The justice system should serve the interests of all citizens by ensuring that those who commit crimes are held accountable for their crimes. The justice system also ensures that a sense of retribution is provided to the victims. Every person undergoing scrutiny from the justice system ought to receive equal treatment (Budziak, 2013) . The justice system should remain free from bias. There are some instances when the justice system is considered blind. Such instances involve occasions when the guilty parties win. The wealthy may use their influence to buy their way out of guilty situations. The economically challenged in retrospect may not be as lucky, and the justice system treats the unsparingly. Although crime control always incorporates new methods for the greater good of all citizens, the injustices impacted on people are noticeable, thus proving that justice is blind. This essay will investigate the mishaps that happen in the society leading to the understanding that justice is truly blind.
Impacts of Political and Operational Perspectives of Crime Control On Minorities and the Economically Disadvantaged
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The political perspectives associated with the justice system are conservatism and liberalism (Ahonen & Sgambati, 2013) . Conservatives believe that crime is not a result of environmental factors but instead results from individual actions. Conservatives, therefore, have a view of crime that seems more punitive. For conservatives, the benefits of committing a crime outweigh the costs of committing the crime, as such; rational people will choose not to commit crimes regardless of their environment. Conservatives believe that increased imprisonment and tougher policing deter crime rates. This initiates reinforcement of behavior as people may refrain from committing crimes due to the fear of incarceration.
Liberals posit that crime is influenced by environmental factors. Such environmental factors include limited access to opportunities or even dysfunctional families (Hawkins, Myers & Stone, 2012) . Consideration of environmental factors as the potential accelerant of criminal behavior results in the implementation of action plans that are implemented in the community to prevent crime. Therefore, in liberalism, the prevention of crime is very crucial. In liberalism, provision of more resources to the economically disadvantaged can lead to crime reduction. For instance, providing funds aimed at educating the minorities and economically disadvantaged will enable them to get jobs. Crimes such as stealing to cater for personal expenses are deterred through such actions. Liberalism positively impacts the economically disadvantaged and minorities since it provides opportunities to improve their social status. The betterment of their status leads to crime reduction, given the reduced opportunity to commit a crime. However, liberalism puts much blame on people who commit crimes.
Operational perspectives are the beliefs of how the justice system operates or how it should operate (Loader & Sparks, 2016) . Operational perspectives include crime control and due process, nonsystem and system, the criminal justice wedding cake, and the funnel model of justice. For instance, in the due process, which is an operational perspective ensures that people charged with crimes are required to have their rights protected by the criminal justice system. On the other hand, crime control, which is also under an operational perspective, is based on the absolute reliability of police finding facts and treatment of arrestees as if they have already been found guilty. Crime control, therefore, impacts the minorities and the economically disadvantaged since when caught up in crime, they are treated as if they have already committed a crime. The due process, which is under operational perspectives, also impacts the minorities and economically disadvantaged since it ensures that the criminal justice system protects their rights.
Goals of Crime Control
The four goals of crime control include incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and deterrence (Cole & Smith, 2010) . Political perspectives better deter criminal activity through liberalism. This is because liberalism provides opportunities for people to better themselves hence deterring crime. The goal of deterrence involves creating opportunities for improvement such and warnings to deter criminal activities. Liberalism cannot factor in political perspectives such as rehabilitation, retribution, and incapacitation.
On the other hand, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation are achievable in conservatism. This is because conservatism uses punitive measures to deter crime. Such punitive measures may include retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. Deterrence is not better achieved in conservatism. This is because, in conservatism, crime can only be deterred through punitive measures, thus inflicting fear in people. As a result, people will fear crime; hence, deterrence is not better achieved in conservatism.
In operational perspectives, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation goals are better achieved. For instance, in crime control and due process, which are operational perspectives, arrestees are treated as if they have already been found guilty. Hence, they will be incapacitated, rehabilitated, and retributed. This makes incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution goals better achieved in operational perspectives. Rehabilitation, incapacitation, and retribution goals are better achieved than deterrence in operational perspectives given that people are not deterred from committing crimes, but they are retributed, rehabilitated, and incapacitated for their crimes. This is because that is how the criminal justice system operates.
Minorities in U.S Prisons
Many states in the United States, such as California have adopted the view of toughness on crime. Conservatism view of crime control has significantly impacted crime control on the economically disadvantaged and minorities. Due to the belief that increased incarceration will lead to crime determent, the minorities and economically disadvantaged caught up in crime end up being treated harshly. This is because most of them cannot afford to pay bonds or fines, and they finally end up in prisons even if they did not commit serious crimes. The United States prison population comprises 70 percent of minorities who often are economically disadvantaged.
Conclusion
Because 70% of the United States prison population is composed of minorities and that those minorities are more often the victims of crime, I believe that the minorities are arrested without due diligence, profiled and prosecuted without due process. The justice system fails to protect the right of the minorities in such a case. The prisons would comprise of few minorities and economically disadvantaged. The high percentage of prisoners being minorities shows an inadequacy of the justice system to protect the right of minorities and to prosecute with due process. These observations can lead to the conclusion that the justice system may be flawed and therefore blind in some instances, conditions, or populations.
References
Ahonen, J., & Sgambati, D., (2013). Understanding Crime: Experiences of crime and crime control. Journal Of Criminal Justice , 22 (4), 389. doi: 10.1016/0047-2352(94)90087-6
Budziak, J., (2013). Blind Justice or Blind Ambition? The Influence of Promotion on Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Justice System Journal , 34 (3), 295-320. doi: 10.1080/0098261x.2013.10768042
Cole, G., & Smith, C. (2010). The American system of criminal justice . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Hawkins, D., Myers, S., & Stone, R., (2012). Crime control and social justice . Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Loader, I., & Sparks, R. (2016). Ideologies and crime: political ideas and the dynamics of crime control. Global Crime , 17 (3-4), 314-330. doi: 10.1080/17440572.2016.1169926
