The criminal justice system works constantly to ensure that lawbreakers are punished fairly according to the mistakes they commit. This is achieved through the sentence guidelines that are established and uniformly applied throughout all levels of the criminal justice system (Lombardo, 2018). Each level within the criminal justice systems has its own pre-established guidelines that are followed. On the other hand, the judicial discretion is referred to as the use of power by the judiciary when making legal decisions using their own knowledge and not necessarily following guidelines. The above-mentioned approaches used in the criminal justice system have their advantages and disadvantages as we are going to discuss.
The use of sentencing guidelines has been discussed by citizens as well as leaders with some of them being against and others supporting them. This discussion is always based on some of the benefits and disadvantages of the approach. To start with the advantages, this approach has helped deal with the issue of bias for instance in the case of ace discrimination (Lombardo, 2018). Through the use of these guidelines, lawbreakers face the same sentence despite their race, religion and social status. Another benefit is that they play a key role in the elimination of sympathy that could be shown by criminal justice system agents. This ensures that one faces the consequences of their actions as provided by the law.
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Going on with the advantages we also realize that the sentencing guidelines play a key role in crime reduction (Lombardo, 2018). This is achieved through people being aware of the sentence they are likely to face in case they engage in illegal activities. Due to the fear of facing harsh punishment people strive to avoid engaging in criminal activities. Lastly, we can also argue that these guidelines help suspects to plead guilty for fear of facing high charges that may be too difficult for them to handle. For instance, if the criminal act sentencing involves fines that are too much for the offender to afford, they may plead guilty and then plead with prosecutors to lower the sentence.
Despite the advantages, these guidelines also have some disadvantages and one of them is that they tend to target more the minority groups which also promote discrimination (Lombardo, 2018). For instance, there have harsh sentences issued to African Americans using and selling drugs as compared to whites engaging in the same activities. Another problem is that they tend to increase levels of dishonesty in the courts. This happens whereby one realizes that their criminal act attracts long sentences thus they are forced to lie to reduce the sentence.
The judicial discretion also has its cons and pros. One of the advantages is that it gives the judge a chance to use their common sense and discipline people in relation to the weight of their mistakes (Gilbert, 2013). Judges get to act on the basis of fairness and not misjudge thus first time criminals at times are given a second chance to amend their ways and correct their mistakes without necessarily going to prison. Also, this helps reduce congestions in the prison as people who commit lighter mistakes are not necessarily jailed.
The disadvantages of judicial discretion include mistakes committed by the judges, for instance, a judge having a bad day may end up giving harsh sentencing to people who don't deserve it (Gilbert, 2013). The fact this approach applies ones judgmental abilities may not be the best at times. In conclusion, for the best performance in the criminal justice system, both approaches should be applied concurrently.
Reference
Gilbert, J. (2013). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Judicial Discretion. Retrieved from https://www.joeygilbertlaw.com/blog/2013/may/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-judicial-dis/
Lombardo, C. (2018). 9 Primary Pros and Cons of Mandatory Minimum Sentences. Retrieved from https://connectusfund.org/9-primary-pros-and-cons-of-mandatory-minimum-sentences
