Research and Describe the Crime, Policy and Governance (Research Paper Sample)

Crime, Policy & Governance
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Question 1
* Criminalization and punishment refers to the process of transforming a behavior of an individual into a criminal act and then punishing the person for the act. Criminalization and punishment are mainly enhanced by the power of judges to make new laws and retrospectively criminalize behavior of different people in the society.[Marijke Malsch, "Stalking Do Criminalization And Punishment Help?" (2007) 9 Punishment & Society]
* In the scenario and subject of criminalization and punishment, the interest of the public lies in the little space that the act leaves for privacy and freedom since the trend of criminalizing activities that people would do with the view of the freedom they have as human beings, is detrimental to the very provisions for freedom as provided by the law.
* It is necessary that a policy is enacted to govern what can be considered criminal and thus deserving a designated punishment and what cannot suit the description of a crime and thus not worth a punishment. A policy that focuses and works out on a priori reasons in relation to criminalization and punishment and considers widely and applies facts in the world should be developed to govern the criminal law provisions. The policy should incorporate the meaning of a crime in consideration to the practices in the public and make it clear that an action that is generally accepted by the public is correctly classified as criminal activity and an appropriate punishment attached to it. The policy should take away the power and intention of the state to enforce morality on people, rather any attempt to limit the freedom of an individual should be accepted only if the intention is to limit harm that would have been caused if the said freedom was allowed. Therefore as part of the criminal law, it should be incorporated as a measure of confirmation whether the issue that is to be criminalized focuses on morality of the individual or the need to limit harm that it would have caused.[Malsch, Marijke. "Stalking Do criminalization and punishment help?."Punishment & Society 9, no. 2 (2007): 201-209.] [Carrington, Kerry, and Russell Hogg. "History of critical criminology in Australia." Routledge handbook of critical criminology (2012): 46-60.] [Schloenhardt, Andreas, and Hadley Hickson. "Non-Criminalization of Smuggled Migrants: Rights, Obligations, and Australian Practice under Article 5 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air." International Journal of Refugee Law 25, no. 1 (2013): 39-64.]
Question 2
* The second issue is the need to improve the environmental safety that continues to be a challenge due to the unbecoming unethical practices in the business environment.[John Braithwaite, "Meta Risk Management And Responsive Regulation For Tax System Integrity" (2003) 25 Law & Policy .]
* Responsive regulation can deal with the issue of environmental safety since its essence is listening and adapting in response to the rising problems that are to be fixed and to the people who are able to fix them. It is a method that would work perfectly well since responsive regulation incorporates the efforts of the regulators to those they are regulating and choosing a course of action to correct the deficiency that they are observing. The rightful body to implement this kind of regulation is the relevant government ministry in charge of consumer protection and the environmental safety provisions. Responsive regulation is important at ensuring ethical practices are upheld by different business entities and that both the environmental safety and consumer protection are guaranteed in the activities of any business entity.[LARS P. FELD and BRUNO S. FREY, "Tax Compliance As The Result Of A Psychological Tax Contract: The Role Of Incentives And Responsive Regulation" (2007) 29 Law & Policy.] [John Braithwaite, "Meta Risk Management And Responsive Regulation For Tax System Integrity" (2003) 25 Law & Policy ]
Pyramid of Sanctions
Shaming for inactionSanctions to deterEscalated sanctionsCriminal prosecutionLoss of license to operate businessEducation and Persuasion about a problem
* According to the pyramid of sanctions, as we move up the pyramid, there is involvement of more demanding interventions to an unethical practice by business corporations. When an unethical practice has been identified, the involved business organization or individual is first educated about the problem and they are asked to restrain from the practice. Only when such dialogue fails does the regulator take more punitive actions such as shaming the corporation for their inaction. The punitive actions would change in levels from warning to civil penalties and if need be, criminal penalties and ultimately implementation of capital punishment such as revoking of the operational license of the business entity.
It is critical and important to note that the regulator does not take stern actions against the business organization that involves in unethical behaviors before issuing warnings and giving out an opportunity to change. When a business entity refuses to heed the warning and several punitive actions taken before finally arriving at the capital punishment of revoking the operation license, it is because of the non-compliance of the entity.
Question 3
* The third issue is the need for consumer protection that has continued to be an area of concern due to negligence by production firms and inadequacy of service delivery by business corporations in a manner that is detrimental to the safety of the consumers.[KJ Harve, VS Korczak and LJ Marron (2008)]
* Restorative justice could be used to solve this issue since it is a best fit mechanism that covers up for the inadequacies of methods such as punitive actions for criminal offences. According to the reintegrative shaming theory for example, societies would have lower crime rates if they communicated shame about crime effectively, there would be rampant cases of violence if violence was something to be proud about and even more heinous crimes if such criminal activities were things people could brag about. Shaming is a method of ensuring the offenders feels the burden of their actions due to the effect it has on themselves, their family members as well as the society at large.[Hinds, Lyn, "Australian And New Zealand Journal Of Criminology, The - Repair Or Revenge: Victims And Restorative Justice [Book Review] (Humanities & Social Sciences Collection) - Informit" (2002) 36 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology,]
According to the restorative justice theory, bad acts or ruptures in human interaction bring about needs and responsibilities for those who were directly involved in the act, as well as for the larger society in which the act occurred. Restorative justice refers to the practices such as apologies, restitution, and acknowledgment that certain arms were affli...