at the national and international levels that limits what governments can do to their citizens, but if no one indicates that their actions violate international norms, governments can continue to violate them with impunity. As individuals, we must not only respect the rights of others in our daily lives, but also keep an eye on our governments and others. Protection systems are there for all of us when we use them. This article was originally published in Issues in Ethics V3 N2 (Spring 1990). It was updated in August 2018. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the position of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. We welcome your comments, suggestions or alternative points of view.
Arguments about justice or fairness have a long tradition in Western civilization. In fact, no idea in Western civilization has been more systematically associated with ethics and morality than the idea of justice. From The Republic, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, to A Theory of Justice, written by the late Harvard philosopher John Rawls, all major works on ethics have asserted that justice is part of the central core of morality. Reporting a crime to the appropriate authority is the first step in the victim`s journey to justice through the criminal justice system. Therefore, it is important that the first interaction with the victim is a positive experience for the victim: not only does it set the tone for further criminal proceedings, but in cases where the case does not go beyond the reporting and/or investigation phase, it can represent the entire experience the victim has had with the system.
