Criminology And Legal Institutions Research Assignment (Term Paper Sample)

CRIMINOLOGY AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
Professor’s name
Date
Institution
Introduction
Private disputes between organizations and persons are usually heard in courtrooms and known as civil cases. Criminal cases are the deeds or actions detrimental to community. Criminal cases includes cases of kidnapping, rape cases, robbery, careless driving and many others as defined in the Criminal Act. Criminal court of the New York City is among the legal institutions in America and in its proceedings a number of observations are made. The conditions of the court building, the image of the court and the people involved are found much attractive. New York City court handles crimes that are more serious leading to punishable by imprisonments of less than a year and fines.
Criminology
This is a scientific study of the nature, management, cause, extent, consequences, control and prevention of behavior that are related to crime on social level and individual level. It focuses on studying crimes, their causes, impacts and effects. Crime is the desecration of the societal behavior. Criminal desecration may indirectly or directly affect all members of the society. Crime is mostly considered or taken as the negative aspect or feature to the society, but this is not really always the case of effects of crime. The body in charge of crime or the crime commission alongside with criminology can help in eradicating or reduction of non-violent and violent crimes (Sherman, Gartin, & Buerger, 2013). But as much as the crime is seen to be negative, there is much that can be acquired or learned from the crime committed. People may become aware of how, where, when and why a crime is likely to take place. This will help in the reduction and avoiding crimes from occurring.
Criminologist is a person who has studied a course in criminology and he or she has certain skills such as critical thinking, analytical and good communication skills (Farrington, 2015). He or she is responsible in the analyzing the data so that to determine the reason as to why the crime happened or why it was committed and to get and find ways of predicting, deterring in order to prevent any future criminal behavior.
Doing studies in criminology help one to develop a deep understanding of personal and social aspects of the crime, crime response, oppression and constructing some specific skills such as making a reasoned arguments and judgments which are ethical, critical thinking, interpreting and analyzing data, evaluating and generating evidence and report writing.
By enforcing and supporting the study of criminology and the data analysis and research on different crimes that have been committed, it makes the body responsible for the law enforcement to be better aware of some of the criminal behavior and potential situations in which a crime can occur, therefore forming allowance for the involvement and reduction of crime.
Example of crimes in New York City
Reckless driving
In New York reckless driving is a very serious crime. If one is convicted of reckless driving, he or she is entitled to a criminal record. This means that he/she can be in jail up to thirty days for the first offence. The criminal record in New York is permanent that is it doesn’t allow for expunction. Once found with reckless driving license can be cancelled.
The monetary consequences for this kind of crime are tough and far-reaching. The first crime of reckless driving can be charged a minimum of $300 fine and $93 addition fee. This results to five points on the reckless driving.
Reckless driving for the commercial license drivers is taken or considered very serious violation of traffic. If one is convicted of serious two traffic violation in three years period, his or her commercial driving license is suspended for a period of 60 days, and 120 days if convicted in three serious violation of traffic within that same period.
The legal institution
Setting of the Court in New York City; the Civil Court of New York City falls under the Unified court system of New York. The court is said to be handling legal matters involving claims of damages up to $25000. The court also deals with claims of small amounts up to $3000 annually. Further legal issues handled by the court in New York City are the landlord and tenants disputes. However, the New York City court’s jurisdiction does not stop there as it handles civic matters often called the New York City Supreme Court. According to research, the New York City court handles about twenty percent of civil cases of local courts and the New York state filings.
The legal institution comprises of professionals who ensure that the court functions and procedures are successful. The most important seniority in the New York City courts is supervising judge and the jury (Tyler, 2011). They ensure that the court operations are run conveniently.
In the legal institution basically in New York City, there happen to be elements of interactions. Law governing civil cases always states that the accused is always innocent until proven guilty by the court. Prosecution is therefore charged with the responsibility to ensure that they give evidence to prove their case beyond any reasonable doubt. The defendant’s side are also tasked to give true evidence and prove that the accusations put against them are false. Most important in the legal institution is that they give room for both parties to present their witness to a particular case and their words are much required before any judgement is made. The witnesses are only allowed to present their world limited to required frames and with no false presentations to the court.
The court being a legal institution is designed in a layout convenient for a hearing before any judgement is made. The most prominent personnel who are judges seat at the front of the court and in raised flour with the judges’ counsel just in front of the chief judge. Witness stands are also facing the room at large to give room for verbal submissions to be used as evidence. The courtroom is designed in a manner that there is distinction between the ordinary people and legal representatives hence the defence and prosecution are defined as equal.
In legal institutions there is taking of oaths. Oaths are verbal promises that mean there is telling of frequent truth while holding the bibl...