Social justice is the positioning of just and fair terms between individuals and the society. Being the stirring slogan especially for the democratic countries, the political pillar of the society seeks to use social justice as the loophole and pathway to entice the electorate. Nevertheless, social justice is entirely a more important concept to achieve with joint involvement of other pillars of societal growth. Typically, the distribution of wealth is used as a parameter to discern how a system embraces social justice, but more facets of security and criminal justice which affect the society are given less regard. Among other principles of social justice, this study focuses on analyzing and elaborating how law enforcement officers, law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system can implement the principles of equality, solidarity and human rights in the strive to build just sociable relationships within the community (Sanders & Burton, 2010).
Contextually, law enforcement authorities fall into the trap of exercising evenhanded justice in their lines of services. The criminal justice system works closely with the courts and corrections department (Skolnick, 2011). By employing just investigative procedures, the criminal justice should forward criminals to the courts and later to the corrections department for administration. However, the transition is not as smooth as it looks. For instance, the United States of America's criminal system is blemished by social injustices based on ethnic, racial, gender and the social class orientation ( Cole , Smith & DeJong, 2018 ). Specifically, citizen profiling on the basis of race, gender, and the social class is overwhelming. Policing supersedes other processes in the criminal justice system (Rocque, 2011). Thus, the most crucial point of refining social justice regarding equality, solidarity and human rights is from the most insignificant actions of suspected criminals by the conditions mentioned above. In this regard, the law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system are the authorities that will respectively call for a sanction and facilitate imprisonment of the wrongdoers as well as sustain the rehabilitation efforts of the system.
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The principle of human rights is the most common concept that dictates respecting the affairs of every individual and is bounded by specific jurisdictional outlines. Human rights are common claims that govern how people lead a free and truthful human life (Forsythe, 2017). These rights are universal to everybody and the disruption of the same is punishable by law. Due to the fact that the principle looks too apparent, the law enforcers are also quite quick to forget that those rights matter and they should be embedded in how they carry out duties every day.
Human rights are universal and indivisible (Donnelly, 2013). This may mean that political rights are in no way superior to social and cultural rights. In this regard, the state laws should balance on their legitimate interest in safeguarding their citizens' rights. Specifically, since policing is a service to the community, any official mandate to execute such a duty should find a balance of disseminating their work without altering the human coexistence. That said, law enforcers are supposed to exhibit no affiliation to political parties or powers when serving the nation. The agitation of a police officer when the public harasses state power should not subside when an average citizen is in question. In fact, the United Nations basic standards for human rights protection indicate that every criminal suspect should be protected from violence especially those with special needs as the children and the elderly. Also, the standards are elaborate on the call for respecting the humanity of the crime perpetrators until they face the wrath of the law.
Moreover, the UN standards require that all subscribed governments enlighten law enforcement officials on their training and refresher courses on the provisions of human rights in the national legislature as per the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (Prenzler, Porter & Alpert, 2013). Human rights form a part of a global concern for public criminal justice on the execution of corporal punishment that demeans the sense of humanity. The standards laid down by the international treaties have since denounced such punishment with most jurisdictions ceasing to foster death penalties ( Schmalleger et. al, 2014 ). Thus, closer regard for the international human rights case laws will enable criminal justice systems at large to revise actions that do not cultivate the investigation process. Moreover, human rights come with some responsibilities that citizens should play. Sensitizing citizens on their rights and responsibilities will keep the unjust law enforcers in the limelight.
The principle of solidarity is what binds the society together. Through this principle, every citizen owes the other protection from injustice. Through the principle of solidarity, activists rise but they are more devoted to the political injustices of the country. Law enforcement police could use the understanding of the principle to derive credible pieces of evidence from the surroundings of the wrongdoers. Other than speculation on a case, the law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should continuously seek the impartiality and integrity the rule of law deserves (Pound, 2018). By enlightening the socially marginalized, they can explore viable responses to atrocities and remedies for injustices against them. Also, this infers how the criminal justice system could become the watchdog for the helpless. Indeed, by strengthening their surveillance mechanisms, they put county police in a position to provide services to the citizens without unnecessary prejudice.
Also, the principle of solidarity can be based on shared values and kinship ties. Pope John Paul II stated that solidarity is the firm determination to commit oneself to the common good (Wolfrum, 2010). Thus, solidarity speaks the intensity of culture within a specified group of persons. The law enforcers are part of the community, and through more integrated policing, authoritarians can be the trailblazers of the injustices projected towards their commonality unions. Additionally, since solidarity suggests that the society is made of segments that have common interests; aims, morals, and compassion, there must be heads of each segment who govern how to meet the mutual participation. If the law enforcers collaborate with such headmen, attaining a desirable community policing from the community level is workable. A robust society would not be ashamed to expose those criminal elements who destabilize their harmonious living. Through the principle of solidarity, the criminal justice system can receive more appealing and justifiable evidence to impound criminals and accord them appropriate correctional measures.
Equality is a broad term that collectively sums up how social justice should be disseminated to the people. Among other principles of social justice, equality stands at the core advocating for even distribution of resources and actions that affect the community. The principle of equality infers that chances for services are the same from one individual to another (Bettez & Hytten, 2011). This means that a person's race, religion, color, gender, or social class cannot be used to stratify the kind of services they receive from a public facility. Treating individuals of the society differently would require the presence of factual information as regarding why the exercise is biased. For instance, cases that are medically related would indicate an exemption of the normalcy that is required while implementing different punishments. Using evidence- approaches to book a criminal into the justice system should be the first thing that every officer strives to uphold (Strom & Hickman). Citizens who are discriminated based on their differences feel betrayed by the justice system. Techniques that could facilitate credible evidence will establish just criminal incarcerations.
The principle of equality should be a point of reference for every law enforcement officer through the process of investigation. Also, law enforcement agencies should instill better policies that facilitate equality in employability. For instance, in the United States, the representation of the women and the minorities in the law enforcement departments is still inadequate ( Langton, 2010 ). The blacks and Hispanics make up 11.6% and 7.1% respectively of the police population (Police, 2010). More representation insinuates elevation of equality. Indeed, every citizen feels represented when the entire criminal justice system adopts citizen participation in creating developmental policies that aim to strengthen the justice system. Undoubtedly, the principle of equality is the pivotal point of implementing all the other principles. If there was equality, the principle of human rights and solidarity are easily executable as the governmental operations are equitable for everyone.
Overall, through the process of attaining a more just society, jurisdictions should align their law enforcement officers, the agencies and the criminal justice departments at large to focus on the loopholes within the principles of equality, human rights and solidarity amongst its citizen. The principles of human rights encompass the directives under the United Nations standards that illustrate why criminals should be respected through their investigation. Additionally, the principle of solidarity can be used to draw citizens closer, and resultant cooperation of the community heads will ease collaboration with the law enforcement authorities. Finally, the principle of equality should drive the urge of the criminal justice authoritarians to accord every law-breaker equitable punishments without a base on the race, ethnicity, gender, color, or the social class.
References
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